Staffing poses a particular challenge these days, not only in terms of recruitment, but in terms of retention as well. This problem is not limited to criminal justice and corrections. As a simple reading of newspapers will reveal, most institutions within the health and social services network are faced with a worrisome shortage of staff. The massive retirement program of the nineties undoubtedly contributed to this state of affairs, but there has to be another explanation, since the same phenomenon has occurred in a number of other employment sectors not affected by this program. Indeed, “Now hiring” signs now commonly adorn places of business.
As I consider the situation of graduates nowadays, I get a sense of déjà vu. Indeed, when I graduated—in 1974, I hate to admit—graduates were spoiled for choice as countless jobs were available in as many locations. I was then living in Ottawa and we were courted by a number of employers hoping to attract us to their province. Well, thirty-five years later, all these workers are about to retire at the same time—if then haven’t already done so. The massive departure of experienced employees has an extremely significant impact on the labour market. For example, according to its latest estimates, CSC expects that 40% of its workforce will retire within the next 5 years, in the wake of a significant number of retirements over the past 5 years.
This bodes extremely well for students currently involved in various curricula leading to a career in criminal justice and corrections, but poses a major challenge for employers in these fields, who will henceforth need to compete in order to attract the best possible candidates. This wouldn’t be of great concern if these employers competed on a level playing field in terms of the conditions of employment they offer, but such is absolutely not the case. And given that the community network is totally incapable of offering working conditions that are in any way competitive with those offered for comparable jobs in the public and institutional networks; it finds itself at an unquestionable disadvantage.
That is why the ASRSQ Board of Directors has set the issue of staffing as a priority for the coming years and, in 2008-09, created a committee on issues affecting the staffing process within the network. This committee’s first task will be to pull together a picture of working conditions in halfway houses in order to allow for a comparison with the public network. In addition, the editorial team of Porte ouverte decided to devote the current issue to human resources.
The current situation poses a challenge not only in terms of the recruitment and retention of staff, but also in terms of what might be referred to as our collective memory. Indeed, as massive numbers of workers and administrators leave the system, we lose part of our ability to recall and understand where we started from. There is a risk that new managers will find themselves in situations where they cannot rely on the experience of older colleagues to make certain decisions nor on their understanding of historical facts that would help them to avoid repeating mistakes of the past. This situation has already begun to pose serious challenges in the area of communications and recognition. A number of our counterparts and partners supported our efforts to gain recognition of the community network over the past 25 years; most of them have now left their positions.
As you will note, this issue of Porte ouverte aims to raise awareness about the challenges that await us in the area of human resources, in order to provide food for thought around the issues that arise from the current situation and to fuel the debate that is bound to occur over the coming years.
