The fact that resources bosses are desperately seeking management talent is clear. Unfortunately the AFRBoss article only repeated tired ideas from the last 10+ years around managing talent/human capital. I think the article showed the conservative and traditional nature of our Australian human capital paradigms, practices and practitioners. At no stage were my concerns around the potential cannibalising of talent/labor markets by the Resources sector from other industry sectors addressed. Nor was there any systemic or innovative thinking presented.

In order to fulfil the human capital aspects of an organisation’s strategic objectives, we need to work both sides of the talent equation – demand and supply – and we need to undertake these tasks in innovative ways. We need segment workforces, focus on critical roles and capabilities, and to create differentiated value propositions. We need to decide what aspects of our workforces must be full time, and what can be contingent. As a nation, we need to decide what we want our workforce to be known for, and what skills/capabilities we want to source from other nations.