Delivering seamless transition for major mine operators

When a competitor announced it was going into liquidation, two mining operators immediately terminated their contracts with that competitor, affecting hundreds of employees and trainees.

Both mine operators then approached Programmed to transition the 280 affected employees and trainees across 5 sites with minimal disruption to their operations, while still requiring the rigour of our recruitment processes.

Our customers required some of the labour hire employees to be back on-site within 6 hours. Others were required within 12, 24 and 48 hours. Continuity of operations is, of course, critical to our mining customers, and the employees in question were crucial to keep our customers’ operations running.

We were able to respond with a plan in the week of the liquidation announcement, meaning we were able to begin the transition process immediately. Staff were on-site to inform the employees of the company that was in liquidation, and notify them they were to be transitioned to our employment after completing our recruitment process. Sessions, including interviews, induction and safety screening, were set up with the employees on the first day post announcement. There were 25 staff assigned to this transition from nearby branches, ensuring that we had enough personnel to complete the transition seamlessly.

In addition to the labour hire cohort, Programmed transitioned over 100+ trainees undertaking a Certificate II in Surface Extraction. This included the transition of the trainer onto our books to ensure that the trainees were provided a seamless learning experience.

The challenge was met head on by our teams from both the labour hire and training services divisions. There was negligible to zero impact on customers’ operational and safety performance, no decrease in average shift fill rates, and no disruption to our other customers serviced by branches who assisted.

Our customers recognised the excellent outcomes we were able to deliver. The Head of Procurement wrote: “Feedback is positive across both sites….the transition has been just about seamless.”