Capacitating mine supervisors and their teams with the right skill sets and mindsets required for operational excellence is a key strategic priority for established business improvement specialists OIM Consulting.

Over the past 13 years, the company has worked extensively in the mining industry and built a reputation for developing mine supervisors who manage daily operations across the sector. OIM targets their competency and productivity levels while addressing the wider organisational challenges to improve business results.

The company’s signature Supervisory Development Programme (SDP) has been designed to equip frontline supervisors with the required skills to drive sustainable success.

“All businesses will tell you that the supervisor is the hub of the wheel and that they are the ones [who] make strategy happen,” says OIM Consulting CEO Arjen de Bruin.

Despite targets and culture requirements, the supervisor is pivotal to ensuring daily strategy implementation.

“But company after company will also admit that the supervisory level is where they need the most help. We have found that 91% of supervisors follow an unstructured and reactive approach to job execution, and only 17% have the required competencies for their role.”

The company highlights that, by reinforcing the real-life application of the principles taught in the classroom, and introducing customised tools for the environment, the company can embed new habits and practices into supervisors’ daily operational procedures, ensuring they are consistently applied.

“It’s a hands-on, daily thing and we literally go underground, in the pits, or stand in the plants with the supervisor to observe and understand what needs to be executed, how the leader executes and manages their team, and what the broader, cross-functional interaction looks like,” explains De Bruin.

Considering this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba theme ‘Future Proofing African Mining, Today’ De Bruin highlights the importance of working with OIM clients in the mining sector to design customised solutions that will build long-term profitability.

Ahead of the event, OIM Consulting will continue to align itself with the key role-players in Africa’s mining sector, showcasing the role-players or the company successes in the mining environment and continuing to establish OIM as the preferred option for supervisory skills and competence development.

De Bruin says OIM’s ultimate purpose is to improve the lives of those who participate in the SDP, which, in turn, creates value for individuals, their employers and the surrounding communities of mines where they work.