This creates significant pressure to preserve essential skills and maintain business continuity. Is this alarming? Yes, considering the economic impact of this sector. The manufacturing industry still holds a predominant place in the global economy, accounting for between 10% and 20% of the GDP of Canadian provinces. In Quebec alone, the manufacturing sector accounts for 20% of economic activity. Given this situation, how can we anticipate retirements, which could lead to a skills drain and a slowdown in productivity?
A competency modeling program is a strategic solution to address these issues by developing employees' skills and avoiding the loss of valuable knowledge necessary for productivity.
Challenges of retirement :
- Loss of know-how: with retirement comes the loss of specialized knowledge and expertise accumulated over the years.
- Continuity of operations: ensuring continuity of operations becomes a challenge without an adequate transfer of skills.
- Training and integration of new employees: new employees require intensive training to fill the gap left by retirees.
- Impact on productivity: reduced productivity can result from a lack of qualified personnel.
According to many experts, considering that a succession plan can take up to five years to take effect, it's important to sensitize an entrepreneur thinking of retiring from the business to plan for the future now.
Developing a competency modeling program
The development of a competency modeling program enables key competencies to be mapped and developed within the company. This solution is implemented step by step, at the pace desired by the company. Here's how it works:
- Identification of key competencies: map the critical competencies required for each position and group them according to their strategic importance.
- Internal resource assessment: analyze employees' current skills to identify gaps and development opportunities.
- Customized training: develop tailor-made training programs to fill identified gaps and prepare employees to take over the roles of retiring workers.
- Mentoring and knowledge transfer: set up mentoring programs where experienced employees transfer their knowledge to new recruits or employees in training.
- Monitoring and evaluation: regularly assess the effectiveness of the program and adjust training to meet changing business needs, such as the introduction of new technology.
In conclusion
Retirement represents a significant challenge for Quebec manufacturing companies. However, with a well-designed competency modeling program, these companies can not only overcome this challenge, but also emerge stronger. By investing in internal skills development, companies can ensure their long-term survival and maintain their competitive position in the marketplace.
In addition to retirement, other challenges remain. According to UQAM's Observatoire Compétences-Emplois, Canada's current workforce lacks the right skills to meet market needs, and the skills gap is widening in comparison with other countries such as China, the United States and Australia. In order to maintain Canada's competitiveness on the international stage, it will be necessary to implement collective actions to reduce this gap and improve productivity.
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