The rapid adoption of automation and artificial intelligence presents both workforce risks and opportunities for the mining industry, requiring organizations to rethink how they plan, develop and deploy talent, Head of People & Culture at GCB Bank, Nana Kwabena Yeboah, has said.

Speaking at the 7th Biennial HR Conference of the Ghana Chamber of Mines in Accra, Mr. Yeboah said the emergence of new technologies should not be viewed solely as a threat to jobs, but as an opportunity to build safer, smarter and more productive workplaces.

He was a panelist at a breakout session on the topic, “Skills and Workforce Planning in an Era of Automation, AI and Energy Transition,” moderated by Mr. Meshack Baah, Director, Human Resource at AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine. The session also featured Mr. Kofy Hagan, Executive Director of L’Aine HR.

The conference, was organized under the theme, “Future-Ready People: Building the Workforce for Ghana’s Next Era of Mining,” with discussions focused on talent retention, future skills, productivity and industrial relations stability.

Mr. Yeboah said workforce planning must move beyond traditional headcount projections to focus on the work organizations will need to perform, the skills required and the capabilities employees must develop to remain relevant.

He identified curiosity, adaptability, resilience and digital fluency among the critical capabilities that organizations must cultivate as the nature of work evolves. According to him, reskilling initiatives would deliver greater value when they were directly linked to future roles and business requirements rather than being pursued simply as training activities.

“Reskilling is most effective when linked to real future roles and business requirements, rather than training for training’s sake,” he said, stressing the need for organizations to focus on sustained employee development. He cited GCB Bank’s approach to building future-ready capabilities through its online Digital Academy, where employees undertake structured digital skills development over a period of about six months.

Mr. Yeboah also emphasized the importance of treating workforce transformation as a people issue, particularly as organizations undertake digital and technological transformation. “At GCB, we see digital transformation as a people issue first, rather than a technology issue,” he said.

He noted that successful workforce transformation requires transparent communication, employee engagement and credible transition pathways, supported by reliable workforce data rather than assumptions about employees’ career aspirations. He said organizations should recognize that not every employee aspires to people management roles or has the capacity or interest to pursue them and urged employers to explore dual-career pathways that allow employees to advance either through management or specialist tracks. “Those who want to be in management must be assisted to reach that potential, while those who do not should have opportunities to progress through other career pathways,” he said.

Mr. Yeboah further called for greater use of workforce analytics and credible local and global research to help organizations anticipate capability gaps before they become operational constraints. He said collaboration between mining companies, universities, TVET institutions and other relevant partners would also be critical, particularly where specialized capabilities require several years of training and development.

He encouraged mining companies to work collectively through the Ghana Chamber of Mines to develop pipelines for critical skills and better manage the supply of talent needed by the industry. According to him, such collaboration could also strengthen efforts to improve the participation and representation of women in the mining workforce.

Mr. Yeboah also advocated continuous learning as an integral part of how organizations operate, urging companies to embrace micro-learning to help employees acquire relevant skills in smaller, more frequent learning interventions. He further encouraged mining companies to look beyond the traditional boundaries of the sector when sourcing talent, noting that transferable skills from industries such as financial services and other service sectors could contribute to addressing emerging capability requirements.

He said the changing nature of work made it increasingly important for organizations to identify and develop talent based on capabilities rather than relying solely on industry-specific experience.

Nana Kwabena Yeboah’s contribution reinforced the need for organizations to prepare their people alongside their technology investments, with workforce planning, employee development and industry collaboration emerging as critical pillars for building a future-ready mining sector.

The 7th Biennial HR Conference brought together CEOs, HR leaders and industry stakeholders to examine the skills and strategies required to build a resilient and high-performing workforce for Ghana’s next era of mining.