| Building and Educating Tomorrow’s Workforce is Alberta's ten-year labour force development strategy. Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s Workforce Development Strategy for the agriculture industry identifies priority action areas to address specific workforce issues in primary production and agri-food processing sectors. Agriculture and Rural Development will collaborate and partner with industry, industry associations and other stakeholder groups to implement the Workforce Development Strategy. Agriculture and Rural Development staff liaises with cross-ministry and federal partners on related programs.
Purpose of the Strategy:
The purpose of the Workforce Development Strategy is to help Alberta companies and primary producers:
A) Retain workers and reduce worker turnover.
B) Recruit workers within Canada and internationally.
C) Assess and adopt technologies and automation to increase worker productivity.
A) Retention
The retention of workers to reduce turnover is critical. The focus of the Workforce Development Strategy is to educate and inform employers of best practices and options to develop or improve their own programs for worker retention.
Actions to assist industry:
Conferences - Explore best practices in hiring the right workers and retaining them.
Workshops - Provide hands-on application of methods to compete for and retain workers.
Supervisor Training Courses - Improve skills of front-line supervisors to coach worker performance and improve retention.
Consulting Expertise – Support companies to access consulting expertise to develop and implement custom retention strategies.
Implementation – Support cost-shared funding for pilot projects and new initiatives with companies to encourage implementation of retention programs.
Work Environment – Review benefit packages for primary production workers. Identify human resource programs to benefit food processing companies.
Under-employed Albertans – Encourage the development of untapped labour supply in Alberta – persons on income support, disabled, First Nations, Métis and youth.
B) Recruitment
Actions to assist industry:
Workers at all skill levels are needed to provide a stable workforce. The Workforce Development Strategy will focus efforts for worker recruitment within Canada, as well as internationally. Foreign recruitment can be complicated and costly and companies need to be prepared for the added costs of recruiting abroad and the settlement of foreign workers into the workplace and the community.
Job Fairs – Support companies to participate in job fairs within Canada or international recruiting missions to interview and select qualified workers.
Career Promotion and Image Enhancement – Support career promotional campaigns, trade designations and other initiatives to enhance the image of the industry to encourage employment and career choice.
Recruiting – Coach companies in best practices for recruitment of domestic and overseas workers, selection of the best candidate(s) and settlement of temporary foreign workers. Coach companies on proper completion of federal and provincial applications (i.e. Labour Market Opinions). Organize international recruitment missions and assist in the selection process of international workers. Provide clients with the criteria for access to permanent residence under the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program.
Staffing Agencies – Support smaller companies or groups of processors to share the costs of a consultant to represent them in international recruitment.
C) Workforce Productivity
Actions to assist industry:
Productivity improvement through technology and automation is needed to keep Alberta agri-food processors competitive and to better utilize the available workforce. The Workforce Development Strategy supports the evaluation and adoption of technology and automation to improve operating efficiency.
Technology and Automation Awareness – Identify and share information on technologies and automation. Support companies to undertake direct evaluation and assessment.
Engineering Assessments – Support companies to access food processing engineering expertise to identify and evaluate productivity projects.
Automation Solutions – Develop research initiatives with companies, equipment manufacturers, universities and technical institutions to develop or adapt automation solutions for the agri-food processing industry.
Productivity Implementation - Support development of industry funding agreements to create automation and productivity pilot projects which will support the acquisition of automated equipment, process improvement and adoption of new technologies.
Lean Manufacturing – Facilitate the adoption and application of lean manufacturing practices to increase manufacturing productivity, reduce costs, add value to products and services and improve cash flow and profits.
Productivity Financing Program – Support application by processors to AFSC Value-Added and Agribusiness Program (VAAP) for loans to acquire and install equipment to improve worker productivity.
For more information on the Productivity Improvement Initiative, click here. |