The importance of partnering – Fiona Forrest
As Principal Advisor HR at Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine, one of the largest copper and gold deposits in the world, Brisbane and Singapore alum Fiona Forrest certainly had her work cut out when the global pandemic took hold.
We caught up with Fiona to find out what impact COVID-19 had on her role, what it's like working on the client side and the importance of "partnering".
Please tell us about your role as Principal Advisor Human Resources at Oyu Tolgoi Underground Project for Rio Tinto.
To give you a bit of background, Oyu Tolgoi is a combined open pit and underground gold and copper mine located in the South Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The true value of the mineral deposit is 1.3km underground, so Rio Tinto is currently building a significant underground mine, with first sustainable production projected to occur between October 2022 and June 2023. The mine will be one of the largest in the world once completed. The underground mine is a multi-billion dollar project with around eight thousand employees and contractors on site at any given time. Around 95% of our workforce is Mongolian, with the rest of the workforce made up of expatriate employees who come from all over the world bringing key skills and expertise to the project. It's a really significant project for both Rio Tinto and Mongolia. Oyu Tolgoi currently accounts for 70% of all Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Mongolia, and when running at full capacity will contribute 20-25% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Since 2019, I’ve lived in the capital, Ulaanbaatar (or UB as it is known), and split my time between the project office in UB and the OT site. Site is a 1 hour (often bumpy!) flight from UB. My role is to provide HR support and advice to the project leaders and deliver the HR strategy for the project. I work closely with our fantastic HR team in Mongolia, as well as my HR colleagues in other Rio Tinto offices. One of my accountabilities is managing the expatriate employment life cycle which can involve quite a lot of work due to complex remuneration structures, different contractual arrangements and various home contract jurisdictions. I also coach and advise our leaders on a wide range of HR matters, which is actually very much like being a lawyer in that I act as a trusted advisor and provide that safe environment for the leaders to come and bounce ideas around. I carry out quite a number of workplace investigations. I frequently get asked to do policy review and drafting work, because of my employee relations and legal background.
Do you think your background as a lawyer has helped you in your current role?
Yes, absolutely. Although I've probably had to wind myself back a bit because I think, as lawyers, we tend to focus just on providing the right advice directly to our clients. I've had to adapt as my role now is much more about bringing the business leaders along on the journey, and helping them to understand the issues so that we can develop solutions together. We are very much a leader driven business so it's not HR's role to have the difficult conversations when needed. Part of my role is to make sure our leaders fully understand and are comfortable to sit in front of our employees and deliver these messages themselves. It's less about "telling" and more about "partnering".
What is it like being on the client side of things?
Well, I think it is a big advantage for me having been on the lawyer side in that that I know how to properly brief our external law firms. One of my biggest frustrations as a lawyer in private practice was clients who would drip feed documents and information through. I know how painful that can be so I'm always careful and make sure I brief everything properly. I also know what questions to ask our external advisers and I'm aware of what exactly needs to be addressed, which can save a lot of time and is more cost effective for the business.
It's also good to have the confidence to know that not everything needs to be briefed out. I know there are some clients who take comfort in having everything checked off by legal, but sometimes it's just not necessary so it's good to be able to manage that risk as well.
How did COVID-19 impact your role?
Like a lot of people, COVID-19 completely up-ended my world. When Mongolia closed all of its international borders in early 2020, we had to re-design how our entire project would run because we had less of our skilled expat workforce in the country (we are a fly in/fly out workforce with most of our expats working a four weeks on, two weeks off rota). We sent all of our residential expat families out of Mongolia, with only a core group of expat employees remaining in country. We had to actively manage all of our people who were out of the country and figure out who could and couldn't work remotely. There was a complete re-design of our remuneration model. We did everything we could to ensure that we kept our skilled workers employed and ready to remobilise to Mongolia when borders re-opened. It's difficult to get certain types of skills into Mongolia so our fundamental objective was to keep a hold of them. We also had to ensure that we were supporting those expat employees who had remained in country to keep working on the project, as they were separated from their families for long periods of time. In addition, there were a number of internal border closures and government measures which impacted our Mongolian workforce and which we had to manage to keep the project running.
In July 2020 we worked with the Mongolian and Australian governments and the Australian embassy in Mongolia to bring a group of our expat employees and contractors on a charter flight from Western Australia to Mongolia on a flight operated by the national Mongolian airline, MIAT. That was the first time that there had ever been direct flights from Mongolia to Australia and it has opened up a whole host of opportunities for us as a business. So, whilst it was a very (very!) challenging time, it's good to be able to recognise that achievement.
