Workforce connex - Aboriginal Human Resource Council

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••Ads posted in paper get little response; is this the correct method?J.D. Irving does advertise on its own website; is this a good method?Costs related to moving – rent, day care, hydro etc.— pay cheque must outweigh the risk of moving.Aboriginal people are not meeting entrance requirements.There is a lack of interest in RCMP or other policing career fields— RCMP actively recruiting and not getting many responses.Past barriers from media incidents must be dealt with.Job opportunities not reaching First Nations.A First Nations person does not want to work for anon-native employer because of lack of cultural sensitivity— employers need cultural sensitivity training.Training is more successful if done on the First Nations.Talk to grassroots people to find out why clients are not applying for jobs.Industry should build close to workforce — havesub-offices/factories on First Nations.Barrier is not being bilingual/French.Large employers supply housing and utilities for employees.More information sessions at First Nations from employers to workforce.Employers can’t always have one access point into Aboriginalcommunities because of the diversity in communities.Who are the AHRDAs, how do you locate them?First Nations have employment counsellors (16 in theprovince), they are grouped into AHRDAs.Need to make the connection with the AHRDA maybe on twolevels – locally and then Wanda Paul — this is a bureaucracy.Employers in the area post a job with the job bankand then contact AHRDA for referrals.Employers want easy access – want to place an advertisementin the paper versus contacting each special group.Employers can’t sit back anymore and wait for people to come to their doors.Some employers have employment equity programs.We have made the connections today and know who to call.One thing in common for employers is paying taxes– we could have something posted in the envelopefor taxes – put things in front of the people.Send information to the various associations.NB Power looking for plant operators — no one was willing toleave the reserve, didn’t have the clients ready to do the job.Family issues, support network needed.You take care of your own culture.•••••••••••••••One option for Coast Tire is to set up on a reserve.No support when they leave the reserve; lonely in city.You need a few people to take on the move to start a new family/community– a place to start, feeling accepted – it will take a few people to move.We are trying to sell the outside community to our youth.We need to sell the role models that have been successfuloff reserve – the future lies in education.Different businesses/associations need to have communityliaisons – telling their stores how they made out.Need to prepare your businesses for diversity.AHRDA – consulted by training institutions, engaged in conversations,partnering with unions – but when training is over, we can’t get our foot inthe door with unions, concern for their members instead of the trainees.— this would not wash for me now — we needed to get our members in.—the hard part is getting our members in the door.The employer’s door isn’t always open.— we’ve had our members trained multiple times but can’t find work.How serious are employers about having an Aboriginal employee?Coast Tire – I’ve never sat across the table in an interview with anAboriginal candidate - how do I use this program – signing a contract?It is really hard to make a connection — you can start by approachingcommunity colleges to see if there are Aboriginal candidates.Coast Tire job opportunities are entry level hire apprentices, thenthey proceed to technician roles, supervisors, service managers —— 26 outlets, 300 employees, counter associates.— we use the AHRC’s job bank, newspaper ads to advertise— we also want to recruit more women in our workforce— we’re here today to try and tap into this untapped info @ amakDirect contact – you may need to set up one website that employerscan access to know who to contact, advertise the postings.Missed opportunities because of the lack of communication.Putting the ad in the paper isn’t enough; the employerneeds to knock on the Aboriginal door.• The employers need to get closer together – use Wanda Paulas the contact for Aboriginal employment initiative.14Aboriginal Human Resource CouncilNew Brunswick Workforce Connex Report