Health Region Striving To Boost Native Workforce

Health Region Striving To Boost Native Workforce

Thursday, September 08, 2011 at 14:34

 

 

The Saskatoon Health Region hopes to increase its percentage of Aboriginal workers in the next few months by more than two per cent.

 

The percentage is currently at 3.9%, which translates to between 430 and 450 workers.

 

The health region hopes to reach 6% by the end of March.

 

Representative workforce manager Gabe Lafond says even though this year’s target hasn’t been reached yet, the region has definitely been improving.

 

Lafond notes the region could never get above the 2.5% threshold until it introduced its representative workforce strategy.

 

He says the region is also recruiting Aboriginal people to areas where there is high demand for jobs.

 

They include client attendants, sterile processing workers, and positions in the area of environmental services.

 

Lafond says there is also going to be an effort to get Aboriginal people who are already working in the region to self-declare.