BG Group: Increasing Indigenous people’s participation in the workforce in Australia
Over the last few years our Australian business, QGC, has been working to maximise Indigenous employment in its operations. Initiatives have included developing an Indigenous jobseeker database, working closely with contractors, and using specialist recruiters. As a result, the numbers and retention rate of Indigenous people working in QGC operations has significantly improved.
In 2010, QGC committed to meeting Indigenous employment targets, but faced a number of challenges that are common to the construction of large gas projects. Construction contractors tend to have recruitment systems that do not address the typical barriers Indigenous people face when applying for jobs. Many of the jobs are highly skilled and require previous experience, and construction projects are highly schedule-driven, limiting time for training of workers without previous experience.
QGC has worked to address these challenges through developing a more targeted approach to recruiting Indigenous people, including:
- Visiting communities to ask Traditional Owners and other Indigenous groups to provide resumes for a database – by 2011, this database, ‘Indigenous Workstars’, had 800 names;
- When QGC advertises jobs, the Indigenous Relations team puts forward resumes of Indigenous people for these roles;
- Contractors are required to prepare an Indigenous Participation Plan and are encouraged to use the Indigenous jobseeker database; and
- Funding specialist Indigenous recruiters to work within key contractor companies, in what is called the ‘embedded recruiter model’.
Indigenous Workstars has had increasing success in the past year by using Facebook to quickly elicit suitable candidates matched to job opportunities arising in specific locations.
The embedded recruiter model has also been successfully implemented at several key QGC contractor companies and has been helping to attract and retain Indigenous workers.
In late 2013, Thiess Pty Ltd, a company contracted by QGC, embedded three Indigenous Workstars recruiters in their team. By being on site, the recruiters were able to be responsive to the contractor’s time pressures and recruitment process. Indigenous candidates were considered before roles were put on the market and Thiess also allocated a portion of an intake for Indigenous candidates. In addition, the recruiters provided support to candidates during the recruitment process to ensure it was done in a culturally sensitive manner. By March 2014, the embedded recruiters model at Thiess had led to:
- A 98% retention rate for Indigenous workers recruited; and
- An increase from 9 Indigenous workers in March 2013 to 141 in March 2014.
Lessons learned suggest that the following conditions are preferable for the embedded recruiter model to be most successful, as QGC works to extend the model to more contractors:
- A clear understanding of recruitment demand in order to engage appropriate numbers of recruiters;
- An extensive database of skilled Indigenous jobseekers so that sufficient numbers of candidates can be sourced for roles in a short time;
- Recruiters must be specialists who have experience of heavy industry;
- A contractor must be willing to:
- commit to cultural diversity;
- analyse, review and change its recruitment processes to remove unintended barriers to Indigenous employment;
- give preference to Indigenous jobseekers;
- learn new interview and recruitment techniques to ensure that Indigenous candidates are appropriately measured on their work skills, competencies and attitude to safety;
- accommodate the specialist recruiters on-site; and
- invest and develop methodologies for mentorship along with a supportive Human Resources team.
QGC remains committed to overcoming barriers to Indigenous people’s participation in the workforce and continues to work to further improve employment and retention.
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