Partnership provides businesses with HR-centred advice

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

A collaboration between three local organizations recently allowed for enlisting the services of Calgary’s Talent Pool Society to provide Strathmore and area residents with a distinct opportunity to help businesses grow and thrive.
The Strathmore & District Chamber of Commerce, Bow Valley College and Community Futures Wildrose teamed up and organized for the event Strathmore & Area Business Builder Series intro to be available in town last Tuesday.
While the event had been planned since last fall, various circumstances delayed the session to May 1. Regardless, a dozen people were able to gather an abundance of information offered up by seasoned management and organizational development consultant Jeff Griffiths.
Much of the advice, especially regarding individual and collective competency, resonated with Strathmore & District Chamber of Commerce president Wanda Reinholdt, who said Griffiths’ metaphor of treating employees as hockey team members rather than board game pawns – limited to their actions – hit home.
“We’re very interested in helping our businesses and helping them thrive, that’s very important to us,” said Reinholdt. “But the best metaphor, the best words, that I can use to describe it, is efficiency. And not only efficiency but learning to work together, depending on one another and trusting one another.
“When the hockey puck falls on the ice, it’s chaos but everybody works together. The goal is to get the goal, and that’s the same thing with business. Our goal is always to reach certain goals.”
The introduction was the first of several sessions linked to the Strathmore & Area Business Builder Series. Another session has already been confirmed for Sept. 6 called Future of Work that is focused on technology and its current and future impact on the job force. While Bow Valley College has secured the date of Oct. 4 for another session, the topic currently remains unknown.
Strathmore has become the home of several new businesses within the community recently. Yet Jennifer Neufeld, administrative assistant with Bow Valley College, believes potential exists to help existing businesses thrive as was discussed during last week’s session; recognize and grow the skills that are already present within the company rather than hiring new skills and talents for one specific area.
“What if we could empower the businesses that are already here to grow bigger … it’s a different way of looking at it,” said Neufeld.
“This introductory event and topic was just to put it out there and get things moving. This is just one piece of the puzzle to bring that resource to the community. How do you work with your people and empower your people? And we’ve seen that as a need through surveys in town, as people can’t find talent, they can’t find workers who commit or stay, or they don’t have the right training or skills.”
The Talent Pool Society was originally established in 2003, with a focus on providing Alberta and Canadian businesses with resources, information and talents that often receive the blind eye. Such talent pools include the youth, immigrants, mature works, Aboriginal people, women and people with disabilities.
When it comes to serving the business community of Strathmore and area, Reinholdt said it’s an easy decision.
“It was a no brainer for us to do this … the chamber is really interested, as our mission states, to being a leading resource for businesses in the area and we’re really working on that,” said Reinholdt.
“It was just very positive and everyone really wants to have more of these kinds of experts coming to Strathmore and it is the goal of Bow Valley (College), the chamber and Community Futures Wildrose to do this.”

Talent Pool addresses topic of Cannabis
As Alberta is joining the rest of Canada in preparing for the legalization of marijuana this year, the Talent Pool Society will provide Strathmore with an online session on employer’s rights and responsibilities. Topics to be discussed include acceptable level of use, required policies and procedures and violation of such rules. Chartered Professionals in Human Resources’ (CPHR) Adam Czarnecki will be debunking myths and provide clarity of the realities surrounding cannabis usage in the workplace. The Cannabis Quagmire: Accommodations for 2018 and Beyond is part of the society’s HR in a Box Workshop Series and can also be found on the Talent Pool Society website. Bow Valley College will host the session in Strathmore on Thursday May 17 from 9 a.m. to noon, with breakfast provided at 8:30 a.m. Those interested in attending the event can register by contacting Neufeld at jneufeld@bowvalleycollege.ca. Tickets are $20 per person or $10 for Strathmore & District Chamber of Commerce members.