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Placing Thousands of Australia's Best |
| Placing Thousands of Australia's Best | | Released: 16/01/2003 08:24 AM | | | An Australian export success story is this precis of the achievements of Brisbane based family company and prominent expatriate recruitment specialists, John Davidson & Associates (JDA). Since 1990, JDA has placed offshore, thousands of Australia's best management, engineers and technicians.
It all began in 1989 when company Principal, John Davidson, was a recruiter with Rio Tinto's PNG operation, Bougainville Copper. As the troubled mine was forced towards closure by a local insurgency, Rio Tinto encouraged the formation of JDA as an insurance to ensure timely HR support for an early restart. While the lucrative contract to staff-up and re-open Bouganville did not come to fruition, Davidson did not sit on his hands. He visited the Zambia Copperbelt as a guest of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines. Subsequently he placed some 30 Australian and North American mining professionals into employment there. Several other offshore contracts followed through the early and mid-90's. JDA has now made a significant contribution to every medium to large Resources project in Indonesia and the Islands Region. These include prestigious operations such as, Kutubu, Kelian, Kaltim Prima, Freeport, Ok Tedi, Porgera, Batu Hijai, Gosowong and Gold Ridge. Mining operations have also been supported in Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uraguay, Malaysia, India, Tajikstan, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
While JDA are often seen as exclusive Resources Sector recruiters, this is not so. Davidson commenced his 20 years employment at Bougainville with Bechtel’s construction team and then in 1991 he was, for a time, an in-house consultant with Thiess at their Brisbane headquarters. JDA have a significant Construction and Engineering Sector clientele. During a quiet patch in the mining business in 1993, JDA established an office in Hong Kong to become one of the main recruiters of expatriates for the massive Hong Kong Airport Project. To ensure long term tenure and to encourage local participation in their business activities, JDA have established Joint Ventures throughout PNG and Indonesia . At every major minesite they have in place either a JV and/or company representation.
Across large tracts of South East Asia the JDA network is Australia's "front line" in the promotion of Australia's exports and commerce. In times of civil unrest and ethnic disputes, the JDA offices are often approached by Australian Government authorities for advice and to gather an understanding of local conditions. Prior to the introduction of company websites the JDA information handouts were compulsory reading for travellers visiting these distant destinations.
In several aspects JDA are quite different to their competitors. Their expatriate networkers do not only enjoy access to high income offshore assignments, when they are not so employed their credentials rest in the extensive JDA database. This home-grown facility with its sophisticated search capabilities will quickly isolate their credentials against any suitable vacancies. It is the philosophy of the JDA management that Human Resources Management Services should not stand alone as a dedicated service product. JDA enhances their services by delivering the products thru specialist technical consultants who are well-equipped to define in detail the clients` requirements as well as discuss and advise on the wider issues of the clients` business. This experience and advice can be crucial to an Australian exporter operating offshore for the first time. There are several examples of exporters who have benefited from a mentoring type process from the JDA consultants, both locally and from our our country offices inJakarta and Port Moresby.
The degree of difficulty operating in some of the countries listed above has climbed to a new dimension. While JDA remain committed to their offshore clients they now consider it prudent to increase their focus on the local employment market.
Source: Australian Trade Community Magazine ~ January 2003
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