Human Resources Practices and Work-Life Balance in South Africa's Mining Industry

Abstract

Abstract Orientation, South Africa’s mining sector imposes working conditions extended shift rotations, remote site placements, and persistent occupational hazard exposure that structurally compromise employees’ work-life balance (WLB). Research purpose. This study examines how three human resources (HR) practices: succession planning (SP), talent development management (TDM), and employee involvement (EI), relate to WLB among managerial personnel in the Northern Cape and North West mining industry. Motivation for the study. Despite the operational significance of WLB in this sector, the HR mechanisms through which mining organisations might systematically influence it remain empirically underdeveloped. Research approach/design and method. Data were collected from 400 managers across opencast and underground operations using a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Six structural hypotheses were tested via bivariate regression and multivariate analysis Main findings. Succession planning produced the strongest direct effect on WLB (β = 0.413, p < 0.001; R² = 0.215), followed by talent development management (β = 0.279, p < 0.001; R² = 0.042). Employee involvement had no significant effect on WLB (β = −0.005, p = 0.948), and the TDM–EI pathway was marginally non-significant (β = 0.091, p = 0.059). Practical/managerial implications. The findings extend HR–WLB theory to an underexplored extractive industry context and supply practitioners with an empirically ranked set of HR intervention priorities for WLB improvement in South African mining Contribution/value-add. The study integrates three major HR practice constructs into a WLB-outcome model anchored in multiple complementary theories.