Western Standard - IN FOCUS： Gender inequalities in Alberta workforce, women have been an 'invisible group'

00:00:00.000 Hello, I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard. Thanks for joining me.

00:00:12.880 Women in Leadership and the Lack Thereof is on topic today.

00:00:17.320 AXIS Connects brings the first annual Women's Leadership Forum to Calgary on November 9th,

00:00:22.520 and we're connecting with one of the forum speakers today, Jackie Rafter,

00:00:26.040 founder and president of Hire Landing Inc. Hello, Jackie. Thanks for joining us today.

00:00:32.600 Thank you for having me.

00:00:33.900 So let's first chat a little bit about your company and why it is that you're involved

00:00:38.820 with this first annual Women's Forum. 1.00

00:00:41.740 So Hire Landing is a career transformation company. We're the first in Canada to be doing

00:00:46.840 what we're doing. We help mainly professionals and job seekers transition, transform their

00:00:53.760 careers, pivot to new ones, and not just land any kind of job, but land higher. So the issue in

00:00:59.740 Alberta has really been, I guess the need for our services has really skyrocketed, given the number

00:01:05.240 of people that are now having to pivot their careers, not necessarily by choice, but more

00:01:12.600 because they have to. Just with the evolution of the job market, the accelerated pace of change,

00:01:18.980 and a lot of people having to do things that they never otherwise would have even considered

00:01:24.760 or thought it was possible because they didn't have the appropriate training.

00:01:28.980 Right. Now, looking at some statistics that were included on the forum website,

00:01:34.420 45% of employees at Canada's largest firms are women. 0.98

00:01:38.560 However, female representation diminishes considerably up the leadership ladder.

00:01:43.980 So 28% of Alberta tech startups are founded by women, yet only 6% of Alberta's established businesses are run by women.

00:01:53.440 Why do you think that is?

00:01:55.400 Well, I think that's a loaded question. 0.99

00:01:59.020 But when it comes to female professionals specifically, I think what I've noticed is that a lot of them struggle with self-limiting beliefs, self-worth, imposter syndrome, and a lack of confidence. 0.75

00:02:11.880 And and so and then the other big part of it is that they really don't know how to influence within the organization sort of without without authority, which is one of the things that I'm going to be speaking speaking about.

00:02:26.880 So it's it's really a multifaceted solution, I think, that needs needs to to be taken in order to overcome that barrier for sure.

00:02:35.880 Yeah. And I would assume that even just the just, you know, genetically how women are are typically taken out of the work environment for periods of time. 0.99

00:02:47.520 If they do have an interest in having families and children, that's got to be an impacting factor as well.

00:02:54.120 Wouldn't you think? Absolutely, Melanie.

00:02:55.980 And a lot of women really struggle with reentering the workforce and and suffer prospects for advancement because of that.

00:03:05.880 They suffer also post-maternity experiences.

00:03:09.400 So there are a lot of barriers that women face that men do not.

00:03:15.680 And those are very real challenges, I think, that require unique solutions.

00:03:20.920 Absolutely.

00:03:21.680 And I do want to dive into your topic and what you plan to be speaking to at the conference.

00:03:28.060 Looks very interesting. 1.00

00:03:29.500 First of all, though, why do you think it's important to have women in leadership positions? 0.99

00:03:33.620 Well, if you look at the just the labor force itself, almost half of the labor force is comprised of women and and women provide very diverse perspectives that just because of their life experiences that men simply they can't compete with. 0.58

00:03:56.440 So it's really important that that we that we have their voice at the table because they represent such such a significant demographic of of the workforce.

00:04:08.660 The other challenge I just wanted to mention, too, was that with within Alberta, there is a real push to move and diversify our our workforce into the Alberta recovery plan industry.

00:04:22.480 So we're looking at information technology, agriculture, aviation, aerospace, there's a whole list of them.

00:04:29.320 And the additional challenge that women face with entering those specific sectors and diversifying their careers in those industries where they might have no previous experience is the fact that the majority of those industries are male-dominated.

00:04:47.300 So there's another another barrier. And we really need to need to have their voice at the table. 1.00

00:04:54.260 Gender inequities are especially pronounced in the energy sector.

00:04:58.300 And I mean, there's there's it's common knowledge that, you know, there's an industry wide culture that really promotes gender bias in favor of men.

00:05:06.760 So we really have got to provide them with unique supports, flexible hours, child care support.

