The resources and energy industry’s high achievers and brightest stars have had their excellence recognised through the annual AREEA Industry Awards.
Presented at dinners in Brisbane and Perth, the 2022 AREEA Industry Awards recognised individuals and companies from across the country for their achievements in mental health and wellbeing, leadership, diversity and inclusion, and workforce and workplace relations.
This year’s winners were Deepcore Drilling, Viva Energy, CMOC-Northparkes Mines as well as Michael Place from Gold Fields as the Future Leader.
AREEA CEO Steve Knott AM said the award-winning initiatives and efforts demonstrated the industry’s growing commitment and innovation in workforce areas.
“As exemplified by our award winners, AREEA members continue to be champions of innovative and forward-looking approaches to workforce issues in our industry,” said Mr Knott.
“2022 has seen employers across the industry continue to design, develop and deliver fantastic initiatives to improve outcomes in areas such as mental health and wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, and workforce management.
“The winners of this year’s awards have gone above and beyond the industry standard – they are by definition best practice.
“However, by and large all nominations we received in each category were inspiring and great reflections on the efforts of the industry as a whole.
“It is clear that resources and energy employers are continuing to drive extremely positive outcomes in looking after the mental health and wellbeing of their workforces, building more inclusive and equitable workplaces, and general excellence in engagement and productivity.
“Such outcomes are not just ‘nice to have’, but rather are critical in running resilient, modern businesses with a strong employee value proposition.
“That’s particularly true in 2022 as the industry continues grappling with a once-in-a-generation skills and labour supply shortage. Simply, those employers that don’t excel in these areas will not be able to find the people they need to maintain operational continuity.”
2022 AREEA Industry Award winners
Mental Health & Wellbeing award – Deepcore Drilling
Sponsored by Northern Star Resources
Deepcore Drilling undertook a research project to predict and prevent musculoskeletal injuries and optimise employee physical and mental wellbeing through the use of sports science methodology. There were zero injuries recorded during the six month project, and employees participating reported improved sleep, less fatigue, better mood and increased energy.
Future Leader award – Michael Place (Gold Fields)
Sponsored by Consolidated Minerals
Gold Fields Mining Manager Michael Place is a champion of values-based leadership at Granny Smith Mine, combining personal empathy with technical excellence. He has strongly contributed towards the mine’s cultural transformation, especially in the areas of safety and diversity, while also advancing the underground mining operation by trialling and implementing new technology with measurable success.
Diversity & Inclusion award – Viva Energy
Sponsored by Sodexo Australia
Viva Energy set about increasing women’s representation in frontline, shift-based operator roles through a new approach to recruiting that responded to two common assumptions: that the roles needed to be performed on a full-time and a 24/7 shift roster and required a trade qualification. After tackling those assumptions as part of a recruitment campaign targeting women, since 2018 Viva Energy has been able to increase the female proportion of operators from 9% to 26%.
Workforce & Workplace Relations Innovation award – CMOC-Northparkes Mines
The Human Resources, Mining Leadership and Surface Leadership Teams at CMOC-Northparkes Mines implemented an initiative that ensured 100% workforce continuity following the early completion of a development activity that would usually result in the displacement of skilled workers until the next development. The initiative, which involved re-deploying and where necessary re-training the employees as production and process technicians for a period, led to minimal retrenchment costs and unnecessary skill loss through the retention of long-term knowledgeable resources.
