Trends & Issues

Organizations in Alberta consider a non-profit workforce council

Editor's note

This month we breakaway from our usual Trends & Issues format to shed light on a new initiative in Alberta, where momentum is building to strike a provincial workforce council for the voluntary and non-profit sector.

Representatives from voluntary and non-profit organizations from across Alberta came together on October 2 in Calgary to discuss creating a provincial workforce council that would encourage and foster collaboration to address the pressing human resources issues affecting the entire sector.

The momentum for the development of a workforce council stems from the provincial government’s Building and Educating Tomorrow’s Workforce initiative, a ten year labour force development strategy that identifies actions to ensure Alberta has more workers, better-trained people and innovative workplaces. As part of this initiative, the provincial government is working with stakeholders in a number of sectors, including the voluntary and non-profit sector, to develop sector-specific workforce development strategies.

Earlier in 2007, representatives from the sector were involved in a series of meetings led and facilitated by the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (CCVO) and the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (ECVO). Feedback from these meetings informed the development of A Workforce Strategy for Alberta’s Non-profit and Voluntary Sector, providing sector stakeholders with a framework of sector-led actions to build the labour force needed to support continued growth over the long term. The strategy outlines a number of key challenges facing the sector including:

Dependency on external agencies for operational and project funding

Increasing demand and expectation for client services

Increasing competition for workers in the province

Stressful working conditions

Low job security and high turnover in entry-level positions

Aging workforce at the senior and middle management levels

Greater competition between an increasing number of organizations

Lack of understanding of the sector

Difficulty in coordinating provincial action

At the October 2 meeting, participants were presented with findings from the HR Council’s recent national surveys of non-profit employers and employees as well as information about the various workforce initiatives in Alberta. Participants also heard from Céline Charpentier, the executive director of the Comité sectoriel de main-d'oeuvre de l'économie sociale et de l'action communautaire, a workforce council in Québec, that has been active in addressing the workforce challenges of the province’s community and social economy sectors for more than 10 years. All of this information provided a framework for discussing the development of a provincial workforce council that would:

Bring together a cross-sectoral group of non-profit organizations, networks and stakeholders with reach into all areas of Alberta

Be responsible for coordinating activities required to implement the workforce strategy

Have a role to connect and support a wide variety of workforce initiatives

Facilitate the continued development of the workforce strategy

“The Alberta workforce council will be a collaborative mechanism for the voluntary sector to address human resource issues and implement the provincial workforce strategy,” says Katherine van Kooy, President and CEO of the CCVO. The next steps towards implementation include convening a steering committtee to guide the development of the council. “Organizations that have provincial scope, have undertaken significant workforce initiatives or have established networks of stakeholders will be vital in the initial development of this council.”

The proposed workforce council would complement the work being undertaken by the HR Council at the national level by drilling down to address the specific issues that are unique to Alberta.

“Building and sharing knowledge is fundamental to our work as a national organization,” says HR Council Executive Director Lynne Toupin. “Having strong provincial and regional networks to collaborate with is important as we can work together to more effectively engage local organizations and address issues affecting the sector’s workforce in a particular province or region.”

Related pages on hrcouncil.ca

Workforce Strategies for the Voluntary and Non-profit Sector

Voluntary and Non-profit Labour Force Study

Trends & Issues

Organizations in Alberta consider a non-profit workforce council

Related external links

Related pages on hrcouncil.ca