Northern Exposure
When North West Company couldn't find good managers easily, it set up a program to make its own
Below is an excerpt from "Northern Exposure," an article about North West Company's workplace training initative that appears in the first issue of Canadian CEO. If you would like to receive a copy of the full article for reprint in a newspaper or newsletter, please contact ABC Life Literacy Canada by e-mail at info@abclifeliteracy.ca.
Recruiting, training and keeping good managers can be a challenge for any business, but it's especially difficult if a company's primary market encompasses a vast and sparsely populated territory. Opportunities for higher education may be limited for people living in far-flung communities, and those who do leave for post-secondary education often do not return. Winnipeg-based North West Company (NWC), which retails food and everyday products and services, has more experience with this problem than most.
With a history dating back to the first trading post in North America, established on the shores of James Bay in 1658, NWC is today a national enterprise with almost 5,000 employees operating 181 retail stores, many in remote locations across northern Canada and, through a subsidiary, Alaska.
In 1999, after many years struggling with the problem of recruiting good management personnel, the company decided to take a new tack: if it couldn't find managers locally, it would make them. "You have to build a knowledge worker in the North," says Edward Kennedy, president and CEO of NWC since 1996. "You have to find them, teach them, and keep them satisfied with their jobs so they don't go work somewhere else."
Celebrate Essential Skills Day
This September, ABC Life Literacy Canada will help raise awareness of essential skills and the importance of skills training in the workplace. Read more
Five signs your workers may be struggling with literacy and essential skills
- Change initiatives often fail or are slow to be implemented.
- Employees are reluctant to participate in team meetings and avoid training sessions.
- Excellent employees continually turn down promotion opportunities.
- Staff make excuses. For example, “I’ll read it later,” or “ I forgot my glasses,” when put in situations where reading or writing is required.
- Employee absenteeism is high.
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