Canadian HR Reporter

growth of 2.5 per cent this year, which is very strong compared to maybe one per cent for Canada, and the economy has become more diverse, more diversified over time. "We're still quite heavily fo- cused on resources but under- neath that, there's more hetero- geneity in the industrial structure than a lot of people realize, even a lot of policymakers, because we're struggling with low com- modity prices as well. But even with that, we're seeing reasonable growth in the overall economy because we've got sectors doing quite well." B.C. is also seeing shifts in the labour market, said Finlayson. "After many years where we were losing people to Alberta, working-age people every year, we're actually seeing that turn around… and it's helpful from employers' point of view because we have really struggled in recent years with the extremely high sal- aries and wages that the oil indus- try, gas industry, in Alberta were providing." Regional variation brings challenges The urban divide complicates workforce planning in B.C., ac- cording to the report, with re- cruitment and retention challeng- ing for remote areas and smaller cities, while Vancouver has a sig- nificant advantage. And yet a lack of affordable housing could see Vancouver be- coming a victim of its own success. But while single house prices may be high, condo sales have been less dramatic in Vancouver, said Yu. "ere's definitely a lot of af- fordable product available, so it's really a question of what individu- als are looking for," he said. "As we start to go forward and we look at development in Van- couver, what we have to see is ongoing densification, essentially building near transit nodes, that type of activity, and that does help in terms of attracting individuals to the region." One potential strategy is to re- brand cities as attractive career destinations by showcasing their unique advantages — while chal- lenging misconceptions, said the white paper. "We can expect to see B.C. cities rebranding from majes- tic tourist destinations to career destinations capable of attracting 'headquarter' operations and indi- viduals pursuing career advance- ment," said Rock Lefebvre, chief regulatory officer at HRMA. While Vancouver gets plenty of attention, other areas requir- ing talent and cities in the inte- rior and north of the province, for example, are finding ways to promote the benefits of relocat- ing there, he said. "Employers courting potential employees are spending signifi- cant time and resources to assist spouses to find suitable employ- ment and acclimatize into the communities." A key theme that came out in the discussions was this idea of "Vancouver and the rest," said Winnie Wong, project lead at the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa, along with misconceptions about smaller towns and the need to get the message out about their benefits. "You may not appeal to every person but there are groups of people that are more interested in a certain type of lifestyle and to think of attracting talent in more of a diversified manner." But the problem is we live in a world where the young adult pop- ulation in particular is increas- ingly urban in terms of where it's oriented, where it wants to live, said Finlayson. "To attract in skilled, young people, professionals and people with technical and other well-de- veloped occupational credentials into those communities, as beau- tiful as they are physically and as nice as the area is in terms of climate — and it has pretty good hospitals, reasonable air service to Vancouver and Calgary — to at- tract people into there is a much bigger job than I think a lot of people realize." B.C. promoting diversity, training Another strategy that came out during the roundtables was the need for greater promotion of di- versity in the workforce through employer coalitions. Priorities include immigrant integration, Aboriginal engagement and lead- ership diversity, said Ariganello. "Employers are working to- wards the deliberate development of talent diversity by creating conditions that support diversi- fication and success; not simply by recruiting under-represented groups but by providing equal op- portunity for meaningful engage- ment, professional development, career advancement and respect- ful self-actualization." Employers are also sharing strategies and resources, as well as participating in Local Immi- gration Partnerships intended to build more welcoming communi- ties, he said. "Initiatives Prince George is an example of a multi-stakeholder group designed to bolster the economy of the city and its busi- nesses, inclusive of regional diver- sity realities." ese are not necessarily di- rectly prescribed measures but are a way to get more sector-wide buy-in, said Wong. "Creating those coalitions, it just builds more momentum for organizations across sectors to think about opportunities and ways that they can share best practices, for instance, and bet- ter understand how to increase diversity. "So it's not just bringing in a di- verse workforce but also how do you leverage that diversity once you have it?" Some of the non-urban regions have a much better record of working collaboratively and it's a simpler proposition because the key players all know each other and there are a limited number of important institutions, said Finlayson. "ey do have a greater capac- ity to collaborate, to work togeth- er…. whether you can achieve very much isn't very clear but I can see the key parties come together and give it a shot," he said. "Trying to apply that model in the Metropolitan Vancouver area is quite a different matter, assum- ing you need to — the needs are different." Another common challenge mentioned was the lack of invest- ment from employers in training, though the bulk of employers are smaller ones so many of them are constrained in terms of resources and capacity, said Wong. "A lot of folks spoke about per- haps the benefits of coming to- gether as maybe a sector or in a particular region to kind of pool their resources to create training programs, create internships and open up those opportunities that they can't do necessarily on their own." But there may be risks to the focus on skilled trades, said Finlayson. "I do worry a little bit that political leaders here at the pro- vincial level, and federal level as well, have gotten very focused on the need to train a lot more people in skilled trades because there are supposedly all of these big projects that are going to be developed in the resource econo- my and it's not clear to me… that we're actually going to see those projects materialize in quite the way that a lot of policymakers are assuming." Forecasting Frustrations around labour mar- ket data were also expressed dur- ing the roundtable discussions. With an unpredictable economy and shrinking workforce, the province needs to develop a more flexible, long-term vision that uses quality data and is responsive to regional priorities, said the white paper. "The timing of provincially aggregated data and its relative static nature… minimizes its utility. Both government and busi- ness participants agreed that if it was more scenario-based and in- teractive, then employers could use it more proactively," said Lefebvre. Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey (LFS) said the job market remains soft in British Columbia, at one per cent growth, while the Survey of Employment Payroll and Hours (SEPH) showed employment growth of more than 2.5 per cent, year over year, said Finlayson. "I would say the SEPH survey is giving us a more accurate pic- ture of the true state of the labour market in B.C. I think the LFS is increasingly questionable." It's a real dilemma for policy- makers because they listen to employers and various pundits talking about skill shortages in various occupations, and try to rejig and realign post-secondary education and training to build capacity, and yet "we live in an economy where things can shift quite quickly and abruptly and unexpectedly, and you can end up in a situation where you ac- tually don't have demand for the people that you've been training," he said. It's more of a problem when it comes to the smaller markets where there are relatively small samples in the LFS, said Yu. "ere's a lot of noise in the data so it can bounce around quite a bit every month, even every quarter, so sometimes you're wondering whether or not you're looking at noise or trend," he said, adding it would be nice to see more granu- lar, reliable data. Smaller communities looking to attract workers B.C. < pg. 1 "A lot of folks spoke about the benefit of coming together as a sector or in a particular region to pool their resources to create training programs." CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 2, 2015 6 NEWS Labour law research just got faster, easier and more comprehensive. LabourSource™ on WestlawNext® Canada combines the most robust collection of grievance arbitrations with court and board decisions, expert commentary, legislation and collective bargaining-related content – with Canada's most advanced search engine. A single search delivers the content you're looking for, whether it's case law, legislation, commentary, or legal memos. You can then filter your results to get exactly what you need. With LabourSource, you'll always be confident that your research is complete and that you haven't missed anything. 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