feature
ended up closing earlier. There weren’t
enough people working in construction to
build houses for the influx of people moving
to Calgary for jobs, so housing prices
skyrocketed. Clearly, the talent shortage
was not a problem confined to the HR
department.
Now Canada is headed for a much
bigger talent shortage and it will be nationwide.
The impacts to our economy
could be catastrophic if we don’t take action.
Why? The dependency ratio. Mass
In his report, Miner suggested that
to increase the size of our workforce, we
need to increase the participation of those
groups who have historically been underrepresented
in the workforce. These are
immigrants, Aboriginals and persons with
disabilities, among others. With our traditional
talent pools shrinking, a talent
shortage looming and its accompanying
national financial crisis, we must make the
most of all the talent we have. Diversity is
the way to go.
SKILLED IMMIGRANTS
According to Margaret Eaton, executive
director of the Toronto Region Immigrant
Employment Council (TRIEC), we
have an incredible untapped pool of
talent in skilled immigrants. Eaton highlights
startling facts about this group:
the unemployment rate for university educated
immigrants is double the rate
for Canadian-born people. Education
achieved abroad is discounted by the
Canadian labour market by a factor of 30
per cent, while experience achieved abroad
is discounted by 70 per cent.
Immigrants are highly skilled and educated.
According to Statistics Canada, in
2006, 51 per cent of immigrants aged 25 to
64 had university degrees, compared with
19 per cent of the Canadian-born population.
Unfortunately, when they enter
the workplace, university educated skilled
immigrants are often underutilized, and
they earn only $23,300 on average, compared
to Canadian-born university grads
who make $78,900. According to a report
by RBC Economics, the cost to our
economy of underutilizing and underpaying
skilled immigrants is $30.7 billion
per year.
Skilled immigrants also bring international
expertise and can help
organizations do business around the
world. As our markets are becoming
more diverse, and our organizations are
competing in global markets, it can be
beneficial to have people who have experience
providing services across cultures
and languages and who understand international
business. We need to do better
in our organizations and in society at
large at leveraging and including this incredibly
skilled and talented group.
retirements will cause a significant increase
in the number of dependents in
Canada – i.e., those who are too old or
too young to work. As a result, by 2030,
there will be two dependents for every one
Canadian of working age. This is not financially
sustainable.
But here’s the good news: there is a solution.
We can find the talent that we
need if we tap into the vast underutilized
talent pools we currently have available
to us.
Hire a Canadian Registered Safety Professional
(CRSP)®
to protect your most important resources
Increasing health and safety hazards in the workplace, mounting
occupational incidents means that your organization cannot
afford anything less than a Canadian Registered Safety
Professional (CRSP) ®.
A CRSP ® offers in-depth knowledge of OHS principles and
practices and applies this knowledge to develop systems in order
to achieve optimum control over hazards
in your workplace.
Visit www.bcrsp.ca
to learn more or
to advertise to hire a CRSP ®.
Board of
Canadian
Registered
Safety
Professionals
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