Peter Kukielski, Chief Executive Officer; Andre Lauzon, Chief Operating Officer; Eugene Lei, Chief Financial Officer; and Patrick Donnelly, Senior Vice President, Legal and Organizational Effectiveness, provide their insights about the importance and challenges of people management in mining.
Attracting and retaining a skilled and engaged workforce is a key focus area for Hudbay everywhere we operate.
Peter Kukielski: Finding skilled front-line people and managerial talent is challenging, and once people decide to work in mining, they are effectively committing to work in remoter locations. So the challenge is an industry challenge. Ensuring that we have safe, efficient operations with flat organizations that provide opportunities for people to progress is critical to attracting talent with managerial aspirations.
Andre Lauzon: To attract and retain talent at all levels for our mines, we strive to hire and train people who live near our sites. At some mines, we have multi-generational employees who benefit from living near their extended families. Our locations can offer a balanced work–home lifestyle with easy access to wilderness experiences and outdoor activities. For those who choose to travel to a site from farther away, we provide excellent boarding accommodations. Our options accommodate many lifestyle preferences.
Peter Kukielski: People are increasingly looking for “purpose-driven” work. We offer a diverse and inclusive environment, strive to minimize the environmental impact of our operations, and are committed to reducing our carbon footprint. All this while delivering the metals needed to reduce the world’s global carbon footprint. On top of that, we engage with our communities to help make them sustainable long after we leave.
Andre Lauzon: We engage people in our ambition to sustainably produce the metals that the world needs to fight climate change. It’s an exciting mission to be part of.
Hudbay is building and supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our local communities.
Patrick Donnelly: Local communities are critical to our success, and we do our best to keep them informed and involved. We consult with them about both the benefits and the impacts of our operations, and we encourage individuals from these communities to participate as employees at our operations. In Manitoba, 13% of our workforce comes from local First Nations, and in Peru around 40% of the mine workers come from communities near our mines.
Eugene Lei: Having strong succession plans and talent development within the company is important to us. This allows employees to see they have opportunities to move vertically and laterally to other areas of the business.
Andre Lauzon: In my experience, our employees are active in the communities where we operate through their roles as Hudbay employees and as leaders of the mine site. As unofficial ambassadors with a visible passion for achieving our goals, our employees help to attract talent from our communities.
As Hudbay is an international organization, it is important to build a company-wide culture that extends across borders and different languages.
Patrick Donnelly: We believe we have a common culture where our people collaborate openly and willingly across all jurisdictions, united by our values and the pursuit of common strategic goals. Of course, there are differences in the jurisdictions in which we operate; we embrace these differences without sacrificing what it means to be a part of our “OneHudbay” culture.
Andre Lauzon: Each one of our operations has its own unique culture. But they are connected cohesively, and supported by a very aligned senior management team, through our “OneHudbay” values.