00:05:14.060 And so there's a lot of way that many stakeholders, I think, can get involved with addressing some of these barriers.

00:05:21.080 Now, I like in your in some of the information around what you're presenting to women, the sort of mid-career influence without authority, the idea to future proof your career.

00:05:33.400 What does that look like to you?

00:05:35.000 Well, it's important that all women, everybody, period, but especially women, equip themselves with the ability to influence all levels of an organization.

00:05:47.440 And that is essential to Future Proof, I mean, everybody's career in 2022 and beyond, regardless of what job title they hold, what kind of work experience they have, or what position they currently yield within the organization.

00:06:01.620 So it's really important that we provide them with the critical, not just hard skills, but more soft skills that are going to be required, not just to address those types of issues, but also that are required probably to manage our careers for the next 100 years of work.

00:06:20.700 I mean, we're in a completely different playing field right now where we've we've we've hit this this paradigm shift in the workforce and that pace that has been fueled by the pace of change, which is only going to accelerate.

00:06:32.640 So people really need to learn strategies to have impactful and meaningful conversations that truly matter to all stakeholders within the organization.

00:06:43.100 And most and that's really uncomfortable for a lot of people.

00:06:45.420 They're just not really taught those things.

00:06:46.800 so give me some of the idea some of the ideas behind soft skills that you're talking about

00:06:53.640 give me some examples so hard skills are traditionally what what people have used to

00:07:00.420 get their next next job or get a promotion and because of the shelf life of hard skills

00:07:06.820 diminishing so quickly due to the due to this accelerated pace of change that we're we're

00:07:12.280 facing in the economy um the shelf life of those hard skills have has shrunk i was just reading

00:07:17.700 some research recently from about 30 years in alberta to less than six so what that means is

00:07:22.680 that anything that you would have gone to school to learn say from a technical perspective has got

00:07:28.060 about a six-year shelf life maximum i think it's probably closer to three or four so um so what is

00:07:34.280 what what is replacing that i mean we can't be going to school every every few months just to

00:07:39.380 continuously upskill. I mean, from a practical perspective, it's near impossible. But what is

00:07:48.000 replacing that are soft skills. So I always tell our clients that we might get our foot in the door

00:07:54.420 for our next opportunity or promotion because of our hard skills, but it's our soft skills that

00:07:59.760 are really going to get us noticed and hired. So soft skills are part of our personality that

00:08:05.000 that has always been have always been with us. You know, a job can be ripped away from us in a

00:08:09.640 second, but your soft skills stay with you for life. And so whether that's, you know, a great

00:08:14.800 sense of humor, your ability to nurture, nurture someone, your ability to make somebody feel feel

00:08:20.480 better about themselves. I mean, these are really underrated skills that are going to empathy and

00:08:27.540 emotional intelligence are probably two of the most important soft skills for the next 100 years

00:08:32.500 of work. So unless we are learning how to build those skills, we're going to be really putting

00:08:38.180 our ourselves and our careers and our futures at risk. Well, and it's interesting you say that

00:08:42.640 because I would agree with you. Those are very critical skills. And I think even going as far

00:08:48.480 back in our education as elementary, junior high, high school, I feel like those things are really

00:08:55.800 sort of glossed over i know in in my education growing up um you know i i really didn't learn

00:09:02.760 those skills um to any kind of extent through uh education channels in high school and you would

00:09:10.200 think that at this stage those interpersonal skills would be so much more um you know highlighted

00:09:18.760 and and curriculum built around it for sure and i think the biggest challenge melanie that that

00:09:24.600 people have is trying to interpret or translate what they've done in school what their last job

00:09:31.080 titles were um what roles they've held into okay well how will that provide value to somebody else

00:09:38.760 if suddenly my job became redundant tomorrow morning that doesn't mean to say you're going

00:09:42.360 to become redundant but what else would you do how else would you apply that and that's where

00:09:47.640 the self-discovery the really digging deep work comes into play um with respect to trying to

00:09:53.800 understand, okay, well, what are my soft skills? And it's just because the reason that it's so

00:09:57.880 hard is because it's a new way of having to think about ourselves and our careers, because

00:10:02.440 traditionally, we've just had to, you know, throw our hard skills on a resume along with our job

00:10:08.480 titles, and then put the resume out there, distribute our resume, and then boom, boom,

00:10:13.280 the next thing we would be, we would be hired. Now, that's, that's completely shifted. And so

00:10:19.420 So we are now being paid not just for our hard skills, but of our soft and of the value

00:10:25.540 that we're going to provide to somebody, regardless of what industry that is.

