Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JUNE 2018 14 NEWS attracting people from elsewhere in Canada." "It's hard to keep people in those jobs," he said. "It's a good way for somebody to get started in Canada, but they're going to move on after a year or two, because once they have their feet under them, they can pursue work that pays a bit better." Labour shortages, skills challenges Despite many years of warnings, employers and post-secondary institutions failed to take heed of labour shortage issues until recently, said Francis McGuire, president of the federal govern- ment's Atlantic Canada Oppor- tunities Agency in Moncton, N.B. "ese big social, cultural move- ments — you never really see it coming at you till you notice you're in the middle of (it)… and it's going to accelerate very quickly." "It is going to be a decade of dealing with this," he said. "e good news is people are realiz- ing it and starting to learn how to cope with it." A total of 23,000 jobs in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island went unfilled in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. Combined with an aging pop- ulation, the western migration of core-aged workers during the oil boom has resulted in the current labour shortage affecting grocery stores, coffee shops, fish plants and hotels, said McGuire. "Everybody can't find some- body," he said, noting seasonal businesses are especially hard hit. "In the old days, you had 20 weeks (of work) and people took it be- cause it was all they could get." e labour market issues mean employers are being forced to of- fer better working conditions, or turn to temporary workers or au- tomation options, said McGuire. And many Atlantic employers are viewing the future with trepi- dation due to the added respon- sibilities that come with finding international workers. "Don't underestimate the dif- ficulty and fear for the entrepre- neur," he said. "It's overwhelm- ing… is is all new to the vast majority of our employers." To make matters worse, the re- gion's labour shortage is poised to go from tough to devastating, ac- cording to Kelly Toughill, associ- ate professor at the University of King's College in Halifax. For years, warnings were issued that a "demographic bomb" was going to hit the region, she said. "There are a number of dif- ferent things that have led to a broader social shift in how people see immigration as related to the communities of Atlantic Canada," said Toughill. "ere's a shift in workplace culture here that is taking place specifically to accommodate and encourage immigration." "Lots of employers are moving into a much more active role in terms of helping their employees settle — but also helping the entire family settle in the community — and really trying to look after the emotional well-being of their em- ployees, not just workplace safety and a decent wage," she said. Immigration issues To replenish the workforce, the federal government has intro- duced a new immigration path- way — the Atlantic Immigration Pilot — to fast-track workers into the Maritimes. The program provides a streamlined and consistent im- migration framework that is common to all Maritime prov- inces, according to McGuire. Launched in March 2017, the three-year pilot gives business a primary role in determining who is chosen to put roots down in Canada. e plan cuts much of the red tape previously tied to the immigration process, but also requires employers to devel- op settlement plans to help new staff adjust. "You have to understand those kinds of dynamics when you're bringing (workers) over," he said. "What do they want? How are you going to help them get edu- cation? How you're going to get them a doctor… All these things are brand-new for people." "There's a talent gap there that we need to fill and we do it through immigration, recruit- ment, through better educa- tion… all those kind of things," said McGuire. "It's quite a revolution, if you would, in terms of what our pri- vate sector has to learn." It has been refreshing to see the government experiment with new immigration techniques such as the current pilot, said Carter. "It's deliberately requiring that employers work more closely with the local settlement agencies, and that increases the potential for people to integrate more quickly and more successfully, and po- tentially stick around a bit longer," he said. "From a retention point of view, it makes sense to be re- quiring employers to be thinking about local integration." However, it remains to be seen how the added responsibilities on small and medium-sized busi- ness owners affects companies' sustainability, said Carter. "Putting more of a load on business is fine in some situations when you're dealing with (large employers such as) J.D. Irving or McCain Foods. ey have very large HR structures and they've already been doing this — they can staff up to help settle people and to work with spouses and the family, find housing and do that detailed stuff which is so daunting for a newcomer," he said. "I worry about how the small and medium-sized firms are go- ing to navigate this and whether there's the associated infrastruc- ture in the settlement services and in local and provincial gov- ernments to be supporting new- comers, as well as businesses just to get through