If you are responsible for organising mine site accommodation, one of the main questions you need to decide is whether workers will be permanently allocated their own accommodation on site or whether they will be 'hosteled', which means they are given a new room every time they come on site. Here are some of the pros and cons of each approach. 

Hosteling

The hosteling approach can save the company significant money, as they require less accommodation overall, especially if they have an even time roster and can ensure that there will always be someone coming into a bed the day it has been vacated. This approach does require a more organised approach to cleaning and turning around rooms, as they may be needed within a few hours of coming on site. 

Some staff find it uncomfortable and disruptive to be in a new room each time they are on site and may prefer certain locations in the camp, especially if they can room near their friends. 

Allocated rooms

Allocated rooms can give an extra cost to the company, although the extent of this cost depends on how long the workers are on site vs back home. Longer rosters such as 5 weeks away, 1 week home have a lower cost to allocating rooms compared to even time rosters where the room in vacant half the time. It can also make it harder to find accommodation on site for unexpected extra workers such as when an unplanned shutdown occurs and you need to get contractors in. 

Workers often like the feeling of having a home base on the site and may do little things to make the room more comfortable such as bringing games consoles or their own linen to the site. (This does not happen as much when they need to take these items home each break). These touches can make the room more homey and may increase overall morale and lower staff productivity. 

Many new workers can find it harder to break into the social circles if they are allocated rooms away from their shift team under an allocated system. This can make some workers feel isolated and can lead to cliquishness. 

The right mine site accommodation setup accommodation for your camp depends on the roster used, the amount of flexibility in the camp accommodation budget and the ability to turn over rooms clearly. For more information, contact an accommodation expert in your area.

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