Canadian Retailer - Winter 2014 - 14

RECRUITING TALENT

service training, including the revolutionary PEAK Retail
and Management Training program developed in association with Retail Council of Canada. "The retail world welcomes part-time employees, and people with disabilities can
ﬁll that niche. So too can older workers, who bring with them
an amazing work ethic, life experiences, wisdom, credibility,
and self-motivation. Retailers can leverage these groups to
ﬁnd workers that will beneﬁt their companies."
There is no one-size ﬁts all strategy towards creating a
diverse and inclusive workplace, but most business leaders
within the industry tend to build their inclusion strategy
around four main human resources goals: attract talented,
motivated and committed employees; create opportunities
for all employees to grow and excel within the business; retain a diverse mix of staff; and most importantly, accommodate the legitimate needs of employees.
Accommodation has a broad meaning
in today's workplace, but in part it refers
"Retailers need to think of the advantages that come
to extending consideration to those emwith employing members of our 'specialist population'.
ployees who face work-life challenges. EmThe retail world welcomes part-time employees, and
ployees may have difficulty with English to
people with disabilities can fill that niche. So too can
a degree that it affects their performance.
older workers, who bring with them an amazing work
Others, particularly those that come from
ethic, life experiences, wisdom, credibility, and selfpatriarchal societies, may ﬁnd it hard to
motivation. Retailers can leverage these groups to find
adjust to gender equality in the workplace.
workers that will benefit their companies."
Challenges like these are common in a
- KAREN MAEERS
diverse workforce. A retailer's ability and
Training Manager,
willingness to help employees in meeting
WCG Vocational Rehabilitation Services Group
these challenges can make the difference
between retaining and losing them.
These groups (the so-called 'specialist
population') represent a largely untapped Communicating the opportunities
pool of labour. And in the coming years and
Small business can't compete with bigger companies from
decades, retailers that are diverse and inclu- a wage or beneﬁt perspective, so they will by necessity need
sive will ﬁnd themselves ahead. It's predicted to reach out to members of the 'specialist population' to comthat by 2020 2.4 million entry-level positions municate the advantages of working in the retail industry.
in British Columbia alone will be unﬁlled.
"We have a cultural stigma against retail jobs and we have
Retailers, by necessity, will be forced to look to break it by doing a better job of promoting the beneﬁts:
beyond traditional sources of labour if they ﬂexibility, growth potential, employee discounts, and the
are going to continue succeeding.
ability to align a person with what they love to do. Leveraging these beneﬁts will be especially important to small
A plan for diversification
businesses," says Maeers.
Like all crucial aspects of business, diIn many ways the future is a bright one for Canadian retailversity has to be planned for and managed. ers. The greatest obstacle is a dearth of workers, and even
Business leaders need to identify practical that isn't insurmountable for retailers willing to look outside
strategies to move forward on diversity man- the box to explore non-traditional labour pools and build
agement and then commit fully to its imple- symbiotic relationships with post-secondary institutions.
mentation with an inclusion strategy.
"Retailers need to think of the advan- To find more information about Canadian post-secondary
tages that come with employing members retail training programs, or any of the industry training tools
of our 'specialist population'," asserts Karen and resources available to members of Retail Council of CanMaeers, Training Manager at WCG Voca- ada, contact Marcie Wenn, RCC's Manager, Education at
tional Rehabilitation Services Group. WCG 1-888-373-8245, ext. 320. You can also visit the association's
is an industry leader in HR and customer website at www.retailcouncil.org.
Leveraging the underrepresented

But while management type positions
will be ﬁlled by graduates of post-secondary
school retail programs, who will ﬁll the remainder of retail positions? Cashiers, sales
clerks, stock people. These positions are
equally vital to a successful retail operation
and are equally difficult to ﬁll.
"If you want to compete today you have
to switch it up and change your game plan.
You need to look to new sources for employees, particularly among groups historically
under-represented in the work force, including aboriginal peoples, new immigrants,
persons with disabilities and older workers,"
asserts McElhone.

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Canadian Retailer - Winter 2014

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