Innovative or proactive recruitment and employment strategies? : the challenges of shaping workforces in Papua New Guinea greenfield mines

Recruitment being the first and perhaps one of the most important objectives of any organisation is the procurement of an ample and reliable supply of skilled labour. Ideally, the aim at this stage is to capture the interest of the very able, irrespective of their origins. While, for large scale mining operations, looking for the right kind of skilled labour in many countries is routine, however, this is hardly the case in a lot of developing countries with constrained labour markets. This study investigates the ongoing recruitment and employment challenge multinational mining companies (MNMCs) face in operation of the PNG greenfield mines. The findings from an investigation of perceptions of human resource (HR) managers and other senior managers of several PNG mining operations confirm the inherent challenges in shaping workforces in rural settings. Amongst other findings, there is overwhelming consensus amongst the interviewees that it is proper for MNMCs to favour local communities in employment communities in order to maximise economic efficiency, civil and political security guarantee. The paper will explain that this mode of biased deployment of recruitment and employment strategies by MNMCs is more necessitated by the prevailing unique social and economic circumstances. And arguably, unlike most developing countries with mining operations, in PNG they have become HR policy imperatives assisting in their safe and successful operations.