those pathways, to get through that paperwork." "No matter what, a business owner is taking on more respon- sibility for an individual, and prob- ably for a family, than if they were just hiring a new Canadian grad or somebody who's moving jobs, who grew up in Canada," said Carter. Immigration alone is not the solution to the labour market is- sues, he said. "It's a component of what needs to be a broad structural approach to what Atlantic Canada is facing with an aging population and the demographic challenges that it's now dealing with, and that the rest of Canada — at least the other provinces broadly — (are) also go- ing to be confronting in the com- ing years," said Carter. "While immigration can help address — in the very short-term — some of the immediate issues around people with irrelevant skills and with a rapidly aging population, you need to have the business environment where there can be GDP growth and economic expansion." Role of HR While Atlantic Canada comes to terms with its worker shortage challenge and potential solutions, HR practitioners across the coun- try would be wise to take notice, said Toughill. "Many areas of the country are going to face the same kind of de- mographic pressure that Atlantic Canada has," she said. "is re- gion's deeper in the demographic hole than the rest of Canada, and this region made a lot of mistakes to get to where it is now in terms of immigration." "For companies and employers, there's a lot to learn. And I really hope that employers end up shar- ing best practices and don't con- sider their immigration systems and policies an issue of competi- tive advantage because I think the country as a whole needs to get this stuff right." At present, best practice in- cludes recruiting for best fit ahead of skills, as well as selecting people from appropriate international markets, said Toughill. "It's the same truism for HR everywhere — hiring on attitude and aptitude as much as hard skills," she said. "But, in this case, you have to look at aptitude for the community as a whole, be- cause the danger, at least here, is that people will then just move to Toronto or Vancouver as soon as they can." A review of overall business strategy in terms of external re- cruitment and organizational structure is also recommended, said Detry Carragher, chair of CPHR Prince Edward Island and principal management consultant at Carvo Group in Charlottetown. "What needs to happen is an internal assessment of your cur- rent workplace practices," she said. "Immigration is one solution, but we have to look at it parallel to other solutions as well." Questions could include: Do employee skill sets require up- grading? Have job requirements changed? Can you automate? said Carragher. "Behind the scenes, what can we do in-house to keep those people once (we) actually get them? In some organizations, there are holes in the buckets. If you don't have a good structure in your organization and there's all these cracks in your bucket, (workers are) going to leave. So (consider) everything from in- clusion to wraparound supports in the community, all those oth- er things. at's a bit of a shift for employers." HR practitioners in Atlantic Canada would also be wise to re- view program supports available in their region, she said. "You can't be an expert in all things," said Carragher. "Call somebody who knows. Reach out to the service delivery organiza- tions and ask them… Each prov- ince has dedicated staff resources to help navigate those programs." Diversity and inclusion will also provide a new challenge for HR in the Maritimes, said McGuire. "How do you create a diverse workforce? How do you manage a diverse workforce? What hap- pens when 20 per cent of your workforce comes from Africa?" he said. "How do you make sure the communities and the co- workers accept them? How do you bring that all together? ose are new challenges." With so much change in hu- man capital, HR's value is rising fast — even within small busi- ness, said Carter. "A small business owner can only give 24 hours in the day and a lot of them are working 80-, 100-hour weeks already, so some of them just aren't going be able to survive," he said. "It's a profound shift in how business will be done." And the profession is expand- ing in larger firms as well, said Carter, noting that J.D. Irving recently created a director of im- migration position to specifically deal with the issue of recruiting specialized machinery workers. "ere is a changing role, cer- tainly for some HR professionals and some business owners and execs — those who have seen the writing on the wall and realized that the growth of the labour mar- ket locally and across all of Cana- da is coming pretty much entirely from immigration," he said. "You need an HR depart- ment that not only can figure out where these people are, but also can work with a spouse and with kids… You want the family to be employed and to be engaged in the community. And so, in some cases, businesses can take that on and they've already realized they have to do that." "ere is a changing role, certainly for some HR professionals and some business owners and execs — those who have seen the writing on the wall." ATLANTIC < pg. 1 Immigration boosted to replenish workforce

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