Indigenous contractor prequalification support
Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners
i. Introduction In this presentation we will: Outline IBA s work aimed at helping Indigenous businesses prequalify in the mining industry. Introduce you to the IBA Prequalification Toolkit. Tell you about the trial of the IBA Prequalification Support Program which is currently underway.
ii. Introductions David Brudenall - Senior Manager, Strategic Engagement and Research at Indigenous Business Australia Matt Wrigley Keogh Bay Consulting
iii. What is Prequalification? Prequalification is the checks that a major company does to find out if a contractor works to the same safety, environmental and management standards as the company itself. One bad contractor on a mine-site can undo years of work to build the reputation and standards of a mining business. This is why mining companies look long and hard at the contractors that work for them before they are even allowed to bid for a contract.
1. Background
1.1a Indigenous Business Australia - Profile People 210 staff in 19 locations 23% Indigenous 50% regional staff Financials Net assets approximately $1bn $203m portfolio of 26 active investments $56m portfolio of 289 business loans $722m portfolio of 3,841 home loans Since 1975, 15,000 home loans generated $1.6bn Indigenous wealth
1.1b IBA - Supporting the opportunity
1.1c IBA projects North West of the Brisbane Line 20% of employment 53% of investment projects Source: Deloitte Access Economics; Investment Monitor South East of the Brisbane Line 80% of employment 47% of investment projects
1.2 The Scoping Study IBA asked KBC to do a Scoping Study which looked at: a) Indigenous contractors in mining, oil and gas b) The Prequalification requirements in 6 major companies c) Barriers to prequalification d) Existing support for Indigenous businesses trying to prequalify e) Recommendations to help Indigenous businesses prequalify
1.3 Findings Indigenous participation Indigenous contractor participation in the resources industry not tracked by government. Generally thought to be low e.g. Indigenous contractor spend is less than 1% of total contractor spend in one major miner.
1.4 Findings Prequalification requirements Requirements are similar, but change from company to company. Businesses must show management systems to deal with risks across: Organisational capacity Health, Safety and Environment Financial capacity Human resource management Quality Assurance Frequent audits to check that systems in use (not just on paper).
1.5 Existing Support A mixed bag of company and government support. Government support focussed on general business development, not on prequalification. Company support focussed on prequalification, but not enough to overcome barriers.
1.6 The Barriers Indigenous businesses When the consultant showed me all the templates I had to go outside and drink three Wild Turkeys I never finished year 9!. I had no idea what they were talking about too many words I never heard before. Just the sheer volume of material that had to be written from scratch. Its not just having the systems, you actually have to use them. Prejudice is a factor.
1.7 The Barriers Company perspective Most Indigenous businesses lack the capacity to develop procedures and systems to meet our standards. Most Indigenous businesses are not big enough to service our contracts or develop these systems. Internal reluctance to go with an Indigenous contractor because of concerns about experience and capacity risks. Fragmented support for Indigenous business. Not a priority for our business.
1.8 Study recommendations Develop a Toolkit - specific to the resources industry - to reduce the writing load for Indigenous businesses. Offer long-term one-one-one mentoring to help businesses develop their systems and put them into action. Don t underestimate how difficult this is!
2. The Toolkit
2.1 The Toolkit - What is it? The IBA Prequalification Toolkit is a large book (253 pages) The Toolkit has an introduction to contractor prequalification written in plain English The Toolkit has many examples, templates and guides to help you build your own management systems.
2.2 The Toolkit - What is it? i. Introduction a) Why is it so hard to get and keep contracts with Resource Companies? b) What is a Safety Culture? c) What is Prequalification? d) Does my business have to prequalify? e) Is my business ready to work in the Resource sector? f) What are Management Systems? g) How do Management Systems work? h) What do I have to do to prequalify? i) How do I use this Toolkit? j) Getting Help k) A final word ii. About this toolkit Background Disclaimer Duty of Care 1. Organisational Structure and Capacity 1.1 Company Ownership 1.2 Organisational or management structure 1.3 Indigenous ownership and participation 1.4 Business skills and capability, financial capacity and staff qualifications 2. Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) 2.1 HSE Policy 2.2 Risk Identification and management 2.3 Safe work procedures and standards 2.4 Incident management 2.5 HSE Training and safety awareness 2.6 HSE Control, Reporting and Auditing 2.7 HSE Accountability 2.8 HSE document control 3. Quality Assurance 3.1 Evidence of a Quality Management System 3.2 Quality Assurance Officer 3.3 Evidence of assessment against quality standards 4. Human Resource (HR) Management 4.1 Employee records 4.2 Evidence of strong recruitment and retention proce 4.3 Indigenous Employment Strategy And much more.
2.3 How can I use it? Read the introduction to get an understanding of contractor prequalification Look through the examples to get an idea of how management systems work Copy and paste examples and templates and change them to suit the your business Warning! adapting a template to your business can still take a lot of time and thought.
2.4 Where can I get it? The Toolkit is available on the IBA website www.iba.gov.au Under publications
3. The Prequalification Support Trial
3.1 Why a trial? The Toolkit is some help, but will not be enough extra one-on-one support is needed. IBA wanted to run a trial to find out: a) If there is interest in prequalification and prequalification support; b) How we could provide this support; c) How much support is needed; and d) The best way to help Indigenous businesses succeed. The trial is happening right now
3.2 Introductory workshops Workshops in Perth, Adelaide, Kalgoorlie and Port Hedland for Indigenous businesses 5 Combined workshop feedback - average participant ratings (33 respondents) 5 = Excellent, 4 = Good, 3 = Average, 2 = Poor, 1 = Fail Attended by 47 business owners and 16 other stakeholders (mostly resource company reps) 4 3 Delivered by Matt Wrigley and Sandy McEwan 2 Last workshop in Perth on the 5 th of September. Positive response. 1 0 Presenters Materials Usefulness Met Expectations
3.3 Workshop Aims The workshop aims to: Introduce people to contractor prequalification Help businesses decide if they will try to prequalify Outline the support available from IBA Help businesses decide if they want to sign-on to IBA support
3.4 Workshop content example 1
3.5 Workshop content example 2
3.6 Workshop Content Sandy McEwan
3.7 Mentoring Places for up to 24 businesses and 30 hours of one-on-one mentoring each. 17 businesses have applied for one-on-one mentoring after the workshops. Mentors are now working with these businesses to: Look at their risks; Find the gaps in their management systems; Help them design and write systems to fill gaps; and Help them put in place the system they have designed.
4. Conclusions
4.1 Lessons so far 1. Engagement with resource companies and other stakeholders has maintained strong support for the project. 2. Strong demand for workshops (Perth workshop oversubscribed). 3. More businesses came to the workshops than signed on to the mentoring. We count this as a win these businesses know the effort to prequalify and have decided to wait until they are ready. 4. Many businesses do not understand the concept of management systems mentors to start with the basics. 5. Plain English explanations very important 6. Prequalification needed beyond mining e.g. large government projects, remote housing, Royalties 4 Regions etc.)
4.2 Next Steps IBA and KBC aim to complete mentoring by end of 2013. Review the lessons learned from the trial through submission of an evaluation report. IBA will then consider whether to expand prequalification support in 2014.
4.3 Prequalification support program contacts Jonathan Price Email jonathan.price@keoghbayconsulting.com.au Mobile - 0423765437
4.4 Questions Any questions on IBA s work in prequalification?
4.5 Thankyou Thank you for your attention