How many companies do you know that say something like “People are our greatest asset?” How many do you know that actually act in alignment with what they say? More important, how many organizations have employees who believe they really are valued? Do yours? 

Do you really mean it when you say, “People are our greatest asset”? Do you act accordingly? That’s the hard part. Do you, for example, ask your employees their opinions and advice? Do you pay attention to what they say? Do you foster leadership skills at all levels? Do you want engagement in their work from your employees, or do you just want compliance? If you don’t engage your employees, you are wasting much of the huge resource of their talents and experience. 

Solutions boil down to one direction that companies and other organizations need to take: developing a workforce that is engaged in their work, that works collaboratively throughout the levels of the organization, and that pools its experience, skills, creativity, energy and enthusiasm so that the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. That is where a company’s sustainable economic development and profitability will be rooted. 

The first impact will be in sheer numbers. Projections from Statistics Canada give three scenarios for the Canadian workforce, depending on a number of different factors. The middle projection indicates that the growth of the labour force will decline significantly over the next 10 years, arriving at a no-growth level by 2016-2021. With the economy continuing to grow, the demand for skilled employees is increasing and the competition for them is heating up. How will employers handle their workforce issues? If they don’t handle them well, their companies will be in trouble. 

Where will we find the workers we need? The projections indicate that in the next 5 years or more, workforce growth will come largely from immigration. At the current rate of immigration, that will not solve the problem, especially since we do a mediocre job of integrating skilled immigrants into our economy. 

We can encourage older workers to stay in the workforce. The Province of Ontario, for example, has recently joined most of the other provinces by removing legislation that made retirement mandatory at age 65. 

We can also encourage higher skills development and employment for socio-economic groups that have traditionally been under-represented in our skilled workforce: women, aboriginals, people with disabilities and other visible minorities. 

The other very important thing we can do is focus on developing the quality of the workers that we do have and utilizing their skills, abilities, creativity and experience better than we do now. 

Perhaps I can use my own experience as an example. My passion and my purpose in life are, first, to help people appreciate, honour and love themselves. Without this fundamental self-respect and self-love, we are limited in all that we do. Without this understanding, how can we be purposeful and focused in our actions? 

Once we appreciate our own gifts, we are better able to grow and develop them and use them well, to live fully and do whatever it touches our souls to do. Acting in alignment with who we are, doing what is meaningful to us, enables us to tap into our passion. 

The other key piece of my passion and purpose is helping people collaborate in order to achieve for the greater good. Doing whatever we find meaningful is often easier and more effective when we work together with others in some sort of communal effort. It can be as small as passers-by gathering to get a car out of a ditch or as complex as doing our best to make the world a healthier, more prosperous, more peaceful, and more loving place for all its inhabitants.