00:10:29.900 Looking at the leadership forum schedule, it looks like there's some incredible speakers,

00:10:34.960 some incredible workshops.

00:10:37.080 Yours is an interactive workshop.

00:10:39.800 So what kind of skills or what are you hoping the outcomes will be for people who attend

00:10:45.720 and hear what you have to share?

00:10:47.560 Well, I'm going to be sharing some powerful and very practical strategies that will show participants how to have impactful and meaningful conversations that truly matter to everyone in the organization.

00:11:05.160 And so we're going to be doing some exercises.

00:11:08.400 There will be some group work that will be included as well. 0.70

00:11:12.100 But a successful outcome will be that women will have an ability to very confidently have a conversation and or provide influence, whether that's in person or in a different way, with somebody that really matters to them, that is going to demonstrate their value and get them noticed at different levels of the organization, potentially even promoted, who knows. 0.97

00:11:39.300 Right. Now, a little off the beaten track, because this is a woman's forum, because, you know, this is really the goal to empower and encourage women, you know, all of the controversy lately as of the definition of a woman, does anyone fear the pushback for this strong focus and targeting on empowering women in this climate?

00:12:03.900 Well, you know, it's not really empowering women, it's empowering people. It's just that women have been a very sort of visible or an invisible group where there's been a lot more lobbying to get them that essential visibility.

00:12:21.920 And that's because of those gender equalities being so pronounced in certain sectors, especially within the Alberta workforce.

00:12:32.180 So we have no choice. But, I mean, if you just look at the stats, there are like a lot of the Alberta recovery plant industries, including energy, are male dominated.

00:12:43.840 And is that really what success looks like to the province? I don't think so.

00:12:48.040 Mm-hmm. Well, and speaking of women in general, but then you're right. As soon as you move into 0.99

00:12:53.720 some of the statistics here, women of color hold only 6.2% of women held board executive

00:13:00.040 senior management positions. Black women, indigenous women, LGBTQ women, and women with

00:13:07.700 disabilities hold less than 1% of women held senior leadership and pipeline positions. So,

00:13:13.900 I mean, you know, when you start getting into even more marginalized areas for women, you know,

00:13:20.080 it just drops considerably. Well, and I think that there's a real perception problem that's

00:13:24.860 happening. You know, there's a lot of, you know, traditional mindsets that just assume women can 0.63

00:13:30.180 only do certain types of roles, and that has got to be corrected. And that is why women have to 0.99

00:13:35.000 become comfortable in advocating for themselves. So the other side of this, so it's not just about 1.00

00:13:41.540 other people's perception but more importantly it's about our perception of ourselves and so

00:13:47.620 many of us feel that you know we we feed our minds with oh i can't do that oh they'll never hire me

00:13:54.420 you know so there's a lot of negative self-talk and um this like i said this feeling of imposter

00:13:59.460 syndrome that happens and and only we can fix that and that's also something that that i'm

00:14:05.060 going to be speaking about um at this talk so it's it's not only educating others on our value

00:14:10.900 but it's also getting out of our own ways um so our own way so that our own we can unleash our

00:14:18.340 confidence to feel good enough about ourselves to be able to be those advocates so if nobody

00:14:23.540 else is going to advocate for us we have to be able to do it ourselves and that does not mean

00:14:27.620 pushing ourselves into uh you know onto other people by any stretch it's about being smart

00:14:33.700 strategic and proactive um in terms of how we do that okay and then when it comes to um sort of uh

00:14:41.300 the the idea behind getting a suitable candidate versus the the best candidate versus you know

00:14:46.900 making sure that we're we're meeting some sort of a quota what are your thoughts around that

00:14:51.220 when it comes to i think that's very very dated and rather than employer employers um look at

00:14:58.260 at hiring for those reasons. We should all be looking to hire on the basis of value. So how

00:15:03.520 will my company or my life or my organization be different if I hire you? And that is where

00:15:09.520 the onus now, it never used to be, is far more on the candidate side, being able to explain what

00:15:18.700 their value is going to be to somebody. And like I said, that's just out of the comfort zone of so

00:15:23.820 many people because they've never had to do it before so this is a new way of of thinking about

00:15:29.260 your yourselves um and managing your career in general what's in it for somebody else and if you

