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Facing the storm

Will Whistler weather the looming labour shortage?

By 2006, two people will be leaving their job for every one person coming in. By most reasonable accounts, we’ll be facing a North American shortage of 10 million employees by 2008.

In its Human Resource strategy, the provincial government estimates that there will be 913,000 job openings between 2003 and 2015 in British Columbia alone. Accommodation, food and recreation services will account for 12 per cent of those jobs. B.C.’s tourism sector is on Red Alert, preparing itself for the looming labour shortage.

At a last spring’s 2010 business summit in Vancouver, the province identified that food service and accommodation sectors are expected to experience a deficit of employees described as severe, with a 36 per cent gap in positions and people to fill them. Last week’s announcement that the Squamish campus of Capilano College has been designated a Centre for Leadership and Innovation in Tourism, and Vancouver Community College a Centre for Leadership and Innovation in Hospitatlity, is recognition of the problem.

Whistler businesses, too, are going to need to start forecasting further ahead if they want to stay afloat and meet their staffing needs.

John Sullivan’s famous quote, “If you want loyalty, buy a dog!” could well have been coined by a Whistler employer. The resort has taken advantage of a transitory workforce that other employers in different industries would find extremely difficult. While “front line” staff may be easy to train and replace on an annual basis, what are the implications for supervisors and managers who will be a very hot commodity in the coming years?

It’s a question being asked around the world.

>And the world will be watching us in 2010, when Whistler is hoping to be the epicentre of the global tourism economy. But we need to strategize in order to build on 2010.

In a presentation to The Inter-American Development Bank, Professor Michael E. Porter from The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School identified what makes a workforce globally competitive.

“A globally competitive workforce has the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to continually adapt to ever-changing and escalating labour market requirements. Competitive workers have the ability to integrate and apply their academic, technical and practical knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems, to continue learning in formal and informal ways throughout their lifetimes on-the-job, in schools and in their communities, and to work effectively with other people as customers, co-workers and supervisors”

Sounds simple enough; hire talented people, train them thoroughly and continuously, help them prepare for change, and bango-presto you’re ready for the world. The issue for Whistler is how to attract talent and how to retain the those people once we have them.

 

Recruit

We have a unique opportunity to grow business between now and 2015, with the crest of the wave obviously coming in 2010. Rick Lemon, VP of Tourism Operations for Tourism B.C., explained that “The biggest shortage over the next 10 years is going to be with semi-skilled labour, but the most critical area is with the skilled labour we will require.” I.e. mangers and supervisors. With an estimated shortfall of 48,000 employees, this shortage could hit us like a tsunami.

Rebecca Ryan provides a perspective on attracting and retaining talent. One of North Americas leading authorities on what attracts top talent to communities, she’s the founder of Next Generation Consulting and the creator of the Hot Jobs Cool Communities Web site. She also happens to be the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year. In a recent interview, she had some sage advice for Whistler.

>“Talk to your current young professionals and get their stories on why they chose Whistler. Then, you should enlist them to help tell Whistler’s story. What you’re going to find is that there are some common denominators about why young professionals choose Whistler. Those become your talking points. But not in a brochure… online, over closed circuit TV in Whistler’s hotels (most people relocate to a community after visiting it), and through innovative uses of the Web.”

As for where to fish in this talent pool, Ryan had some interesting insights.

“Whistler should maybe focus more on attracting ‘mid-careerists,’ folks who are in their early to mid-30s, rather than the fresh-from-college-and-I-have-a-$30,000-loan-to-prove-it crowd. Those who’ve had their first five or six jobs have a little more bank than those fresh from college. The empty nest baby boomer crowd would be an even greater draw because they’re in the peak of their earning years and are looking for their second or third homes.”

One of the advantages Whistler has in recruiting talent is that based on just about any criteria, Whistler’s attributes are without parallel and although Ryan has never visited, she admits: “I’m willing to bet Whistler is very, very cool.”

Whistler is a vibrant community with all the natural and man-made amenities, but what about the Hot Jobs?

 

Retain

Rick Lemon also explained that fundamental to dealing with the tourism industry’s human resources issues, is to change the perception of tourism.

“We’ve got to change the idea that tourism is not an industry that one makes a career in. We need to change the culture of tourism itself.”

Gone are the days when tourism operators could fly by the seat of their pants. Culturally, tourism needs to shake its reputation for paying notoriously low wages and the attitude that there will be another wave of workers next season to fill the low paying jobs.

Part of this process involves cultivating staff that are looking to develop a career rather than only developing their skiing skills, for instance, or their suntan. Employers who look to retain talent need to take more of a stake in their employees’ careers. Understand their career path and provide opportunities for full time employment. Lemon noted: “One of the trends is to employ less people but employ them full time.” This strategy should prove popular with seasonal employees who are looking to gain benefits packages.

In it’s seventh annual survey of Canada’s Most Respected Corporations, Ipsos-Reid asked workers to rate the importance of various benefits. Seventy per cent said improved employee benefits, such as broader health and dental coverage, was most important to them. This is hard currency in a town with a notoriously injury-prone population, and of significant value to people who frequently visit their physiotherapist.

