In the past four years Community Futures Vernon has put on a ‘Shifting Directions’ labour conference every year but one. Each time the 200 seat venue has sold out and Community Futures manager Norm Metcalf expects this year’s conference to be no different.

The success is largely because of the effort to make sure that the conference is relevant to what’s happening in our markets. The 2008 Shifting Directions, at the tail end of the boom and an extremely tight labour market, was about attracting workers and retaining the staff already in place.

Every employer is aware of how that has changed, even if certain top end skill sets are in tight demand. The best example is the youth market, about which Metcalf says, “Youth employment is the canary in the coal mine.”

The canary is choking this year, and that’s something employers need to be aware of. Not just because it will be easier to find staff to fill positions that went begging a couple of years ago. Getting good workers and keeping them will depend on how the economy fares going forward. International debt crises, strong real estate markets (at least locally), protectionism, Canada’s stronger economy, investor worries, HST fights and even giant oil spills all add to an air of uncertainty.

This year it’s more complicated to pick a dominant theme. Asks Metcalf, “What skills are we going to be looking for coming out of the recession, going into an upswing?”
Because Community Futures is immersed in day-to-day business concerns staff are intimately acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of the business sector here. An important fact about businesses here is the small size of most firms. Metcalf says, “We have many employers of 8 to 25 workers who don’t really have HR skills. They do it ad hoc.”

Metcalf is proud that developing a basic HR toolkit during and after the conference is something Community Futures is expert at.
Their expertise is well recognized by the B.C. government, which has pumped in considerable funding to get the conference off the ground. Metcalf says, “The B.C. government has helped us with this conference. It’s very important.”
The funding allows him to make sure they have relevant speakers. Six speakers are coming and the theme of their talks are already listed on the Shifting Directions website (www.shiftingdirections.ca).

They include:

1) Sean Aiken on his experiment of doing one job a week for 52 weeks, which is documented in his book, The One Week Job Project

2) Linda Nazareth on big changes to the North American market and the advent of the “leisure economy”

3) Dr. Tom Keenan on essential skill development

4) Angela Reid on green jobs and sustainable industries

5) Barbara White on how to understand the opportunities and meaning of the social media boom to business

6) Ian Cook on demographic changes and how those changes will force businesses to adapt.

The conference runs over two days on September 27/28 at the Best Western Vernon Lodge. Fees for the two day event run from $209 plus taxes for early registrations to $249 for those who book in the last three weeks.