00:15:34.700 do if you're able to provide solutions to pain points for instance that somebody else is hiring

00:15:40.700 or is experiencing does it really matter what gender or race you are no absolutely now alberta 0.55

00:15:47.660 has seen female premiers in the past, first being Alison Redford in 2011, Rachel Notley in 2015. Now

00:15:54.380 we have Danielle Smith. So when it comes to this level of leadership, what do you see the strengths

00:16:00.020 that women bring to the table when, say, running a province? I would say visibility is, you know, 1.00

00:16:06.720 and really shining the spotlight on some of these underrepresented groups. And it's not that, you

00:16:12.920 know, it's a men are better than women or vice versa. I just think that, you know, we come from

00:16:17.900 a very unique place, that perspective that others don't. So we see things differently. And I think

00:16:24.400 it's that perspective that really needs to be exposed to the masses to be able to better

00:16:32.240 understand and open our minds to the value that, say, a woman, a professional woman can provide to

00:16:40.660 any organization regardless of her work history regardless of of of her credentials or her

00:16:46.020 profession because that's the reality going going forward we are all going to be changing careers

00:16:51.540 you're going to be changing changing your career um whether whether we want to or whether we want

00:16:56.660 to or not it might not happen happen right away but we are all going to have multiple careers

00:17:02.500 in our lifetime and that is the the reality of the new future of work certainly and gone

00:17:08.740 are the days where you are you know 35 years in the same career right no no interesting

00:17:15.780 how many careers have you had at this too many too many too many too uh too many to count over

00:17:22.580 a dozen it well rounds you right i think uh i think it contributes to that for sure well and

00:17:28.260 it's about getting out of outdated thinking and you know and looking at you know well what is

00:17:34.340 possible for you rather than than what is not and and you know so many people get stuck in

00:17:40.420 well i've done the same thing the same way in the same job for for so many decades okay well it's

00:17:45.220 too late to change it is never too late to change so what if you're 50 some years old you've you

00:17:50.580 know you're the sole provider of your family and suddenly your job becomes permanently redundant

00:17:55.140 and there's no need for what you did for the past three decades does that mean that you're

00:17:58.980 just going to pack up and and and go on ei for the rest of your days or years no you have to be

00:18:05.540 able to to to trend transition trend identify what those transferable skills are and more importantly

00:18:13.060 understand how you can add value to somebody's life or someone's company what are the pain points

00:18:18.580 you can solve you take something like like a soft skill like relationship building for instance you

00:18:23.220 You know, whether you're a geologist or, you know, an accountant, if you have good relationship building skills, those are very transferable to all kind, any industry for that matter.

00:18:35.120 And so it's really getting out of this very narrow minded view of how we should, what we should be doing next and really looking at the possibilities and really going with the times.

00:18:46.820 And I think that that's something that our new premier can do, too, is really educate our population on where the opportunities are, you know, what is possible for Alberta.

00:18:59.840 I mean, this is a really exciting time to be in the workforce and learnability, too.

00:19:06.560 That's huge.

00:19:07.400 And, you know, most of us do have an ability to learn.

00:19:09.300 So my advice to people is if they do have a track record of learning things really quickly, make sure that others know that.

00:19:14.900 that's a great way for them to advocate for themselves for a new job or for or for even a

00:19:20.180 promotion despite the fact that they might not have previous experience in in that well and i

00:19:26.120 agree with you there is um ample opportunity uh specifically in alberta right now there is um all

00:19:31.840 sorts of growth in many sectors right now that we're witnessing uh you know as we recover and

00:19:37.740 we come out of the pandemic and uh there are new opportunities coming all the time and so really

00:19:42.660 this um leadership forum this women's leadership forum would be great for really any woman who's

00:19:48.180 looking to either enhance or further or you know even say a mom who sending the kids off to school

00:19:54.740 now and is looking for opportunities right absolutely this is probably one of the most

00:19:59.780 exciting times in history to have a new role created for you whether you are working or not

00:20:05.620 and um and it just we just need to be armed with the tools to be able to uh to do that and that's

00:20:10.900 one of the things i think this conference is going to address that's access connects and that is

00:20:17.300 bringing the first annual woman's leadership forum here in calgary that's happening on november 9th

00:20:22.820 and it's a full day of fantastic looking speakers um all sorts of of um different resources and tools

00:20:31.780 and sounds like a lot of um opportunity for for women to sort of connect and um and you know find

