BHP Billiton to review permanent recruitment panel

Shortlist, October 5, 2005

BHP Billiton is planning to review its recruitment processes and will consider tendering for a new perm recruitment preferred supplier panel as the current contract with suppliers comes up for renewal early next year.

Earlier this year, BHP extended the two-year preferred supplier agreements with its perm recruitment panel for an additional 12 months (see related article). This extension will run to the end of March next year.

For its national admin, clerical and executive recruitment, BHP uses Hudson, Chandler Macleod and Wallage Recruitment.

Mining and technical roles in Queensland, Northern Territory and NSW are handled by Cadden Crowe, Ferris Management, and John Davidson & Associates.

In Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, mining/technical positions are managed by Chandler Macleod and Cadden Crowe, while Choice One Meditemp covers specialist medical and occupational health personnel.

It is understood that all members of the perm PS panel undergo quarterly reviews.

In conjunction with its PS panel, BHP has a comprehensive internal recruitment capability. For the past two years, it has used recruitment systems company, Page Up, as its recruitment platform on the company's corporate website. Previously, BHP was with Monster.

Insiders say BHP has been moving towards a more analytical approach to its recruitment, with the current system capable of producing detailed metrics such as time-to-fill and number of applications per role.

On average, staff turnover across BHP sites is between 10% and 20%, with one of the major reasons being the remote locations of the sites.

BHP is looking closely at how it can improve its talent management strategies and how to lift retention of its professional employees.

BHP has also increased its graduate intake this year after launching a recruitment campaign specifically targeted at universities.

A spokesperson from BHP told Shortlist that the company has "applied the same approach to its recruitment for the past five years, which is to leverage Australian spend through a preferred supplier panel".

She said BHP had made changes to the panel along the way, usually dictated by its workforce demands and employment markets. The company is looking at how it can "continually refine" its recruitment processes, she said.

WMC also under review

Following the takeover of WMC earlier this year, BHP is also planning to review all of WMC's preferred supplier arrangements.

All recruitment companies which provided WMC with perm recruitment services have been retained. WMC's online recruitment platform has been successfully merged with BHP as it was also using PageUp.

WMC has put a lot of effort in recent years into building a sophisticated, internal recruitment and talent management capability. It was one of the first major mining companies to focus on employer branding and has been an aggressive recruiter of international talent.

Chandler Macleod handles all of WMC's non-permanent recruitment including senior executive, mining, finance and management staff, as well as trades and process workers.