November 7, 2007

Skilled Labour

Employers need strategies to attract and retain mature workers

Richard Gilbert

STAFF WRITER

Employers in the construction industry who are having difficulty hiring highly-skilled and experienced staff need to pay attention to demographics and develop strategies to attract, engage and retain mature workers, according to human resources consultant.

“It’s not about being nice to older people. It’s about meeting your organizational needs through the talent, skills and experience of older workers,” said Barbara Jaworski, founder of the Workplace Institute.

“Ka-boom. That is kind of what is going to happen to work places, if they don’t start looking at this demographic very carefully and understanding what they need to do to engage and retain the talents they need to operate their businesses.”

Jaworski made this comment on Oct. 31 at a roundtable discussion on the technology skills shortage, which was hosted by the Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of British Columbia (ASTTBC), at the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

The discussion, which included more than 100 leaders from major corporations, small business, industry groups, professional associations and government, focused on the critical shortage of technology workers in B.C.

“A demographic crisis is about to explode in our faces as the Baby Boomers inch toward retirement<0x2026> Those mature employees they are seeking to retain or attract will want a workplace that meets all their particular needs, not just most of them,” states the Workplace Institute’s web site.

“Boomers aren’t interested in idle promises. They want to see concrete evidence that a workplace is ready to accommodate them or ka-boom, they are out of there.”

The National Summary of Labour Requirements, which was released by the Construction Sector Council in June 2007, estimates that B.C. will have to replace 24,470 workers as a result of retirement, between 2006 and 2015.

In Alberta, 20,030 workers will have to be replaced due to retirement during the same period.

This finding is critical because the replacement demand related to the retirement of Baby Boomers will likely exceed the demand for new workers related to higher levels of new construction, said the report.

The estimate of demand for workers from new construction between 2006 and 2015 is 12,650 and 23,351 for B.C. and Alberta respectively.

“I do believe we can reverse this whole issue, if we could keep those skilled people on the job and pay them to train on the job,” said Dana Taylor, executive vice president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of B.C.

“We need a better way of dealing with this problem and I think that better way lies with the mature worker. We need to bring them back to teach and not work.”

The ASTTBC web site reports there are 150,000 technology workers in B.C., which makes a significant contribution to the B.C. economy, by building basic infrastructure and constructing all types of buildings.

Some of the construction occupations included in the definition of technology worker include architects, engineers, land surveyors and trades occupations that ladder into technical jobs.

According to the web site there is a critical shortage of these types of professionals and pre-emptive action is needed to ensure employers are able to recruit, develop and maintain needed technology workers.

It is predicted that by 2010 there will be a 70 per cent shortfall in the supply of needed supervisors, managers and contractors in trades and technologies.

The proposed solution to this employment gap is to recruit underutilized segments of the labour force, including youth, women, foreign trained professionals, Aboriginals and adults in career transition. This will be achieved by developing strategies that will address factors such as increasing technology career awareness, promoting technology career and education pathways, attracting and recruiting students and youth, integrating foreign-trained professionals and increasing corporate/employer recruitment and participation.

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