Overall, the Ministry’s Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund initiatives have proven efficient and effective in meeting stated recruitment and retention goals. The initiatives
are well-designed and administered. Based on recipient comments, there is strong support for the continuation and enhancement of these initiatives.
It will be challenging to find the necessary financial resources to expand these programs to support all the nursing occupations. For example, the Mentorship and Graduate Job Program does not currently apply to LPNs.
Clearly the focus of the Ministry has been to respond to identified needs by getting programs up and running. However the Ministry should refocus by evaluating these programs and planning new initiatives to meet emerging and changing needs. An additional concern is that approaches have been piece-meal and reactionary instead of positioned into a comprehensive workforce development plan that develops such initiatives in the contexts of long-range planning and building the workforce of tomorrow.
Workforce Planning Branch seems considerably understaffed to successfully fulfill its mandate. Branch employees lack the essential informational tools to engage in the level of data collection, descriptive analysis, projects, trend analysis, forecasting and producing the information pieces to inform policy development or support decision makers. Workforce Planning must develop the internal capacity to respond to these challenges if they are to successfully develop the ten-year HHR plan called for in the Saskatchewan Workforce Action Plan.
Information sharing between the regions and the Ministry has been haphazard. For example, two regions had not submitted their 2008-09 Workforce Plan and Report in time for the development of plans accompanying the Ministry budget submission. This results in an unnecessary chase for information through repeated communication or potentially inaccurate estimation in the Branch. The Branch has tied submission of this valuable information to financial incentives but some regions continue to provide
incomplete information or nothing at all. This information is needed for policy formulation and the data sources must be reliable.
The Bursary Program is well-received and meets a well-defined need. Financial resources are well-used and the program could be expanded with additional resources to meet increasing needs for advanced and specialized training.
The Recruitment Agency addresses a key information dissemination function. The website is accessed by thousands of potential employees and appears to be an important source of information for the regions and for Saskatchewan. Certainly the internet presence is raising awareness of Saskatchewan and employment opportunities. There should be a review of the effectiveness of the web presence to ensure that all communications tools are examined for visibility.
The Branch attends recruitment fairs but this is overly time-consuming and takes key people out the Branch for too long. In the past year the number of job fairs attended has doubled. The Branch should evaluate the effectiveness of this recruitment approach, which basically duplicates activity with the regions. Many regions also send people on the same recruitment trips to staff separate booths and promote their own recruiting efforts. Some coordination of function and sharing of resources appears to be possible.
Health regions indicate the Relocation and Recruitment Grant Program has significantly enhanced their recruitment efforts and is highly successful. The Retention programs are an excellent example of a combined initiative that meets both local and provincial needs. Projects at the local and provincial level are well-designed and supported by employers, unions, regulatory bodies and employees. This approach and the chronic understaffing of the Workforce Planning Branch raises two concerns: pilots appear to be one-off activities with little attempt to evaluate success, understand impact, formulate best practice and replicate the best practice in other facilities/regions; and the projects lack
congruence with a provincial workforce planning strategy. Overall, the projects should be formulated into a cohesive strategy for workforce development.
To develop a ten year HHR plan, the Ministry will need to address a number of gaps in existing programs. First, these initiatives are primarily focused on entry level employees to the RN level. Initiatives to support post-advanced specialties and education to the masters or doctoral levels are required. Some movement has taken place, with support provided to NEPS faculty and nurse practitioners. Second, nurses staying in their present location do not receive the same level of support as those moving to other locations. There are restrictions on the type of training supported. These are challenges for nurses and employers who desire retention support. Third, there needs to be better integration between policies in the Ministries of Advanced Education and Health regarding to issues like tuition forgiveness, loan forgiveness, and tax rebates.
There are significant concerns about all of the initiatives of the Workforce Planning Branch. The workload from these programs has created pressures on staffing and resources not only within this Branch, but also other branches like Information Technology, Finance and Communications. With the planned increase in nursing training seats and announced expansion of the Mentorship Program, there will likely be greater demand for these programs. Moreover as client needs evolve and new needs emerge, employers and applicants will ask for more. Workforce Planning Branch requires adequate resources to deliver its vital programs.