Cluster employment is still in its early stages in Atlantic Canada, but the concept has great potential. Cluster employment can generate new opportunities in for-profits, non-profits and social enterprises alike, by creating full-time positions from the part-time needs of multiple employers.
Fund development is a key function in any non-profit endeavour. Funding for non-profits typically comes from a variety of sources and so the fund development position entails writing grants, organizing events, developing donor relationships, strategic planning and community outreach.
While many non-profits do not have the resources to have a full-time fund development person on staff, two Halifax organizations were recently able to use an innovative concept to meet their respective fund development needs.
On the northern shore of Halifax harbour, Africville Museum commemorates more than 100 years of African Nova Scotian history. The community of Africville was demolished in the 1960s to make way for industrial development. On the land where the people of Africville lived, worked and raised their families, the Africville Museum tells a story of survival in the face of injustice.
Another north end non-profit, Veith House, is a neighbourhood hub that primarily focuses on helping children and vulnerable persons in the community thrive through programming. Key programs include Veith Kids, which provides after school activities, food security support and summer camp, as well as newcomer, counselling and trustee services.
Besides their geography and non-profit status, another thing Africville Museum and Veith House have in common is the need for a fund development officer, but a budget sufficient for only a part-time position.
The Halifax recruiting firm, Placemaking 4G helped facilitate a cluster employment solution between the two organizations and the position was filled in January.
“There was a meeting between the two executive directors and there was an instant alignment,” recalls Sylvia Gawad, Research, Innovation and Immigration Manager with Placemaking 4G.
Africville Museum and Veith House were able to create a 35-hour per week position comprised of 15 hours per week at Africville Museum and 20 hours at Veith House. The opportunities for partnerships also extend beyond the fund development position, Gawad points out.
“There are collaborative programs between the two organizations,” she says. “The organizations can align their values and objectives in reaching their communities and creating programs.”
Placemaking 4G helps identify common talent needs and gaps among two to three different employers. A pilot project that matched a Saint Mary’s University co-op student with one employer in Halifax and two employers on the south shore provided proof of concept and Gawad joined Placemaking 4G as a full-time cluster employment consultant.
Two more cluster employment placements are now close to being operational.
“What we’re doing now is getting some projects up and running and identifying what works and what doesn’t work,” Gawad says. “We’re reaching out to organizations, recruiting and creating clusters. We’re not charging for that.”
She has received expressions of interest from across a range of sectors, from fisheries and golf courses to IT companies. Ultimately all of this data and employment requirements will be plugged into an online platform where both employers and employees can conduct searches. An employer can identify a need or a gap and the platform will conduct a search within the relevant sector and geographic area.
In some ways the cluster employment model runs contrary to many of the current trends in recruitment, which rely increasingly on key word searches on a resume.
“We don’t call them job descriptions —
we call them opportunity briefs,” Gawad says. “It’s not just about finding a job. It’s also about finding a place where you can contribute and where you can grow.”
In the cluster employment model one employer will be the lead employer, responsible for administrative duties and employee benefits. Placemaking 4G will work with both organizations to help determine the time required for each employer and compensation and will also present short-listed candidates and schedule interviews for employers. Employers can then select the candidates of their choice.
“Now the push is on to get as many organizations from all different sectors involved in clusters, while we’re doing the research and development for free,” says Bradley Daye, Co-founder of Placemaking 4G. “We’re trying to drum up interest from companies across the province that have a need for part-time talent.”
Placemaking 4G was launched in 2017 by Bradley Daye, Lauren Sears and Matt Thomson. From the start, Placemaking 4G was built on the concept of “values alignment.”
“We highlight the values of an organization and put that forward. We then attract individuals who have values that align with that organization,” explains Daye.
Placemaking 4G is registered as a social enterprise, which means 60 per cent of its profits are returned to the community. The innovative social enterprise model is offered only in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
It was while working in rural communities in Atlantic Canada that Daye would hear the same types of concerns from small business owners.
“We’d hear: ‘I’d love to hire a marketing manager, but I only have a budget for 10 hours a week’ and another company down the road would have a need for 15 hours a week,” Daye recalls. “As a social enterprise, we tend to see an issue and then come up with a solution for that issue.”
Full-time positions created through cluster employment are also eligible for any government or student co-op wage subsidy programs that are already in place. Nova Scotia’s Graduate to Opportunity program, for example, provides a 25 per cent wage subsidy in the first year for recent graduates.
“This makes it a really cost-effective way to find talent,” Daye says. “In our pilot project we had one employer who was able to utilize five hours of a week of masters-level talent for just $20 per week.”
The viability of Nova Scotia’s rural communities figured prominently in the report of the One Nova Scotia Coalition. Cluster employment can help mitigate the region’s looming talent shortage, caused by a combination of an aging workforce and out-migration. According to Statistics Canada, a total of 23,000 jobs in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island went unfilled in 2016. In Nova Scotia alone the projection is we will have 200,000 fewer working age people by 2032.
“If you can pool the resources of two or three different organizations you can create that full-time position and give a family a reason to move to a rural community,” Daye points out.
Nova Scotia’s post-secondary institutions are an enormous asset to the province, with students from around the world coming here to study at our universities and community colleges. Some 15,000 international students graduate every year, but at the time of the One Nova Scotia report only four per cent of those students were staying in the province to live and work after graduation. While that number has since risen to 12 per cent, that still represents a great deal of lost potential for the province.
“We’re going in the right direction, but there is still low retention because there is a narrative that Nova Scotia is not a place you want to settle if you want to be successful,” Gawad says. “With this cluster employment model we should be able to change that narrative.”
To be eligible for permanent residency in Canada after graduating, international students are required to find full-time employment within their field of study within three years after graduating and keep that job for a full year. By creating new full-time, professional-level positions, cluster employment can create more avenues that allow graduates to stay in the province.
Cluster employment solutions can work in both for-profit and non-profit sectors, in rural and urban settings, with startups or with established companies. Interested organizations can learn more or reach out to Placemaking 4G at
www.p4g.ca, or by email at info@p4g.ca.
Rural communities everywhere are struggling to deal with access to talent and gaps in the labour market. On Sept. 23 to 25 this year, Halifax will host the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), where delegates from around the world can learn about best practices and the challenges facing rural communities. SEWF exists to support the growth and development of social enterprises throughout the world.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to attend the last two SEWF events in Scotland and Ethiopia,” Daye points out. “Access to talent is a huge issue no matter where you go — this is not just a Nova Scotia problem.”
When the cluster employment platform is up and running, the model can be easily scaled and exported to other jurisdictions, Daye points out and he is hoping to have a beta version ready to showcase at the SEWF event.
“It’s really an opportunity for Nova Scotia to be on the forefront of what could be an innovative solution for rural communities around the world.”
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