Did you learn anything about yourself, personally or professionally in 2020?
Something I have learnt is that "resilience" is not just a fad word, it's real. With all of the challenges I have faced this year I have definitely discovered how resilient I can be and witnessed the same sort of behaviour in those around me. For example, when Rio Tinto decided to reduce the number of people working in our offices globally we had to move to a working from home model. For our Mongolian employees, that was a massive cultural shift and not something they were used to. A large number live in apartments and with schools being closed since February a lot of our employees were home schooling their children as well, so it was not an ideal work environment. However, they embraced it and got on with it without complaint and it demonstrated to me how resilient we can be when faced with new challenges.
Also, when the lockdown happened I was one of the small group of Rio Tinto expats who chose to stay in Mongolia and we were there, without our families, doing very long hours and really hard work in quite isolating conditions, but we really came together as a group and supported each other through it. I even came to like the local yak cheddar as cheese options became more limited the longer the borders remained closed!
What do you enjoy most about your work and what has been your most rewarding achievement?
Since I joined Rio Tinto in 2016 I've been lucky that I've been able to travel to so many of our sites and offices in Australia and internationally. It has been a real privilege to go to some of our remote sites and see the contribution that we make to communities. I have spent a lot of time in Cape York supporting our operations in Weipa where we have a high level of local and indigenous employment. That's a really fulfilling part of my role. I've also been lucky to live in Mongolia, and that in itself has been an amazing experience, particularly during 2020 when I have been able to explore more of the country.
In terms of my most rewarding achievement, I was involved in developing Oyu Tolgoi’s domestic and family violence policy. Domestic violence is a significant social issue in Mongolia but it's not widely dealt with or talked about. OT and Rio Tinto are at the forefront of Mongolian companies in bringing in this policy to support our employees and contractors who are impacted. Under the policy, we provide measures such as flexible working arrangements and special paid leave to victims of domestic and family violence should it be needed. To me, that is a really special thing to be involved in as I genuinely believe it will make a difference to Mongolian society. As the biggest employer in Mongolia, people look to our business to see what we are doing and emulate our behaviours.
What new skills do you think lawyers need to develop for the future?
I think that lawyers should focus more on the skill of "partnering" and being able to connect with people in a human way. Being curious, and spending as much time as possible with clients to truly understand their business, has great benefits. To me there's nothing worse than getting guidance from an advisor who doesn't actually "get" what my challenges are. Taking every opportunity you can to get out there and get in front of clients in person, at their business site, not just on the end of the telephone, makes such a difference.
Another thing that I think is critical is to really understand the communities in which the business operates. This is particularly true in mining. The interaction with the communities around our operations very much underpins our business. We, rightly so, spend a lot of time getting to know the towns and communities around us to better understand what's important to them. Taking that time to genuinely understand the surrounding community really helps us to identify risks and opportunities in those environments.
What were the most valuable lessons you learnt while at Ashurst?
The most valuable things I learnt were to exercise considered thinking, and not to rush into providing an answer. There can be a lot of expectation that when someone contacts you, you have to respond immediately. I don't think that does anyone any favours. People come to you for the right answer, not just an answer, so it pays to step back a moment and give your response some proper thought.
Are there Ashurst colleagues who had, or continue to have, a significant impact on your life and career?
There are two, James Hall and Ian Humphreys in the Brisbane Employment team. James taught me how to perfect the art of a good witness interview, how to get the most out of a witness and how to connect with them as a real person rather than as a city lawyer. I really took a lot from working alongside him and I've definitely carried that with me throughout my career.
The thing I really liked about Ian was his ability to take a really difficult, complex legal issue and present practical, easy to understand solutions to the client. He has this great knack for knowing how to deliver advice to a client in a way that works for them. He just gets it and knows instinctively how to make a client's life easier. He has this great way of teaching that sticks with you. I’ve also had the benefit of working with Ian as a client since joining Rio Tinto.
Do you have a favourite memory from your time at Ashurst?
There's no one specific memory, all I can say is that I had a great time at Ashurst, both in Brisbane and Singapore. I got to work with some really, really smart people every day and we just had a great time together. It was such a nice group of people and whenever I see any of my old colleagues, particularly from Brisbane, nothing has changed, they're still a great team.

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