 Dealing with Canada’s Labour Shortage
We’ve all heard about it, perhaps too much. Canada is facing a labour shortage that will adversely impact most employers. Already employers are feeling the crunch when trying to hire new employees. In Regina, where Dimension 11 has its headquarters, the unemployment rate is 4%. With Baby Boomers beginning to retire and a lower birth rate resulting in fewer people entering the workforce, the situation looks dire.
There are solutions, though. The labour shortage has made it an employees’ market. Employers will want to do everything they can to hire and retain top talent. Keeping the workers they have has to be the first step, and this may mean some changes to company policies.
Some things employers may want to consider:
- Flexibility…if possible, offer flextime, telework, etc. to accommodate individual circumstances and preferences.
- Training…people want to work where they can grow in their career. Encourage it by offering training, mentors and coaches. While most employees leave for management reasons, the main reason people leave in the first three months is the lack of training to do the job properly.
- Pay…is it in keeping with similar positions in other companies in your area? With employees able to be more selective, the deciding factor may be the pay.
- Holidays…you may want to offer more than the federally or provincially regulated amounts, especially if you can’t offer top salaries.
Management needs to be in tune with what employees want, what will keep them happy at work. The best way to find out is to ask them, and then be as accommodating as is practical for your business. Ensuring managers are properly trained in management best practices and how to deal with the four generations in the workplace will also lead to an environment designed to retain the workers already hired.
However, these suggestions won’t increase the number of people available to work. Over the next few issues, we will be discussing ways to grow the employee base and to encourage and welcome others into the work force. Join us next month. As always, please let us know what you think. Your comments and insights are of great interest to us.
 Who’ll Pick Up the Slack?
The work keeps coming, whether you have the people to do it or not. So everyone in the company picks up the slack, which can result in overwork and extra stress. As Peter Capelli, a professor at Wharton, says, “You can turn a smart person into an idiot just by overworking him.” So, what can you do?
Allow people to plan some slack in their days, time to relax their minds and bodies, and free up their brains to do the thinking that leads to innovation and success. Think of Google headquarters (www.google.com/corporate/culture.html) and that laid-back, stress-reducing environment. Applying the same principles in your organization may contribute to your success. |
GORD PAYNTER
~ featured speaker~
A hole-in-one! That’s just one of the achievements of this blind motivational speaker/ comedian/author. As you can imagine, Gord doesn’t let his blindness hold him back from his goals. It wasn’t until he lost his sight at 22 that he was able to realize his dream of being a successful stand-up comedian. Now he brings his Leave ‘em Laffin motivational session, a combination of humour and hard-hitting reality, and his stand-up routine to organizations world-wide.
"His ability to motivate through comedy is true talent. At the end of Gord's presentation, all participants were immediately on their feet for a standing ovation." ~ Sears
Call us at 800-303-2315 to book Gord for your event.
Quotes
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”
~ Larry Bossidy ~
“All one can think and do in a short time is to think what one already knows and to do as one has always done.”
~ Peter Drucker ~
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