Breakout Event will Help N.B. Employers ‘Seize the Future of Work’
In today’s turbulent labour market, everyone from the smallest Mom-and-Pop shops to the biggest global firms is struggling to build a skilled workforce.
That’s why Envision Saint John: The Regional Growth Agency is collaborating with WorkingNB, Opportunities New Brunswick, and The Saint John Region Chamber to help employers fight the war on talent.
On May 24, the organizations are hosting a unique, one-day event designed to give CEOs, COOs, business owners, and people managers actionable solutions to the most pressing talent problems facing employers.
Heather Libbey, Envision Saint John’s VP of growth, says the Powered By People symposium is a must-attend event for anyone who wants a leg up in their recruitment efforts.
“If you’re an employer with any kind of staff, no matter who you are, this is a good use of your time,” she says.
She explained that Powered By People will pack an abundance of solutions into one morning, guaranteeing attendees will leave with concrete takeaways about meeting staffing requirements, how you can hire your people, and get them to stay.
“It’s 2023, and it’s a new day and things are different. It’s a jobseekers market and the balance of power has shifted from employers to jobseekers,” Libbey explains.
“What you did five years ago was not what you do today, in terms of recruitment, in terms of onboarding, in terms of how you talk about your organization, your HR policies, how you compensate your people. It’s a different world out there and you must start thinking differently if you want to survive.”
Shirley Mitchell is the manager of HR at Coast Tire who has been in the HR world for more than two decades.
During Powered By People, she’ll be sharing some of the real-world tactics she has used to make Coast an employer of choice in the region.
These days, she says, she looks anywhere and everywhere to make sure she can keep her organization staffed. There are plenty of employment, apprenticeship, and student training programs out there and Mitchell says smart employers should be taking advantage of them all.
“I fish in every hole. And I think more employers need to think along those lines,” she says.
She argued that too many people are hesitant to hire new Canadians. Others don’t want to put in the work to bring on students, and more aren’t engaging First Nations communities in a meaningful way. She says they’re all missing out because of it.
Mitchell echoes Libbey that, in today’s market, the tired old recruiting tricks won’t cut it.
“You’ve got to put your business out there and have constant conversations. Because if you’re just going to sit back in the corner waiting for people to come to you; they won’t,” she explains.
Libbey says Powered By People will also help you better understand the labour market through “data that will challenge you to think differently about hiring.”
Keynote Speaker, Tanya Chapman will highlight employment trends and share practical strategies for workforce development and organizational effectiveness.
Chapman will be followed by a selection of panels that will fill in gaps around developing a workforce pipeline to hire for current and future positions, student onboarding, and more.
In the afternoon a Workforce Marketplace will create a one-stop shop of resources for employers to connect directly with services like WorkingNB and ImmigrationNB, as well as businesses specializing in HR and immigration, and academia to offer workforce development solutions.
Finally, the event will end with a Career Fair for jobseekers.
“A lot of the time, people go to these events, hear a few speakers, and then go back to their daily life. This isn’t that event. Powered By People is really about how can you get some nuggets that you can actually take back with you. And that’s gold,” she adds.
For more information on Power By People, or to register, click here.
This story is sponsored by Envision Saint John