Nurses Wanted

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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’s Role in Economic Predictions

Girl with shopping bags looking at internet browser in sky
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There is no doubt that the retail sector is a huge industry in Canada.  Many of us have worked in this environment, somewhere along the way, on our individual employment journeys.  There is also no doubt that the retail sector is going through significant challenges and changes that will continue throughout our employment lifetimes.

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The shift to online shopping has to be one of the most significant changes influencing the retail industry.  As customers, we can now enjoy the ease of online shopping in our pajamas, every day, without ever leaving the comfort of our homes.

From an employment and staffing perspective, it is interesting to note that this article does not speak to the impact on the existing workforce.  Will the need for smaller stores and increased online presence for a retailer like Walmart have an impact on its employees? Will this impact be positive and/or negative?  Absolutely! Just because it is not identified does not mean it does not exist.

This is our challenge, as HR Professionals – we need to be cognizant of these types of industry predictions.  We cannot be blind to patterns in industry that are laid out for us to consider from an employment, staffing, and workforce perspective.  Too often, we leave the industry and economic predictions to others in the organization to process and consider.  Our challenge is not to just monitor the changing economic environment and industry forecasts; but to identify the real issues that will arise because of these changes and chart the right course for the future.  Forecasting is an activity full of risk, but it is a necessary task, as it must identify potential impacts for the employees that we, as Human Resources professionals, serve.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do I shop differently now from the way I shopped three years ago?
  2. What are three positive impacts on employees who work in the changing retail sector?
  3. What are three negative impacts on employees who work in the changing retail sector?
  4. What are key skills or traits that a Human Resources Professional needs for working within a retail environment to ensure accurate workforce forecasting?