Consulting for the workforce problems that do not have a tidy answer.
Union negotiations, enterprise agreements, restructures and executive pay, in high-risk and heavily unionised industries. Thirty-seven years doing the job before advising on it.
Tom McAtee, Principal
Peoplemix Consulting works with organisations in high-risk, highly regulated and heavily unionised industries. Mining, energy, manufacturing and the sectors that look like them.
The work is industrial relations, employee relations, and remuneration and benefits. In practice that means union negotiations, enterprise bargaining, organisational change, complex casework and executive pay frameworks, usually at the point where they have become difficult.
The approach is hands-on and pragmatic. I have sat on the company side of a bargaining table as the person accountable for the outcome, not as the adviser who leaves before it lands.
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Industrial relations
Union negotiations, enterprise agreement strategy, dispute resolution and industrial risk. Getting to an agreement the business can afford and the workforce will accept.
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Employee relations
Change management leadership, complex case management, and employee relations strategy through restructures and workforce transitions.
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Remuneration and benefits
Executive remuneration frameworks, short and long-term incentive design, and benefits structures that hold up against the market and against the board.
Detail on each is on the services page.
I am Tom McAtee. I founded Peoplemix Consulting in 2014, after a career in human resources that began in 1977 and thirty-seven years in senior leadership from 1989.
Most of that was spent in industries where a bad decision carries a physical consequence: underground coal in the Hunter Valley, oil refining across the Asia Pacific, aluminium smelting, industrial gases, power generation. I was a start-up human resources leader at Yancoal Australia and at CleanCo Queensland, and Chief People Officer for several industrial organisations.
More on the record is on the about page.
| Years | Position |
|---|---|
| 2014– | Principal, Peoplemix Consulting |
| 1989–2014 | Senior human resources leadership, mining, energy and manufacturing |
| 1977–1989 | Early career, human resources |
Logical; honest; situationally adaptable; discrete when necessary; compassionate but with resolve to address the "hard" decisions in a forthright manner. Accepts responsibility and accountability.
Tom has worked with me in three different companies, each time being at a higher level of position than the previous; and each time with competence.
Tom is creative and has a superb "can do" attitude and will find a way to succeed. He is inspirational and a pleasure to work with.
Since 2026 I have also been a PhD candidate at Monash University, researching what enables and disables senior leaders' engagement with artificial intelligence in their decision-making. That work is a separate concern and lives at tommcatee.com. This site is the consulting practice.
- tom@peoplemix.com
- Phone
- +61 (0)438 164 993
- linkedin.com/in/tommcatee
- Based
- Melbourne, Victoria. Highly mobile