00:20:40.180 connections with uh with business leaders absolutely and understand the importance of 1.00

00:20:47.060 connecting their heads to their hearts that's that's absolutely key to future-proofing your

00:20:53.140 career going forward tell me what you mean by that like give me give me like what what's the

00:20:58.100 importance of that so you know when i talk about you know your head it's a matter of thinking okay

00:21:03.460 well this is you know what i can can do i've done all these things the same way all my life and these

00:21:08.260 held these jobs but when you connect to your heart and really ask yourself questions such as

00:21:15.380 well what is it that makes your heart sing what is it that gets you excited to jump out of bed in

00:21:18.580 the morning what is it that you do when you lose track of time it's not that that's necessarily

00:21:22.740 what you're going to be doing for a living whether it's gardening or putting puzzles together or

00:21:26.500 playing with your kids but it's understanding the why behind it because it's that why that is your

00:21:32.500 value and that is something that people will never i mean like i said a job can be ripped away from

00:21:37.700 you in a second knowing your value stays with you for life and and that so that is what you should

00:21:42.500 be paid paid for not some job title that has a shelf life of of three to six years but what is

00:21:49.380 it that that you could you can be known as the go-to person for within your organization regardless

00:21:55.940 of of of what time it is in in history and it's about moving into here and being really honest

00:22:01.700 and authentic with yourself with respect to asking yourself like what is it that really gets me

00:22:06.340 excited to jump out of bed in the morning gee nobody ever asked me that and um and then once

00:22:11.700 again going back to the why we had a person in our program who said that they loved gardening

00:22:16.900 and it had nothing to do with gardening but when i asked him i said okay why is what is it that you

00:22:20.900 like about gardening why is it important why do you like it and it was because you know they like

00:22:26.260 to nurture things nurturing was important to them and i said okay well can you think of a time in

00:22:31.140 your last job where you might have nurtured something and where things were turned out to

00:22:36.180 be a in a real win-win situation and um this person started to cry because they thought that

00:22:42.980 they had no value whatsoever and you know they said to me you know jackie when i look back at

00:22:47.940 my life and my career it's like everybody who's ever worked for me has gone on to do greater

00:22:52.420 things than i have and um it's because you know i guess i was just really good at nurturing them

00:22:58.420 but unless your employer knows that about you that you've got an ability to build a team from

00:23:03.700 from from good to great say in this particular case um you're going to be overlooked for for

00:23:09.060 for jobs and for promotions you might even lose your job and this is what i see time and time

00:23:13.700 again in alberta because people don't know their real value and it's because they have they've

00:23:19.300 been living up here not here this is the past this is the future very good i think it sounds

00:23:27.780 like you have all sorts of um fantastic messaging for women in your uh in your workshop but i'm

00:23:35.780 i'm sure throughout the day women will feel uh very uh sort of empowered uh throughout this

00:23:41.140 leadership forum so again this is jackie rafter uh founder and president of higher landing

00:23:46.820 incorporated and jackie will be uh hosting a workshop at the woman's leadership forum which

00:23:53.220 is coming up in calgary here on november 9th thanks so much for sharing with us today and

00:23:58.420 we just look forward to yeah we look forward to what's what's ahead and especially for the

00:24:03.380 opportunities that that can be presented for women working in this province moving forward

00:24:09.380 absolutely thank you melanie

00:24:15.940 here's an update on commodity prices around leftridge for today

00:24:18.580 Cash barley is trading at $4.53, feed wheat is lower at $4.70, and corn remains at $4.75

00:24:25.880 per metric tonne. In the milling markets, December Minneapolis futures are lower $3.25

00:24:30.740 at $9.57, with local hardwood spring bid for November-December movement at $12 per bushel.

00:24:38.060 Moving on to canola, futures are lower $16.80 at $9.0960 per tonne, with delivered values

00:24:45.460 for December movement at $20.40 per bushel. In the pulse markets, nearby red

00:24:50.640 lentil prices are trading at $0.34 per pound and yellow peas at $13.00 per

00:24:55.240 bushel. And in the cattle markets, December live cattle slipped 12.5 cents

00:24:59.560 at $1.52.93 per hundredweight. For more information on pricing or fob farm

00:25:04.660 options, give me a call at 403-394-1711. I am Matt Musicum at Marketplace

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Western Standard - November 09, 2022

IN FOCUS： Gender inequalities in Alberta workforce, women have been an 'invisible group'

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