A27 | Examining how organisational attributes impact the perceived attractiveness of mining organisations | Rapid research 20 mins
Tracks
Track A | Lagoon Room 1 | Filmed
| Saturday, July 9, 2022 |
| 11:15 AM - 11:35 AM |
| Lagoon Room 1 |
Overview
In-person live +
Presenter
Miss Madison Fitzgerald
Masters Student
UWA
Examining how organisational attributes impact the perceived attractiveness of mining organisations
11:15 AM - 11:35 AMPromotional description
Attraction is the first, and perhaps most crucial stage of the recruitment process. Organisations are constantly competing to attract and recruit the best candidates. Organisations want to present themselves as an attractive place to work to generate a diverse pool of qualified applicants. This concept of attraction was explored in the context of the Australian mining industry. The need to lift diversity in the heavily male-dominated industry has been identified as a key focus. How can mining organisations appear more attractive to diverse groups, particularly professional women?
This experimental study investigated whether two organisational attributes impacted how attractive engineering graduates and students perceived hypothetical mining organisations. The first attribute is an emphasis on diversity. Organisations that emphasise diversity signal they value inclusivity and fairness. Do the organisations that emphasise diversity by including equal employment opportunity statements appear more attractive, particularly to women?
The second attribute was the type of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) roster offered. Short, symmetric FIFO rosters (e.g., 8 days on, 6 days off) signal that workers may have a better work-life balance than long, asymmetric FIFO rosters (e.g., 14 days on, 7 days off). Does the type of FIFO roster offered impact attractiveness perceptions? Come find out!
This experimental study investigated whether two organisational attributes impacted how attractive engineering graduates and students perceived hypothetical mining organisations. The first attribute is an emphasis on diversity. Organisations that emphasise diversity signal they value inclusivity and fairness. Do the organisations that emphasise diversity by including equal employment opportunity statements appear more attractive, particularly to women?
The second attribute was the type of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) roster offered. Short, symmetric FIFO rosters (e.g., 8 days on, 6 days off) signal that workers may have a better work-life balance than long, asymmetric FIFO rosters (e.g., 14 days on, 7 days off). Does the type of FIFO roster offered impact attractiveness perceptions? Come find out!
Learning outcomes
• Comprehend how information that the organisation shares can signal to potential applicants what they value, and shape attractiveness perceptions.
• Organise information relating to the importance of applicant attraction within their own schemas and experiences such that recruiters carefully consider the information they include in their job descriptions and what it is signalling to potential applicants.
• Understand that fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) rosters that are short and symmetric are perceived to be more attractive to engineering students and graduates, in line with previous research with FIFO workers.
• Understand that organisations that included two short sentences on equal opportunity employment (vs. no statement) were not perceived as more attractive to engineering students and graduates. Nonetheless, there may be value in signalling a supportive and inclusive work environment.
• Organise information relating to the importance of applicant attraction within their own schemas and experiences such that recruiters carefully consider the information they include in their job descriptions and what it is signalling to potential applicants.
• Understand that fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) rosters that are short and symmetric are perceived to be more attractive to engineering students and graduates, in line with previous research with FIFO workers.
• Understand that organisations that included two short sentences on equal opportunity employment (vs. no statement) were not perceived as more attractive to engineering students and graduates. Nonetheless, there may be value in signalling a supportive and inclusive work environment.
Author(s)
Wee, Serena
.....
Madison Fitzgerald is in her final year of Masters in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of Western Australia (UWA). She has a strong interest in applying evidence-based practices to create better organisational processes and environments. For the past two years, she has been a research assistant within the Human Factors and Cognition Lab at UWA, working on several studies including a large team study, looking at how visual imagery displays facilitate operator performance and situation awareness. She is also working with UWA researchers to measure the impact of changing fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) rosters on psychological indicators in a longitudinal study for a mining organisation. The work presented here is based on Madison’s honours thesis.
