Whether it’s employing specialist engineers on a customised drill and blast project, hand-picking a team to achieve unique project objectives, creating more opportunities for Indigenous Australians, supporting graduates, or offering apprenticeships, people are at the core of JSW’s determination to succeed.
“We often hear that people are the most important asset in a business. Whilst many understand this intellectually, what we do at JSW is execute this in practice,” says JSW CEO, Jeff Branson.
“To this end, we provide continuous investment, support, training and rewards to our employees, offering clear and structured pathways for personal and career development.
“Our mission is to deliver a competitive edge to our clients and we do this by setting the benchmark in innovation and drilling automation to deliver a safe, productive and quality service. We can only achieve this with continuous improvement and deploying an optimum mix with the best people, infrastructure and technology”.
People are at the heart of each every aspect of JSW’s business, from the application of its proprietary integrated business systems, which deliver fast and accurate drill and production data to clients, to its registration as a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), and its leadership in the training and employment of Indigenous Australians.
The RTO provides JSW employees with the opportunity to be trained to nationally accredited standards. To prospective employees, it opens the door to a practical and hands-on mining apprenticeship program focussed on a range of areas, as well as to Graduate Mining Programs that offer the opportunity for graduates to work with some of the most experienced and respected leaders in the drilling industry.
Mr Branson believes the RTO not only provides career and developmental paths for its people but adds value to client projects.
“We can provide absolute certainty to our clients that our people have qualifications that are current and well-matched to the task in hand. We also retain our valuable people by investing in them, resulting in not only a more stable workforce, but a high-performance culture. Having this stability is enabling us to maximise our deliverables, which is crucial in the current work climate”.
The impact of JSW’s people-focused approach has been underlined at Batchfire’s Callide Coal Mine where the company was given a unique brief to take over the operation and maintenance of the mine owner’s existing drills and bring in a completely new team.
High quality personnel, many with local knowledge, were recruited and trained across multiple functions and drill rigs. A focus on employing the right person for the job proved instrumental in JSW achieving its goal of maintaining productivity and reducing costs. The project also achieved notable successes in safety performance, efficiency and embedding of JSW proprietary systems.
JSW is also committed to the delivery of sustainable long-term employment outcomes for regional indigenous Australians. The company’s goal is to further increase indigenous participation through regional employment and training, including mining apprenticeships.