There are still barriers to native employment despite the province’s well-publicized labour shortage, says the owner of a Calgary staffing agency working to unite local businesses with aboriginal job-seekers.

But Janice Larocque, manager of Spirit Staffing and Consulting, is hopeful that companies hungry for skilled workers will consider hiring qualified aboriginals and other visible minorities to help increase diversity in their workplace.

“We’d like to continue to educate employers on the importance of diversifying their workforce, and bringing different cultural aspects to the workplace,” says Larocque, a Metis entrepreneur who started Spirit Staffing with a partner just over three years ago after working for several years with the Aboriginal and Em-ployment Centre in downtown Calgary.

“In the past, companies were always given money to hire an aboriginal person, where they subsidized their rates and trained them.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Janice Larocque helps qualified aboriginals find careers.

“Now, some companies aren’t prepared to pay an agency a finders’ fee, because it’s easy to hire an aboriginal person . . . they don’t realize there are very few aboriginal people who are qualified, and you almost have to work as a headhunter to find the people to fit into your workplace.”

Moving from a not-for-profit agency into a competitive fee-for-service business providing temporary and permanent job placement and executive search services was a challenge for Larocque.

But the contacts she had already made within the Calgary business community helped launch the company onto a solid footing — and after three years, Spirit Staffing and sister company Fast Labour Solutions are making a profit and developing a profile in the city’s business community.

While working with the not-for-profit employment centre, “we had feedback from our clients saying they applied, but never seemed to land a job,” says Larocque.

“So I felt there was a need in the market.”

“The (clients) were going into jobs fresh out of institutions where they didn’t have any experience.

“So they started at entry-level positions. Here, we’re able to offer intermediate, or executive positions based on people’s experience.”

Companies like Husky Energy, TransAlta, Epcor and several major banks have used Spirit Staffing to find qualified aboriginal employees for jobs ranging from administrative assistants, engineers, team leaders and executive positions. The agency follows up on each job placement.

“Our clients say they feel more comfortable, that they’re just not a number,” asserts Larocque.

“We take the time to see how they’re doing, talk to them on a regular basis. We’re more focused on their well-being, rather than just placing them in employment.”

But a certain stigma still remains over hiring aboriginal workers, Larocque admits, and some companies who wouldn’t hesitate in hiring natives for rural worksites or oilpatch operations in northern Alberta still have to be persuaded to look at diversifying their workforce in their own city offices.

“There’s still the attitude of aboriginals being drunk and on the street,” Larocque shrugs.

She recalls visiting with a top oilpatch CEO about five years ago to discuss whether his company was willing to hire aboriginals on referral.

“His comment to me was that the only qualified aboriginal person he’d ever met was a shrub remover,” she says.

“I’ve also had bank managers ask me how to talk to aboriginal people.”

“I said: ‘you’re talking to me.’ ”

A 1998 provincial report numbered Alberta’s aboriginal community at 164,855 people, categorized as North American Indians, Metis and Inuit. There were 22,410 aboriginals in Calgary, about 2.7 per cent of city residents. Close to 33,000 aboriginals live in Edmonton, according to 1996 census information.

A 1996 study of the Calgary labour force disclosed there were 7,100 persons who identified themselves as aboriginal workers, accounting for 1.5 per cent of the labour force.

The labour force participation rate among aboriginals was 69.8 per cent compared to a rate of 74 per cent for the total population. But the Calgary rate was significantly higher than the national aboriginal labour force participation rate of 58.7 per cent.

Occupations which accounted for the largest percentage of the aboriginal labour force in Calgary:

* Sales and service (30.7 per cent);

* Trades, transportation and equipment operation (21.7 per cent);

* Business, finance and administration (20.9 per cent).

Larocque says while a large part of her company’s business is generated by word of mouth and referral from the community and immigrant agencies, she’s hoping to attract further attention in corporate Calgary with a marketing campaign this fall.