Workplace Challenges

HR trends

As companies strive to stay competitive by developing and maintaining competent and diverse labour forces, they increasingly turn to their HR professionals for assistance.

SHARON ASCHAIEK -- Special to the Toronto Sun
[ 2008-01-30 ]

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The result is that over the last generation, HR has become more integral than ever to the health and survival of organizations, which is reflected in the overall increase and complexity of their duties.

"Generally, HR over the last 20 years has professionalized to a great degree," says Claude Balthazard, director of HR excellence for the HRPAO, the professional association for human resources management in Ontario. "That means all sorts of things, including more responsibilities, more autonomy, and more involvement in executing organizational strategies."

17,000 MEMBERS


As HR practitioners grow in prominence, so do their overall number in Canada. The HRPAO has more than 17,000 members across the country, about 6,500 of whom possess a Canadian Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation, and Balthazard says membership is increasing in number every year.

Among the most pressing challenges HR professionals face, Balthazard says, is that of Canada's drying up labour market. A combination of economic and demographic forces have combined to create a situation in which employers are chasing after fewer qualified candidates, he says, and the trend is expected to last another 10 to 15 years.


To secure a strong talent base, Balthazard says, HR execs need to develop and implement an innovative, multi-pronged, long-term approach to hiring. That translates into everything from retaining mature workers to exporting talent from abroad to exposing their company to post-secondary students training for their industry.

"The challenge is to be proactive," he says. "Organizations that have a long-term perspective, that think three to five years ahead, will not let the blips on the radar determine how they locate talent."

The need for proactive recruiting is magnified by an impending retirement wave, as Canada's greying baby boomers begin exiting the job market en masse between now and 2025.

Organizations can work through this shift by finding creative ways to retain senior employees who wish to continue working.

"There are many aging employees who still want to add value and to contribute, but perhaps not on a full-time basis. Organizations need to figure out who to attract and recruit them back into their workforce," says Steve Knox, Canada recruitment leader for GE.

Part of achieving that goal, he says, involves banding with other organizations to lobby the government to make it easier under the law to employ seniors who want to keep working. Another aspect, he says, involves enabling employees to have more control over when and how they work, for example through telecommuting.

DIVERSE


Building a robust and productive workforce also involves ensuring it's diverse, which allows for an expansion of employees' collective skills and abilities, and enables organizations to more effectively compete internationally, Balthazard says.

"For Toronto especially, which is so multicultural, this is its competitive advantage for the future," he says.

Diverse workplaces of the future will also necessarily include the newest breed of workers, often referred to as Generation Y.

"With their healthy self-confidence, strong need for workplace recognition, greater focus on work-life balance and interest in social and environmental issues," Knox says, "these new workers will greatly shape the way HR practitioners operate."



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