Tarkwa (W/R) April 24, - GNA- The first National Conference on Human Resource Management in the Mining industry opened at Tarkwa on Wednesday.

Organised by Ghana Chamber of Mines, the two-day Conference has the theme: "Maintaining the Competitive edge through Excellent Human Resource Practice in the Mining Industry".

Mr. Boniface Abubakar Saddiue, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment said human resource capacity becomes economically beneficial when the inherent knowledge, skills and attitudes are harnessed to meet the utmost needs of the country.

He said as a nation the national development prospect does not rest solely on economic progress, adding that, growth and development should be accompanied by achievements in the socio-cultural and human levels which is reflected in better standards of living of the people. Mr. Saddique said many organizations, the world over, are redefining the role played by the human resource function, saying the paradigm shift was to focus on human capital formation and management from the traditional personnel administration.

Again, he said, this has created an enormous opportunity for practitioners to shape the destiny and fortunes of nations and various entities.

The Minister said, while there was evidence that the transition from personnel administration to human capital management have had positive impacts on organizational performance, there were also challenges that have been identified with the process. The challenge of building a high-performance workforce to contribute to the sustainability of the organization, the issue of gaining credibility with stakeholders and management by aligning the human resource function with overall business goals and priorities for effective service delivery were some of the challenges, he said.

Mr. Saddique said discussions at the conference would enable human resource practitioners, labour and other stakeholders to address these challenges and propose a more resounding recommendation to provide equity in the labour market.

He mentioned that the good work being done in the area of Human Resource Management in the private sector like the Mining Sector should be extended to the public sector, especially the Civil Service. Mr Jurgen Eijgendaal, President, Ghana Chamber of Mines and Managing Director Of Ghana Manganese Company Limited said that it is a common knowledge that the Mining Industry is one of the most economically vibrant and well-organised industries in the country. He said the Industry has been unionized for many years and has well-defined Collective Bargaining Agreements; however, this does not mean that there would not be any room for innovations and improvement. He said that to achieve organizational goals and objectives in the industry there was the need to develop and retain a diverse and motivated staff.

The President of the Chamber said mining industry offers a classic example of how industries can maintain a competitive edge through excellent human resource practice in Ghana. He said The Chamber of Mines promotes that employees are critical assets of the organization, and a strategic Human Resource function was the key to leveraging the asset, adding, the growing expectation was that Human Resource in all industries should be given the strategic role it deserves.

Professor Stephen Adei, Rector, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), who chaired the function used the forum to appeal to all concerned to start a new type of labour relations, which he termed as "win-win" labour relations to address labour situations in Ghana.

He said there should be a labour situation that requires level of transparency from employers, saying, often times, the employees think that there was plenty of money and they have been denied quite often. He said management and labour should create a "bigger cake" after which there must be some equity, thus investors require a reasonable return and labour deserves its wages thereby the win-win partnership would make things augur well.