Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Are Work-life Balance (WLB) Programs Used as Effective Attraction and Retention Strategies in CQ's Coalmines? Dr Connie Zheng School of Management & Information Systems FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND INFORMATICS

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 WLB = Attraction & Retention ? WLB.... ‘has gradually emerged as ‘a strategic issue and a key element of an organization’s employee attraction and retention strategies’.... (De Cieri et al., 2005, p. 91)

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Research Questions Can work-life balance programs also be used as attraction and retention strategies in CQ's coalmines? Is there a set of work-life balance policies and programs in the coal industry? if so, what are they? Are they effective in attracting and retaining skilled labour, which are largely in short? If yes, how? If not? Why not?

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 To answer these questions….. 1.Review of the relevant WFL (work-family life) literature 2.Research findings 3.Implications

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 WLB in the context of the regional coal industry Boom of the resource industry Tighten labour market conditions - shortage of skills Changing lifestyle of workforce Community demands for health and wellbeing of the society

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Literature Review Study of WLB from different angels Study of WLB at different levels Study of WLB using different methods

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 The influence of WLB/C on Absenteeism (eg. Goff et al., 1990) Citizenship behaviour (eg. Lambert, 2000) Organisational commitment (eg. Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000; Casper et al, 2002) Withdrawal behaviour (Greenhaus et al. 1997; 2001; Hammer et al., 2003) Organisational attraction & branding (eg. Honeycutt & Rosen, 1997; Drago et al., 2001; Lievens & Highhouse, 2003)

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Study WLB from different perspectives Economic/managerial –efficiency, productivity and profits Political/legal/institutional –public goods, positive externality, lobbying and legislation Social/cultural/ethical –social interface bw WIF & FIW, cultural barriers, value- ethic systems and CSR

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Other streams of studies based on…. Demographic characteristics –Gender –Age –Race Life cycles Health and wellbeing Managerial approach –Top-down –Bottom-up

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Five main categories of WLB policies and programs 1.Flexible working arrangement 2.Health and wellness programs 3.Family responsibility leaves 4.Childcare benefits, subsidies or services 5.Organisational understanding and general support

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Levels & methods of study on WLB Level Individual Organizational Multi-level (individual, group and organization) Research method Quantitative v. qualitative

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Research Findings Table 1 – Coal companies participating in this research project CompanyNumber of participants Anglo Coal5 BMA8 Ensham2 Felix4 Foxleigh1 Jellinbah1 Rio Tinto4 Theiss1 Xstrata2 Respondents without company names 3 TOTAL31

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Interview/survey questions: Have you done anything in particular to attract and retain quality employees? do you have any work-life balance programs in place? how have they helped attract and retain employees? A summary A summary

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Identifying the gaps.... The use of flexible working hours did not imply that coal workers could choose any hours that they want to work, but that they might be able to pick the preferred shifts in the rostering system. Flexibility about the place to work and part-time working arrangements was applied mostly to those working as support roles in the office, not miners or contractors on-site.

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Identifying the gaps.... Regular health check-up and medical support Emphasis on statutory leave provision, not particularly referencing to family leaves, but leave for community service or sport event Access to organisational support in the areas of accommodation, shiftwork arrangement, DIDO/FIFO.

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Can these WLB help attract and retain the skilled workforce? ‘We have 7-day on and 7-day off. We have a number of people living on site. We bring in health professionals, physiotherapists periodically..... People also work 4-hour on, 4-hour off in a 12-hour shift, so they have sufficient rest….We also try to rotate people, but we do not have another mine to go, so we rotate the roles within the company. I think we must have done something right. We have a very low staff turnover rate. We have significantly grown the staff number for the past two years, we only lost two people within two years’.

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Can these WLB help attract and retain the skilled workforce? ‘in essence, we still have this belief that if we do the right things, people will flow to us. However, this is not necessarily so in our situation. We have programs, we have policies, they are all there, but people still leave, regardless’.

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Can these WLB help attract and retain the skilled workforce? ‘I told you about what we have done in terms of taking care of our people. But let’s get real. Under the current environment, PAY is the key to reduce the high turnover rate. We used to have 60% staff turnover rate, consecutively for a number of years. Last year, we started offering better remuneration, we brought that down to 6% - a huge reduction. Perhaps this is also due to our easy roster system?’

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Conclusions & Implications The coal industry has a set of specific WLB balance programs that may address better the needs of those male-dominated workforce; Gender appears differentiating the needs for WLB; It appears that coal companies may be under intensive institutional pressure, so they tend to strategically respond to WLB demands without considerable evaluation of the programs effects;

Regional Social Impacts of Economic Growth Forum, Mackay, August 2007 Conclusions & Implications Some forms of WLB programs may help attract and retain people, notwithstanding, this might be more effective with other HR measures, such as compensation; There might be a tendency to address more of WLB needs for people at supervisor level or at corporate/office level. The WLB needs for ground miners could be largely ignored, or compensated by monetary rewards.