The Digital Revolution is a broad and sometimes vague term that has differing levels of understanding and impact for various demographics. It’s why new phrases have emerged like “digital natives” wherein a person has never known a life without digital technology, while for older generations coming from an analogue world, digital solutions can seem like an adjunct rather than the central, disruptive technologies that they are.
A new report from Stratum International, a premier executive search and recruitment firm, suggests that the mining industry is struggling to adapt to the digital revolution because those tasked with managing, monitoring, and analysing data lack the technical know-how to make sense of it. At the crux of this issue is that while all stakeholders agree that data is essential to performing their jobs, who is responsible for knowledge gain and skills development is divisive.
Do or die
While some organizations are harnessing the power of technology to boost efficiency, sustainability, productivity, turnover, and safety, 68% of respondents believe that 40% of mining companies will die out in the next decade because of poor and haphazard digital technology uptake.
Stratum wanted to know to what extent mining corporations have adopted digital technology, how people’s roles have changed and what skills are needed to remain relevant. The report surveyed 249 mining professionals across 57 countries, of which more than half were 56 years and older. Tellingly, only 4% of respondents represented the digital native category (35 years and younger).
This reflects Stratum’s previous findings that the industry faces a demographic timebomb. This also ties into Stratum’s suggestion that the sector may need to look outside the industry to find experts capable of driving digital transformation at an organizational level.
Technology is improving communication and safety, enhancing productivity and planning, streamlining workflows, and saving costs
How has technology changed people’s roles?
Keeping in mind over half the respondents were over the age of 56, the report reveals that only 15% of respondents said digital technology had significantly changed their roles. 29% said it had changed their roles a lot, with 35% suggesting it had only moderately affected their roles. These are concerning statistics given the many opportunities for disruptive innovation and change that are being passed up by organizational leadership.
The report revealed that the most changes (74%) were observed by people working in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management (EPCM). However, the change is not felt the same at all levels of business: roughly half of the participants working for junior mining companies and major miners noticed moderate to significant changes. In contrast, those working for contract miners, processing, and production and services companies saw the least change.
All agreed that technology is improving communication and safety, enhancing productivity and planning, streamlining workflows, and saving costs. But meeting the demands of the digital revolution is creating new concerns and pressure to evolve. Some concerns raised included job losses due to automation, an overreliance on technology to solve problems, the growing threat of cyber-attacks, and a lack of understanding of how digital systems work.
While the industry is making strides to gather data and analyse it, it’s become apparent that many mining professionals don’t have the skills or knowledge needed to interpret the findings accurately. Indeed, 30% of respondents felt they require data analytics skills to fulfil their roles. One respondent said, “If you don’t understand tech, you may not understand whether there has been an improvement or not.”
Who is responsible for upskilling human capital?
Upskilling takes a substantial investment in time, effort, money, and other resources. While companies may be trying to upskill their people to achieve digital literacy, to what extent is digital fluency being achieved.
30% of respondents had attended training provided by their employers, while the majority at 41%, had received external training through their organizations. A further 26% had received training independent from their employers.
Interestingly, people working for mining juniors had the most training via their employer, and majors provided the least.
Despite recognizing the demand for digitally relevant skills training and the benefits to be gained by their organization, more than half of the respondents (53%) argued that providing access to training is not their responsibility. One of the starkest examples of the age gap in the responsibility for employee upskilling is that 75% of respondents aged 66 to 75 felt they were not responsible for digitally upskilling their staff. Whereas those aged 25 to 35 were in favour of employers taking ownership.
Despite the disagreement, both young and old agree that the fields of Engineering and Technical Services, Environmental and Sustainability, Project Managers and Technology would see the most growth and impact.
What roles are digital & data analytics playing in the industry?
Nine in ten respondents view data as essential to execute their jobs effectively, with 41% saying they use data daily to make decisions. While some organizations employ a data analytics lead, others outsource to business intelligence experts and citizen data scientists. Various organizations rely on functional heads or entire departments to capture, analyse, and report data.
What is clear: few companies have digital transformation strategies that transcend all organizational layers. In fact, 77% of respondents agree that mining CEOs haven’t made provision for a digital strategy. Whether this is a matter of age or the level of impact of technology on roles, the outcome is a growing confusion around how to interpret data and its importance. This often leads to applying incorrect assumptions resulting in negative or neutral cost and production losses.
A common example of this given by respondents was corporate headquarters dictating to site teams the metrics that should be measured and analysed. This leads to increased workload, more stress, and higher costs. Follow this with failures in data analysis and interpretation, the sentiment is that teams at site would happily welcome a digital lead to oversee the process.
What are the next steps?
Mining organizations need to hire and establish leadership teams or a digital board comprising technologically savvy people such as chief digital, data and privacy officers. Not only will these individuals bring critically needed intellectual property and disrupt the status quo, they can take responsibility for data mining and analysis—something that currently places enormous pressure on non-digital mining professionals and carries significant risk for the organization.
Organizations also need to make provisions for upskilling and training non-key staff on how to incorporate and effectively utilize technology in their day-to-day work. It can’t be left to individual discretion to move from literacy to fluency.
To maximize the gains to be had from data gathering, processing, and analysis, the report suggests implementing a structured plan or digital strategy and engaging different groups in the organization in this process.
Read Stratum’s full report, “Mining The Digital Revolution, at: https://stratum-international.com/thinking/
