Nurses Wanted

Roobcio/Shutterstock

As we have learned from our Recruitment and Selection studies, the Canadian demographic makeup is undergoing a significant transformation. We are facing significant increases in the number of people retiring or exiting the workforce as they continue to age. This aging and exiting workforce is leaving behind high numbers of job vacancies, along with a corresponding decrease in the number of skilled and available workers for those jobs. This pattern is evident and highlighted recently in the province of New Brunswick. Provincially, the health care sector will not be able to meet increasing patient needs due to the predicted lack of availability in skilled and talented nurses.

In order to address this issue, the New Brunswick government has put together a provincial ‘Nursing Resource Strategy’. This is a pro-active recruitment plan designed to meet current and future nursing demands. The strategy has four action items which include the targeted recruitment of internationally trained nurses; reducing barriers to work while waiting for provincial nursing registration; permanent employment offers and potential signing bonuses for new nurses committing to work for three years in the province’s rural areas.

Click here to read about New Brunswick’s nursing recruitment strategies.

As the focus of this strategy is to increase the numbers of internationally trained nurses, the plan includes targeted recruitment from countries with nursing education programs that provide ‘similar nursing professional standards, competencies, and credentials’. This approach links directly to the need for accurate job analysis so that there is a precise match between the alignment of job availability, professional requirements, and candidate competencies.

Further, this plan is based on an analysis of demographic information that forecasts both the supply and demand of skilled nurses over a nine-year plan. It may seem that a nine-year time frame is focused far into the future but, the current state of this skilled labour shortage is already at a critical stage and cannot wait for any future delays.

New Brunswick’s ‘Nursing Resource Strategy’ is a plan that has been developed for one particular province to meet its health care sector needs. The plan includes demographic analysis, staffing forecasts, job analysis, professional and competency requirements, action items and a time frame for delivery. In summary, the approach provides us with a template for what an effective recruitment strategy looks like. All that remains is effective implementation.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Identify additional recruitment strategies that could increase the availability of skilled and qualified nurses in New Brunswick.
  2. What types of services or industries are impacted by the lack of skilled nurses provincially?
  3. What types of skill shortages are forecast for your province?
  4. What types of recruitment strategies would you put into place to address these skill shortages?
  5. As a new graduate, would you be willing to relocate to another province or another country if you were given a guarantee of employment in your field? Explain your rationale.

HR Recruits HR

MeSamong/Shutterstock

Wanted: HR Professional with highly developed competencies as an organizational strategist, workplace advocate, and change champion. Must be dedicated to excellence.

Depending on the organization, the role of the Human Resources function can range from transaction based (focused on process), to operational (focused on goal achievement), to strategic (focused on organizational vision and mission). In many cases, all three of these components are required of the Human Resources function at any given time and in any given way in order to meet organizational demands.

How then, does the Human Resources professional recruit and fill a Human Resources vacancy? While this question may have a simple answer (use the same processes that are in place for all recruitment campaigns), there is an additional element of scrutiny that must apply when our profession looks to hire for itself.

A recent article posted on thebalancecareers.com offers some practical advice on the types of questions that HR professionals can use to recruit and hire for other HR professionals.

Click here to read the article.

As noted in the article, the questions suggested for use during an HR interview follow the range of HR competencies through each of the tactical, operational, and strategic requirements. We can also infer, through the types of questions asked, the role that HR plays within the organizational structure.

If the questions focus specifically on tactical, process-related issues it is possible to infer that the organizational need is for a tactical, process-oriented HR professional. Conversely, if the questions focus on organizational strategy, then the need is to fill the position with an individual focused on and experienced in HR strategy.

One HR question that pops out from the list identified in the article is, “What do you enjoy the most”? Hopefully the answer for each of us is linked somehow to the ability to influence the workplace (and its people) in a positive way. If we as HR professionals do not find joy in our work, then we are truly in the wrong profession. We must love what we do in order to do good work.

No matter what the organizational needs are, or how they are defined, the Human Resources professional must be able not only to meet them, but also to anticipate and respond to future demands.

So, in addition to the competencies identified at the beginning of this blog, we should add the talent requirements of flexibility, forecasting, and fun, along with an additional heap of love for HR.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do HR-related interview questions reveal organizational commitment to the human resources function?
  2. Write three interview questions that you would like to be asked as an HR professional.
  3. In your opinion, should HR professionals be recruiting to fill positions for their own profession within an organization? What are the benefits and risks?