The shortage of skilled labour presents a serious challenge to the expanding economy of western Canada. Over the course of 2004, the Canada West Foundation’s Post-Secondary Education component of its Human Capital Initiative (which is, itself, part of the Building the New West Project) has identified several areas and sectors of the economy where skills shortages are preventing companies from expanding.
For their parts, the federal and provincial governments have a myriad of programs related to education and skills development (as outlined in the Canada West's report Tools of the Trade). As well, post-secondary education (P2E) institutions across the West are working hard to provide programs, expand curriculum, and partner with businesses to get the right skill sets into the labour force – and to get them there quickly. But, in addition to government and P2E, there is another player - a “third leg” of the stool - in the skills shortage dilemma: industry. In every respect, industry has the largest stake in addressing the shortage of skilled labour. Without an available pool of educated workers with the appropriate skills and training, companies will be unable to fill required positions.
What role does industry play in ensuring an adequately trained work force? Should the task be left up to government and the P2E system? Or do companies have a responsibility as well in training and educating the work force?
Over the summer of 2004, Canada West conducted a survey of large companies (i.e. those with over 500 employees) based in the western provinces. The purpose of the survey was to create a snapshot of trends and common practices of large companies, with regards to their recruitment and training policies. The survey responses paint a very interesting picture of how western businesses see their role in skills development. The companies differ greatly in their recruitment efforts, yet some patterns are consistent. A minority of the businesses recruits at the high school level; not surprisingly, these positions tend to require the lowest level of specialized skills or training. Almost all of the companies, however, do recruit from universities, technical colleges and other trades schools.
Participation in career fairs remains a popular method for the HR departments to generate attention to their company. However, because of the nature of large career fairs – where several companies may be participating – it can be difficult for potential job seekers to feel engaged in any true recruitment process. Most companies attending a career fair will not even accept applications at that point. In this respect, the career fairs are less about recruitment and more about simply providing information about possible career options to students.
Direct recruitment – a more aggressive approach where companies target specific students or hold information and application sessions on campus – are less popular than the career fair concept, but are still used by a majority of employers.
Encouragingly, most of the companies emphasize partnering with a post-secondary education provider. The responses varied from active engagement in customizing a specific curriculum to more indirect participation such as making untied donations to a certain training program.
It was also encouraging to find a majority of the companies offering special training, integration, or skills programs for Aboriginals and recent immigrants. This was especially true of companies in Saskatchewan and Manitoba – presumably since the Aboriginal population is relatively high in these provinces. Considering the Aboriginal communities in western Canada represent a vast pool of young workers, companies are well advised to make sure there are programs in place to recruit Aboriginal workers, and to respect the special social and cultural elements associated with them.
Investing in their new employees is a clear priority with large companies in the West. At the very least, almost all of the companies provide a day or two of orientation. Other companies offer up to four weeks of special training, job shadowing, and preparation for new employees. On-going training for established employees is also clearly a priority: all 27 companies indicate that training and skills upgrading is available to all employees.
There is, however, one glaring and disappointing aspect of the companies’ attention to skills development: how they deal with their retired or near-retired workers. Only one company of the 27 surveyed has any formalized policy in place to retain some of the valuable experience, skills and knowledge of its older workers. Given that many companies are going to be experiencing a labour crunch within five to ten years as the Baby Boomers start to retire, it is troubling to know that only one company has already worked to address this. More encouraging is that eight of the companies have informal policies or are exploring ways to retain the collective experience of their older workers. Some of the creative methods being explored include mentoring, offering more flexible and part-time options for workers over 65, and seniors representing the company in community-oriented projects.
Clearly, industry has a vital role to play in solving the skills shortage crunch, and western Canada’s large employers are up to the task. They are actively recruiting, informing potential applicants of opportunities, and investing in their new and existing employees. But they need to focus their efforts on tapping into the experiences of their near-retirement age workers.
Reprinted with permission. 'Human Capital Initiative part of the Building the New West Project. Industry's Role in Solving the Skills Shortage Problem' by Todd Hirsch. From the Canada West Foundation, December 2004.
