Visible diversity, injuries, and safety culture in the Australian mining industry

About this project

Help improve health and safety in the mining industry  

If you are keen to develop your career in human resources and occupational safety and motivated to make a positive impact on health and safety in the mining industry, the University of South Australia – Australia’s University of Enterprise – is offering a hands-on project-based PhD within the Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWEX), in partnership with BHP.  

Our project will investigate the relationships between visible diversity, injuries, and safety culture in the Australian mining industry.  

In Australia, the mining industry ranks 12th nationally for serious work-related injury and disease.  The mining workforce is predominantly male. But increasing visible diversity, for example, promoting gender-inclusivity in workplaces, is associated not only with improvements in efficiency but also increased safety.  

Injury rates are influenced by the job role and level of risk. Historically, female workers have been employed in roles (e.g. desk work) with lower levels of risk. Injury rates are also influenced by the relationship between anthropometric factors and the working environment (e.g. sizes of available personal protective equipment, work area design, vehicle cabins).  

When examining injury rates by gender in industries where the workforce has traditionally been predominantly male, such factors can distort statistics and mask meaningful interpretation. In-context analysis is therefore critical.  

Our overall goal is to improve both workforce diversity and safety in one of Australia’s largest industries. We hope that our findings may be applicable more broadly to other high-risk, male dominated industries, such as agriculture, forestry, and construction. 

You will be based within CWeX. You will benefit from mentorship and guidance from worldclass experts in their fields. The Centre has a vibrant and collegial cohort of both early career and senior researchers and provides a highly collaborative environment in which to share knowledge and information and seek advice and feedback.  

The close association with BHP and the hands-on experience you will gain during your studies will give you an enviable advantage in the job market.  

What you’ll do 

In this project-based research degree, you will focus on developing an in-depth industry case study, conducted in collaboration with our industry partner, BHP. You will need to travel to collect data across three mine sites (Roxby Downs, Carapeteena, and Prominent Hill) and the comparison office site in metropolitan Adelaide.  

This is a mixed methods project so you will first undertake a systematic review of studies in male dominated industries, focusing on mining, investigating the relationship between visible diversity with a gender focus, injury rates, and safety culture.  

Next you will synthesise and quantitatively analyse existing data from human resources and safety management systems databases, examining injury rates, job role, work hours, and severity, with a focus on high-risk roles. An office setting will be used as a low-risk, positive control. 

Then you’ll undertake workplace observations, measuring ergonomic and anthropometric factors, role design, and teamwork. Finally, you’ll conduct focus groups and carry out interviews discussing perceptions of visible diversity in mining and any perceived links to safety.  

We anticipate that this research will inform BHP’s decisions about how to promote workforce diversity and increase their understanding of contextual and ergonomic factors and their relationship with injuries and a safety culture.  

Where you’ll be based 

You will be based at CWeX, where we make it our business to give organisations the knowledge to empower them to achieve excellence in organisational productivity and employee wellbeing.  

Through our evidence-based research, we uncover invaluable insights and best practice on topics such as employee health, safety and wellbeing; workforce diversity and inclusion; bullying and harassment prevention; leadership, culture and performance; and human resource management systems, practices and structures to demonstrate how organisations can address the workplace challenges of today and into the future. 

Our solutions-focused approach will help you to identify what really works in the workplace, where changes can be made, and how organisations can evolve to become front runners in the global marketplace.  

We do the hard work through our multidisciplinary research to make sure that your workplace can function at its best, with guidance from the latest practices in workplace excellence. Financial Support  

This project is funded for reasonable research expenses. Additionally, a living allowance scholarship of $35,200 (2025 rate) per annum is available to Australian and New Zealand citizens, and permanent residents of Australia, including permanent humanitarian visa holders. Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants will be eligible to receive an increased stipend rate of $52,352 (2025 rate) per annum. A fee-offset or waiver for the standard term of the program is also included. For full terms and benefits of the scholarship please refer to our scholarship information. International applicants are not invited to apply at this time.

An additional top-up scholarship with a value of $10,000 per annum will be offered to the preferred applicant 

Eligibility and Selection 

This project is open to applications from Australian or New Zealand citizens, and Australian permanent residents or permanent humanitarian visa holders. International applicants are not invited to apply at this time.

Applicants must meet the eligibility criteria for entrance into a PhD. Additionally applicants must meet the project selection criteria: 

• Background in workplace injury and/or ergonomics. 
• Experience in working with industry

All applications that meet the eligibility and selection criteria will be considered for this project. A merit selection process will be used to determine the successful candidate.

The successful applicant is expected to study full-time and to be based at our City West Campus in the heart of Adelaide. 

Essential Dates 

Applicants are expected to start in a timely fashion upon receipt of an offer. Extended deferral periods are not available. Applications close on Monday 25 November 2024.