Case study: Cultural understanding key to successful Native hire program in Alaska

At the remote Donlin Creek mining project in northern Alaska, an innovative local hiring program was established to provide employment and skills training for the Indigenous peoples of the Yukon-Kuskokwin region.

The Native hiring program was first established in 1996, when Placer Dome launched a large field exploration effort at the site of one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits.  When Barrick acquired Placer Dome in 2006, the company continued to implement the innovative program at Donlin Creek.

Today the Donlin Creek project is staffed primarily by Yupik and Athabasca Natives. Although now highly successful, the local Native hire program encountered significant, unanticipated challenges early on, as a variety of social, cultural and economic factors threatened to jeopardize its success.

Local Native Alaskans nearest to the Donlin Creek Project are Yupik and live throughout western, southwestern, and south-central Alaska. The Yupik culture in Alaska has endured many years of poverty and exceedingly high unemployment. Aside from government-funded work projects, few job prospects had previously existed for Native men and women in the region. For some, alcohol and drugs offered a refuge from the stress of grinding poverty and lack of economic prospects. Incidences of suicide have also been a part of this harsh reality. 

The local hire program at Donlin

In order to provide stable jobs and develop the skills of local Indigenous people, preferential consideration is given to local Alaska Natives in the hiring process. Specifically, the program stipulates that members of local Native communities, their spouse or descendants, should be given first consideration for any job that becomes available for which they are trained (or could be trained in a reasonable amount of time) over other candidates from outside the region. 

Early challenges

In 1996, Placer Dome hired 152 employees in order to keep 48 full-time positions filled.  The program sustained heavy injury rates, overwhelming drug screen fail rates, and a high rate of voluntary termination. 

A cultural barrier began to develop that predated the project and reflected a difficult period of transition for Native communities in the region. In reality, historic treatment of Native communities, compounded by attempts to “Westernize” the Native population, had created a pervasive lack of trust of outsiders and fears of assimilation among Native communities. While the Donlin Creek project offered a chance for meaningful employment, concerns persisted and contributed to a lack of trust between Native and non-Natives. 

First year results:

• 318% overall employee turn-over. This figure represents turn-over due to policy violations from drugs and alcohol, missed rotations, and voluntary and involuntary termination.
• 50% failure of random drug screening tests.
• 70% voluntary termination. This figure only includes employees that passed the drug screening tests and were not terminated.

This combination of failures made it clear that comprehensive action was essential. For the program to be successful, the team at Donlin needed to understand why these failures had occurred and take action. A cross-cultural outreach plan and consultation was undertaken to gain a deeper understanding of the social, cultural and economic obstacles these employees were facing. Research and consultation with project partners, former and current employees and surrounding communities led to a comprehensive action plan.

The new action plan

• The company’s drug policy was redrafted to include hard and fast penalties, and yet provide for a period in which employees could reapply for employment following a violation, provided they met certain milestones. This change meant employees could hope to improve their performance and be supported by incentives to remain drug and alcohol free. 
  
• An on-site professional counselor was hired, specializing in substance abuse, family counseling, workplace counseling, and stress management.
  
• Worker rotations were adjusted from 20 days on /10 days off to a two week on / two week off rotation, 12 hours per day. This rotation allowed for more time at home, a good monthly wage, and time for traditional subsistence activities.
  
• To build trust, a local Alaska Native was hired as the program coordinator. He was well-known and highly respected in the seven village areas where the majority of employees lived, and played an important role in developing a solid working relationship between villages and the project. 
  
• Cultural sensitivity training was conducted for both Native and non-Native employees.  This gave everyone at Donlin an opportunity to learn about each others’ values, supporting open dialogue and creating a desire to work together.
  
• Since Native villages in Alaska always include large gathering places, camp dining and recreational rooms were constructed to allow for more traditional, open interaction in a family-like setting.  This open environment keeps non-Native employees from segmenting themselves off and encourages interaction between all groups of people. 
  

The program today

Through years of consistent and effective management and cross-cultural learning, today the program is yielding impressive results. Currently, 92% of exploration camp employees and 90% of crew supervisors are Alaska Natives.

A stable and increasingly effective and productive workforce has emerged, as the Donlin Creek project moves toward the permitting, construction and operating phases.  Beyond statistics, many of the men and women working at Donlin Creek credit the opportunity to work at Donlin with a renewed sense of purpose, self-esteem and hope for their future.

In November 2007, Barrick formed a 50/50 joint venture company with NovaGold (Donlin Creek LLC) for the next phases of the Donlin Creek Project. Both partners are committed to continuing to work closely with the local Alaska Natives and to bringing significant economic opportunities to the region.