However, paying medical may not be enough. Fifty-six per cent of the Ipsos-Reid survey respondents indicated that profit sharing or stock options was also an important consideration.

The strategy of tweaking benefits packages and HR practices works. According to an article in the Canadian Learning Journal by Dr. Dalton Kehoe, an unnamed national retail chain wanted to reduce its very high 39 per cent turnover rate. Changes to its benefits and recognition programs resulted in its turnover rate falling by 13 per cent in year one.

Incidentally, the retailer’s secret shopper ratings rose by 5 per cent in the same year.

According to Rebecca Ryan’s Hot Jobs Cool Communities survey, some of the items topping the list of what makes a job “hot” for employees are: a meaningful job and a manager smart enough to communicate its meaning and career pathways or enrichment programs (i.e. training).

 

Train

In an attempt to brace for the storm, Tourism B.C. and the provincial government have come up with some innovative ways to address the tourism industry’s needs. The government of British Columbia recently announced that it has developed a new consortium to lead tourism and hospitality training initiatives. A new strategic advisory body called the British Columbia Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training Consortium, will facilitate co-operation and planning among institutions, industry and government to ensure the education and training requirements of the tourism and hospitality industry are met.

The Centre for Leadership and Innovation in Tourism at Squamish’s Capilano College and the British Columbia Centre for Leadership and Innovation in Hospitality at Vancouver Community College were created to ensure B.C. has people with the right skills so the tourism industry can accommodate the needs presented by the 2010 Winter Games and beyond.

Another major initiative is Go2, The Resource for People in Tourism. Go2 is to act as a clearinghouse for human resource knowledge, providing low cost resources for tourism’s predominantly small and medium sized businesses. If an employer has any questions about HR, they can find it at Go2. The services include everything from handling job postings to employment law and, most importantly, training. This includes a program known as the emerit certification process where employees can gain certificates in their specific field of employment.

In an interview with Arlene Keis, CEO of Go2 and member of The British Columbia Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training Consortium, she briefly explained the emerit certification process.

“Emerit offers tourism industry workers and their employers nationally recognized credentials… credentials that you and your employees can be proud of.”

<>Keis believes that helping employees gain these credentials will be important in the lead up to 2010 and beyond.

“We encourage employers to raise the bar and say ‘we're committed to employee development.’”

Keis encourages employers to take HR issues seriously. “It’s as important as your business plan and marketing strategy; the single biggest competitive advantage employers have is to have well trained and well managed people.”

 

Local Forecast

An interesting strategy that Whistler could adopt to retain talent is to further cultivate our young entrepreneurs in what Rebecca Ryan describes as a community’s Small Business Incubation Plan.

“Incubating small businesses is akin to incubating premature babies. You want to put them in a closely monitored environment, cuddle them a lot, and make sure they have all the light, nutrients and care they need.

“When entrepreneurs start businesses, they are like premies; they’re often not ready for life on their own. Small business incubators typically group entrepreneurs together so they share overhead like office rent, copiers, admin staff, coffeemakers, and have resources close-by that can give them lots of hand holding. Some of the more advanced incubators will even help license intellectual property, handle payroll, etc.”

On Whistler’s horizon is the mass exodus of middle and senior management, thanks to retirement. The collective knowledge acquired over 30 years of Whistler’s development is the commodity most valuable to Whistler’s future. Management skills can be trained but passing on knowledge requires time.

Whistler’s biggest employer, Whistler-Blackcomb, has this potential squall on its radar already, although it’s current succession planning and mentoring programs are informal. Creating a formal succession planning system is a priority for Kirby Brown, Whistler-Blackcomb’s director of Employee Experience and another member of The British Columbia Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training Consortium.

“Currently we identify prospects, ask if they are interested in a leadership role and then let them experience part of that role,” Brown says. “Over the next year, we intend to focus on formalizing the process a little more by using a competency based model to facilitate the process of developing future leaders.”

Our local government’s recent focus on affordability strategies may ease the hemorrhage of middle managers and their families. Increasing wages and benefits packages might be a step in the right direction to keeping talented staff. But (mercifully) for the small business owner who operates on razor thin margins, keeping staff happy and at work isn’t all about “show me the money”. Simple, no cost strategies to retain staff and create a sought-after workplace, are easy to institute.

Telling employees how important they are. Asking staff to describe their dream job and what incentives they would like to see. Instil loyalty by providing training opportunities. Give employees authentic responsibilities, and hold them to high standards. Most importantly, ensure employees understand why their company is in business and what their valuable role is in the company.

Kirby Brown also had some words of wisdon when it comes to keeping staff: “It doesn’t cost a cent to talk to your staff, sit down with them and ask them what they want. Taking an interest in your people is the most effective way to keep them around.”

<>Tom Peters, business guru and author, was recently quoted as saying, “It is the foremost task — and responsibility — of our generation to re-imagine our enterprises and institutions!”

If Whistler re-imagines itself and its workforce by preparing for and embracing the coming changes, companies can take advantage and restructure themselves to be in a strong position to profit while our competitors panic in the face of the looming labour shortage.



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