"Building Our Future" in Halifax

Rebecca Ryan, a phenomenal speaker on the topics of young professionals and the workforce and the author of “Live First, Work Second”, held a seminar on Thursday morning at Peir 23 to inform all interested parties (businesses, human resource people, young professionals, and even city planners) about the importance of attracting and retaining young professionals in Halifax. She specializes in understanding the “next generation”. Besides being an astounding and captivating speaker, the information and the way in which she presented it was so useful and stimulating. She really planted the seed for change in that room of about 500 people.

She spoke of the changing motives, expectations, and lifestyles of today’s young professionals. Being one myself, it was awesome hearing about how different my generation really is compared to prior generations. Rebecca uncovered seven important components besides money and cost of living young professionals consider when deciding a place to work and live. They include:

1. Around Town – The transportation system in their community.
2. Vitality – The history of a place, the shopping, the city parks, and anything else contributing to the excitement and activity of a city. This also applies to the company itself.
3. Earnings – Promotion opportunities, cost of living, compensation and benefits, flexibility in their role.
4. Learning – Young professionals consider themselves “lifetime learners” and need education facilities to better their skills and knowledge for themselves and their careers.
5. Social Capital – The amount/quality of activities to do in a city.
6. Cost of Lifestyle – Lifestyle cost to live comfortably in a place should match earnings.
7. After hours – Young professionals want to get out and about after sitting in the office all day. They don’t go home to get off their feet like prior generations.

Just this excerpt serves useful for so many components of our local economy and business community. For example, at our lunch (networking) table, a guy from Downtown Halifax Business Commission explained that from his perspective, this seminar could give him ideas on what rural design components appeal to young professionals in order to make Halifax an attractive city to live. And here I thought this lucheon would be packed with strictly human resource directors looking to revamp their dusty operations.

More important than all of this though, is the fact that there was a seminar on how to attract young professionals in Halifax in the first place! A city with the most post-secondary institutions in Canada! I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that there were 500 people who saw a problem with employing decent young talent in a city largely comprised of students. I told about ten people at this seminar that there had to be some kind of mistake. So many of my own friends are moving west-ward because of the scarcity of professional jobs in Halifax… I was thinking about moving myself for god sakes! So why is there such a disconnect between these great employers with great jobs to offer, and the people I graduated with who are starving to work and live in Halifax, but simply can’t because there’s “nothing here”? How can there be such a need and such a want simultaneously? I don’t get it. There has to be a better way to connect the two in a productive way.

Now, the entrepreneur in me couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything I could do to rectify this problem. Next Generation Consulting is absolutely taking it into their own hands by introducing Fusion Halifax (http://www.fusionhalifax.ca/), “a networking group for young Halifax residents who are inspired to make their city a better place to live, work and play”. However, I still don’t see much in the way of connecting local companies to local young and aspiring professionals.

I’m not completely surprised, however. Even if these companies and places of interest were to hold networking events of some kind for young professionals to meet them, I can only imagine the turn-out would be slim. When it comes to preparation and looking ahead, there seems to be a sense of apathy – on both sides of the spectrum. With so much going on in day to day life, both young professionals and businesses probably find it hard to dedicate time now for benefits later. The desire is there but the motivation and execution part seem to drag their heels. I’m not sure if there ever will be an easy way to meet prospective employers, or prospective employees for that matter. The goods will come to those that do their homework, plan, and execute in order to get what they want.

To take a closer look at Next Generation Consulting, including the executive summary and handprint for Halifax, visit http://www.nextgenerationconsulting.com/halifax.

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"THE BEST career advice given to the young is: Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it."

Katherine Whitehorn