How Many Interviews for a Job?

[BigH]

Hey all - just wanted to toss this at you. The contractor here wanted to hire 150 workers - some skilled, some semi-skilled and some unskilled. As part of the way they work here, there is what they call "socialization" (meaning community meetings/presentations, etc.). A request went out for the local community. Had 2800 applications! Ended up they had to give written "tests" to all 2800 applicants in order to pick 200 or so for interviews!! Amazing, eh?

 

[Mccoy]

That reminds me a little of the tests they give here for government jobs. The hired-to-partecipants ratio is pretty much often in the region of 1*E-03 or 1*E-02.

 

[woofar]

G'day Howie,

I guess that sounds pretty sad, in a way. Obviously there must be a lot of unemployment over there which is never good to see. At least your project will relieve some of those problems for some of those people.

By the way, as an aside, what are the workplace safety practices like over there?

I only ask because Australia has very strong WH&S laws. All of our mining and construction companies are very strongly focused on safety in the workplace. This has been a long term culture thing that is firmly entrenched in everybody in the industry. For one small example of this, the typical salutations of "Good Bye" and "See you later" have been replaced with "Have a Safe Day" even at the end of social conversations.

On a project a few years ago we had a Mexican engineer who was fresh from a stint on a couple of major projects in Indonesia. At our regular project strategy and planning meetings he would come up with ways of completing tasks that we considered to be outrageous. After having his ideas shot down he would say "Oh that's right, I keep forgetting I'm in Australia now.".

We never really knew whether his lax approach to safety came from Mexico or from his experiences in Indonesia or maybe even both. We just didn't know, all we knew was that there was a definite clash of cultures which in itself is also a breach of WH&S laws.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on Indonesian safety practices.

Cheers
Michael

 

[BigH]

Sheisse - I had a response and lost it when I tried to post. Anyway, our site here is the safest I have seen ever in Asia. The client stresses it. PPE is mandatory. Cranes must be certified and almost any pick needs to be approved. We couldn't use one crane because it had an NCR against it - a crack in the windscreen and didn't have the crane manual with the crane! It is to a point that if one is walking along an embankment, some are calling for one to "tie off"! I have to do 4 safety audits per month (no names required - but all managers have to do it). I could go on. Contrast this with other projects I have been on it China, Laos, India and Indonesia - it was impossible to get workers to even wear shoes, even sneakers to protect their feet from scrapes. See attached photos! I'm on the fence - most of the time, it is necessary (even though it seems "evil" - but there are times that it does seem "over the top."

 

[woofar]

Yeah I know what you mean by sitting on the fence.
I used to view safety as a restraint of trade.
The extra costs involved were very hard to justify.

What actually changed my mind was, of all things, a hard hitting advertising campaign. I like to think that I can't be swayed by advertising, however, it is very hard to ignore a campaign that was released under the banner of "Daddy didn't come home from work today". Wow, it chokes me up just typing those words.

Regards
Michael