OVERVIEW
INSIGHT BEYOND SEARCH
Stratum’s Advisory Practice gives you the strategic insight & guidance you need to make decisions that protect your people, reputation and investments.
MORE ABOUT
OUR CAPABILITIES
Investing in new markets is key to mining success. However, political, regulatory, security, and environmental uncertainty, project time constraints, and information scarcity increase your risk.
Partner with Stratum and we will ensure you have the data you need to make an informed decision, and the right leadership to execute your vision successfully. Our Due Diligence/Referencing is the first step towards achieving a Social Licence to Operate. Here’s how we give you a long-term competitive advantage.
Stratum has worked with the world’s leading mining Private Equity Firms to provide due diligence on mining deals ranging from $10 million to more than $1 billion. Our client list spans micro-cap to major miners and PE funds/Family Offices.
With resource nationalism risk on the rise, understanding the past and current political landscape and localised issues is vital if you hope to navigate the areas in which you operate successfully.
When considering new projects and investments, human capital risk is often overlooked. Stratum can help you identify key challenges and opportunities by looking at both local and expatriate talent, living conditions and cultural challenges that could impact your ability to retain and attract talent, as well as comply with local content requirements.
The structure of your business has a lasting effect on the efficiency and morale of your organisation.
An unsuitable structure can have unintended consequences with your employees and can impact retention and commercial performance. Companies who are agile and forward-thinking will attract the best talent and will be able to ensure they are operating at their most efficient and innovative, ensuring you will have a distinct competitive advantage.
There are many benefits from objectively looking at your organisational design, such as:
- Attraction of higher quality talent
- Higher retention of high-performing talent
- Improved decision making
- Increased innovation & productivity
- Improved internal communication
- Streamlined costs
- Better stakeholder engagement
Stratum regularly conducts research to gain insight into the industry. We engage mining professionals from major, mid-tier, and junior firms across the globe to understand what are the biggest challenges facing the sector and its leaders today.
Succession planning is an integral part of effective, long-term strategic planning and risk mitigation. Succession planning is not about “replacing” a departing executive; it is a strategic long-term plan around talent management and business continuity.
The unexpected departure of an executive or director can be devastating. It can have a catastrophic impact on operations, market perception and the morale of the company.
Having a rigorous succession plan in place significantly reduces the turbulence of executive departures. In addition to executive succession planning, a robust plan for your board is essential to ensure continuity and efficiency.
OUR PROCESS
Succession Planning strategies should start between 3 and 5 years ahead of when they are expected to be needed. Although, Stratum recommends using the process outlined below, all of our solutions are bespoke and we can help support you with any part of the process.
- Align
- Identify & Benchmark
- Retain & Attract
- Develop & Execute
- Review & Repeat
The business case for diversity has been made. In order to maintain a competitive advantage around attracting talent and access to investment, organisations need to be proactive and decisive around their approach to diversity and inclusion.
Financial performance: Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile (McKinsey, 2018)
Sustainability performance: Women’s leadership is linked to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, stronger worker relations and reduced incidence of fraud, insider trading, and other unethical practices (IFC, 2019)
Economic and social development: Empowering women and girls could contribute up to US $28 trillion to global GDP by 2025 (McKinsey Global Institute, 2015)
BEYOND GENDER
Although the focus on gender diversity has been front and centre in the conversation, it is critical to remember that diversity encompasses a range of groups including ethnicity, disability, age, socio-economic status and sexual orientation.
We help support our clients move the conversation beyond gender to support and help to identify areas of improvement.
Inclusion & Diversity is embedded in everything we do at Stratum. However, we know that our clients might need specialist support. We can support your organisation in the following areas:
- Diversity & Inclusion Strategy
- Board Search & Composition
- Unconscious Bias & Interview
- Attraction & Retention
- Executive & Management Pipeline Development
- Global Talent Identification
Stratum regularly conducts research to gain insight into the industry. We engage mining professionals from major, mid-tier, and junior firms across the globe to understand what are the biggest challenges facing the sector and its leaders today.
Questions like “Do you have the ability to attract top talent?” are now more important then ever. Is this a question you can honestly answer as a business? Do you know why people want to work with you? These are questions businesses need to ask themselves but rarely do. In most cases, it is impossible to get direct and truthful answers if your business is the one doing the asking; Stratum as an external adviser can help get honest and direct answers, not only from current talent but also from talent who have left.
Conducting both internal and external assessments can ensure you understand why you retain talent and why you don’t. Stratum can also look at your ability to attract talent from your competitors; what do they really think about your organisation and what would it take for them to move.
The success of a newly appointed executive or board member is not purely attributable to their ability to perform in their role but also how they can influence, adapt and impact the organisation at a cultural level.
Stratum tailors our assessments for specific roles allowing candidates to be evaluated on specific competencies which would be best suited to the role.
From initial hiring to understanding team dynamics, assessments are useful across the Talent Life Cycle and are a standard part of our search process but can also be used independent to recruiting.
Having the ability to analyse a candidate’s problem-solving skills, decision-making, and style of communication allows firms to create a perfectly diverse team. The ability of our assessments to be taken in over 40 languages allows our candidates and teams to take the assessment in their first language allowing for a more accurate assessment. Having completed these assessments all over the world, Stratum understands that different regions and cultures results can be different, and we have the track record of successfully interpreting the results.
Traditional compensation packages are changing.
Financial rewards are no longer the only driver in regards to talent and a one-size-fits-all all approach is no longer appropriate in many scenarios. This is underpinned by an increasing public scrutiny on executive compensation which has been exacerbated by the recent COVID-19 crisis.
Stratum is in an excellent position to offer bespoke real-time rewards and benefits information based on your specific requirements. We do not rely on a database of statistics but we conduct real time interviews and analysis with the talent pools you wish to attract; looking beyond the numbers and understanding the motivations and drivers that will help you create thoughtful and competitive compensation packages.
