Programmed was commissioned by our customer to recruit, train and manage the permanent dump truck operator (DTO) workforce at their site in Western Australia with the aim of lowering costs and increasing productivity.

When Programmed first took over the customer’s workforce, the DTO crew had a low retention rate of 47% and the average tenure of operators was less than 5 months.

As a result, our customer experienced:

• Substantially increased training costs
• Increased safety-related incidents as a result of untrained drivers
• Reduced productivity as a result of a driver shortage

Programmed undertook extensive analysis of the key factors that contribute to running a successful DTO workforce at the site.

Our analysis led us to focus on the following key initiatives:

• Rewriting training and assessment programmes for DTOs
• Introducing further training and career development opportunities for existing drivers
• Conducting regular formal employee engagement surveys to understand and address the issues surrounding employee retention
• Implementing a programme of ongoing medical assessments and well-being checks for employees
• Increasing the level of site supervision and ongoing safety training provided to employees
• Establishing charter flight, transfer, accommodation and messing arrangements with third party providers
• Establishing the Effective Manning Optimisation Committee so representatives from Programmed and our customer could address long-term strategic issues

Within 12 months, average retention of DTOs at the site increased from 47% to 85%. Employee tenure increased from an average of 18 months to an average of almost 27 months. Also, our customer’s training costs as a percentage of wages was also reduced by 86% since the commencement of the contract.