The 2022 AREEA Industry Award recipients have been announced at dinners in Brisbane and Perth, with individuals and companies from across the country recognised 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.
2022 AREEA Industry Award winners
Mental Health & Wellbeing award – Deepcore Drilling
Deepcore Drilling undertook a research project to utilise sports science methodology to predict and prevent musculoskeletal injuries and optimise employee physical and mental wellbeing. Throughout the six-month project there were no injuries recorded and participating employees reported improved sleep, less fatigue, better mood and increased energy.
Future Leader award – Michael Place (Gold Fields)
Gold Fields Mining Manager, Michael Place, is a champion of values-based leadership at Granny Smith Mine, combining personal empathy with technical excellence. Mr Place has strongly contributed towards the mine’s cultural transformation, especially in 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
Viva Energy strove to increase 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, Viva Energy has been able to increase the female proportion of operators since 2018 from nine per cent to 26 per cent.
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 per cent 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 redeploying and, where necessary, retraining 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.
AREEA CEO, Steve Knott, 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,” Mr Knott said.
“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.”
Mr Knott said the 2022 award winners have gone above and beyond the industry standard and are, by definition, best practice.
“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.”
