Uncertain times call for…
reinvention?
By Tina Barton the Value of commodities and
international trade is fallinG,
markets are in turmoil, and newspapers
are churning out daily tales of gloom and
doom. But until the recession catches up
with you, it’s easy to turn the other cheek.
Until, that is, you hear that dreaded
rumour or official announcement that
layoffs at work are pending. Will you be
caught on the back foot? How up-to-date
are your skills?
It may come as a surprise, but if your last
degree or program of study has
reached its fifth anniversary, it’s If your last
already out of date, according
to industry professionals. And degree or
that lifespan falls to as short program of study
as one and a half years in the
technology sector, says Hamid has reached its
Rahbar, president and chairman fifth anniversary,
of Vitesse Re-Skilling Canada
and president of the Ottawa it’s already
Talent Initiative.
“At the end of that (period),
out of date.
it means reskilling. If you don’t
reskill, you’ll be out of the workforce,” he
says.
Unlike “up-skilling,” which typically refers
to the process of updating and expanding
existing skills, “reskilling” involves learning
within a completely new area.
“People need to reconsider their careers
and skills development and accept the fact
that in the new economy, people need to
experience different career paths during
their career life,” Mr. Rahbar advises.
While not everyone needs to make
a dramatic career change to find a job,
the concept of re-skilling becomes more
important during hard economic times
when there’s a mismatch between supply
and demand.
“We need to take care of this oversupply,
(and) what we can do (about that) is see
which other sides of the economy are
growing.”
Some industries are expanding rapidly,
despite the downturn: clean technology,
biotechnology, nanotechnology, mobile
technology, video gaming, social networking
6 | OTTAWA HR | SPRING 2009 | OTTAWA BUSINESS JOURNAL
and social media to name a few, he says.
But people shouldn’t wait on these and
other industries to grow by themselves. “It’s
not just one-sided. We should create the
skills they need to grow,” adds Mr. Rahbar.
The market for reskilling and career
transition has grown more than 60 per cent in
the last few months, Mr. Rahbar says, adding
people need to actively take responsibility for
keeping their skills updated and learning new
areas of specialty – particularly as employers
demand more knowledge and competencies
from employees.
“Employers expect,
for example, mechanical
engineers to be designers
too. To be familiar with the
end-to-end process, not
just one area.”
But it’s not enough
for employees simply
to update their skills on
their own. Some think
employers should support
reskilling and up-skilling
initiatives, as well. But thanks to the recent
shorter job life cycle, many say employers no
longer invest in their workers to the extent
they once did.
“If companies will not invest in up-skilling
or re-skilling, they will suffer … this will result
in losing our technological and economic
competency and consequently (cause) job
losses from one side and business decline
from the other side,” says Mr. Rahbar.
Travis Lindgren, president and general
manager of Learning Tree International
Canada, agrees. “For the relationship
between employers and employees to
improve, employers must invest a longer
time in people and people must commit
to a longer time in the company,” he says,
adding research in the U.K. has shown firms
that don’t make meaningful investments
in training are two-and-a-half times more
likely to fail than those who do.
The problem is that the recession has
caused, in many cases, knee-jerk penny-
pinching measures.
“Specifically, companies are more
conscious of the dollars they are spending
and are looking to be certain that each dollar
they spend has a high return on investment,”
he says, comparing current training trends to
elements within the dot-com bust of earlier
this decade.
“Some companies are just in pure
‘contraction-mode’ and have ruthlessly cut
training and development across the board.
The ones that have processes and values that
look beyond the short-term are investing in
their key personnel now so they can retain
them through the entire cycle.”
In today’s market, Mr. Lindgren says, the
focus is on the most talented employees who
are or could be integral to the company.
“These are the employees that are
going to help steer the company through
troubled times and these
are the employees that are
going to be loyal and provide Microsoft.Net
additional leadership when courses has
the market improves.”
It’s a good idea for increased two-
companies and organizations
to be training employees
to three-fold in
now, from productivity the past year,
and employee satisfaction
standpoints, he adds.
while project
These were reasons why management
Mxi Technologies hired
Learning Tree International
certifications have
to train staff last summer. increased by
“We invested in training
in order to increase the 40 per cent and
technical capabilities of our SQL courses
people and, in the end, help
make Mxi more productive,” by approximately
explains Randy Baker, 60 per cent.
director of human resources.
“We provided the specific training to
approximately five to eight per cent of our
organization. The areas of focus were purely
technical.
“As a technology organization, improving
the technical capabilities of our people is akin
to investing in new tools and processes.”
Fred Nesrallah, program manager for
ITO 2.0 and a labour market consultant
and analyst, says technology workers are
increasingly required to have standardized
industry certifications. ITO 2.0, an
Employment Ontario program, has for the
past 10 years helped displaced technology
workers find employment.
“Our clients are usually from Nortel,
Bell, Mitel, Dell and several other mid-sized
companies. We’ve helped people successfully find
employment within the tech sector, government,
security and defence and other industries.”
Mr. Nesrallah emphasizes that it’s
not academic certification, but industry
certification that some people lack.
Vague job descriptions such as “computer
experts” and “network specialists” have
now been replaced with more stringent
certification requirements, he says. Mr.
Nesrallah points to the growing popularity
of MCP certification from Microsoft and A+
certification for computer technicians.
Mr. Lindgren also notes that enrolment
in Microsoft.Net courses has increased two-
to three-fold in the past year, while project
management certifications have increased by
40 per cent and SQL courses by approximately
60 per cent.
“If you don’t have certification, you can’t
move forward in the selection process …
There is lots of responsibility on workers and
job seekers to continue to train and learn,”
adds Mr. Nasrallah.
A trend that’s currently creating
confusion for job seekers is that companies
often advertise one position,
but are looking for multiple
people to fill different
positions.
“When a candidate
sees they need to fill 35
requirements, they step
back,” Mr. Nesrallah says.
Instead, job seekers
should be aware they may
need supplementary training
in order to understand areas
outside of their specialty.
Job seekers can also help
companies identify how and
where they would fit, he
adds.
“Sometimes companies
don’t know what they’re looking
for. What we’re trying to do
with a candidate is help them to
research the company first and
try to pre-match as much as possible because this
approach helps the company identify where they
might fit there.”
But some companies sometimes point out
that when an employee is only with them on
average for two-and-a-half years, why invest?
“In a knowledge economy, the nature of
the economy is against itself,” Mr. Rahbar
says. One solution he points to is a skills
development tax in Europe and Asia, where
companies either put money into training
their staff or lose that money in taxes.
Canada needs a similar set of policies
and regulations enforced and supported by
government and industry, he says.
But while unemployment is never a
positive experience, Mr. Nesrallah says
there are more opportunities today than
during the tech wreck. “2001 was a more
difficult time because we had manufacturers
closing down, which accounted for layoffs
for hundreds. Because then we had a lot of
people with little jobs to go to … There are
more opportunities now in other industries
with lots of interest in candidates.” n
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