Canadian HR Professionals facing tough time in retaining manpower

In a recent survey of human resource professionals, roughly two-thirds of human resource professionals in the U.S. (66 percent) and Canada (65 percent) said tougher national immigration policies have caused their companies to increase efforts to recruit and retain local talent.

The report also examines why there is acute shortage of foreign workers in Canada and why how to attract them. Susan Meisinger, president and chief executive officer of the Association was vocal enough to insist that Human resource professionals value the local labor pool but know that sometimes the most highly qualified talent is found in the foreign workforce.

Most HR professionals opined that the primary reason to rely on foreign nationals is an inability to successfully attract local workers with the necessary skills. That difficulty in hiring qualified local people is particularly acute in fields requiring highly scientific or technical skills, such as in health care.

Tightening of labor market is forcing organizations to increasingly rely on immigration as a source for new talent.

HR Professionals, in the meet, highlighted the following efforts to meet the manpower need:
- Increased effort to retain the existing manpower
- Campus placement of foreign students pursuing education in the country.
- Hiring of foreign nationals under different types of visas due to unavailability of preferred visa types.
- Reduced Paperwork processing time to recruit workers.
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HR professionals also rued the fact that the average verification and hiring process for foreign national workers is more time-consuming now than it was just two years ago.