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In 2022, two project streams were created as part of the Pathways to Professions (P2P) experiential learning program to conduct research on New Brunswick-relevant tourism topics and recruitment over a 13-week summer period. P2P, developed and hosted by the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT), was run in a pilot partnership with the Government of New Brunswick’s Future GNB program this past year, with these new research streams working on government projects for decision-makers in the province. The InvitationNB stream examined New Brunswickers’ Pride of Place within the theme of tourism and attraction. In contrast, the RecruitNB stream researched data on current and future labour gaps for the province’s largest employer: the Government of New Brunswick (GNB). Though seemingly different projects, a commonality of concerns over the labour market and the economic state of New Brunswick tied these streams together. It has been determined that there is a cycle of residents leaving the province, seeking an overall better quality of life. To resolve this issue, these two projects have started foundational research into how we can break that cycle. This article will give an overview of the individual projects’ research and findings, with recommendations on future project topics and streams of research.
InvitationNB: Examining Pride of Place within New Brunswick
Introduction
InvitationNB, or The Invitation, is a research-based stream partnered with Future GNB to create a strategic vision for New Brunswick’s Department of Tourism, Heritage, and Culture (THC). The team and THC have created a strategic plan for New Brunswick to become the top vacation destination within Atlantic Canada. The 2022 Invitation team consisted of four post-secondary students from diverse educational backgrounds, including Ekaterina Saeedi, Daniel Moody, Kevin Lauren Abraham, and Pape Oumar Diop. Over 13 weeks, The Invitation explored the impact of overall “Pride of Place” as it relates to People, Process, and Place, as well as the combined effects of these factors. The Invitation team provided potential recommendations for measuring Pride of Place to major stakeholders within THC. It proposed activities to improve and showcase Pride of Place within the 12 regions of New Brunswick.
Research Findings
The team began its initial research by first understanding the problem at hand in the domain of tourism. The first step was comprehending where New Brunswick currently ranked amongst other Atlantic Canadian provinces regarding visitation. To accomplish this step, InvitationNB used tourism’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), a measurement of how much of the production of a geographical area is attributable to tourism. InvitationNB calculated New Brunswick’s ranking by taking the tourism GDP and comparing it to the total GDP of that geography. By comparing tourism’s contribution to GDP from 2012-2017, we identified New Brunswick’s 1.8% total contribution as ranking third within Atlantic Canada and eighth across the nation. With this percentage under the national average of 2%, a significant theory that guided our research was the assumption that the people visiting or living in New Brunswick having a negative perspective of the province may be affecting visitation rates and total tourism contribution.
Pride of Place is significant for The Invitation. To begin exploring the aspects of Pride of Place, our team attempted to measure and examine the sentimental feelings of New Brunswick residents from region to region. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) was used to understand where New Brunswick ranked relating to Pride of Place and visitation. This tool worked by subtracting the percentage of individual detractors (those unlikely to recommend New Brunswick) from the percentage of individual promoters (those likely to recommend New Brunswick), through which we were able to generate a score between -100 (the lowest) and +100 (the highest). Afterwards, this tool enabled us to evaluate the province using place sentiment scoring rather than using granular, monetarily driven market indicators such as gross domestic product or sales indexes to measure how people truly feel. New Brunswick’s NPS ranked seventh out of all provinces and territories at +1 (on the NPS scale of -100 to +100) in 2019. Our team believed we could use a similar approach to calculate the NPS for the 12 New Brunswick Regional Service Commissions.
A microanalysis within various zones of the province attempted to demonstrate potential regional differences in fluctuating residential sentiment, as showcased by the NPS. Our team used this specific strategy to capture feelings of regional and provincial pride for those living in the province by conducting two surveys. Evidence from both surveys suggested individuals were likely to recommend that others visit their community rather than live there. However, a small number of survey participants within each respective Regional Service Commission (n<150) made it challenging to calculate authentic regional Net Promoter Scores. Due to the lack of available data, an unbalanced distribution of survey respondents across regions made a valid calculation of various Net Promoter Scores impossible.
The team collected data from hundreds of individuals living in New Brunswick through the online distribution of their survey using personal and government networks. These unprompted survey responses were used to articulate themes of what individuals were most and least proud of about their community. We extracted three significant themes that positively influenced New Brunswickers’ sense of Pride of Place. These included themes relevant to nature (i.e., an appreciation for our geological topography), amiability (i.e., friendliness and community), and recreational ventures (i.e., an abundance of sports and leisure activities). One factor which hindered respondents’ sentimental Pride of Place related closely to economic factors consisting of labour shortages and lack of employment. A total of 64% of respondents alluded to economic factors as a major provincial issue. RecruitNB (below) expanded further on this issue by providing an in-depth analysis of New Brunswick’s everchanging labour force, specifically within the Civil Service Branches of the Government of New Brunswick.
Conclusions
Information collected from both surveys was used to provide recommendations to stakeholders within the Department of Tourism, Heritage, and Culture and GNB leadership committees. While the lack of survey respondents highlighted one limitation of our research, we recognize it to be necessary for THC to conduct a formal data extraction process at a mass scale for New Brunswick residents as it relates to Pride of Place and place sentiment. Continuing The Invitation - Pride of Place project into the summer of 2023 may allow time to generate authentic regional Net Promoter Scores. The importance of measuring and subsequently understanding Pride of Place amongst New Brunswick residents is a critical element of making New Brunswick a top tourism destination. This understanding will support activities revitalizing the New Brunswick tourism industry while re-establishing a collective sense of Pride of Place amongst New Brunswickers.
RecruitNB: The Crisis of the Labour Gap
Introduction
As concluded by InvitationNB’s data (discussed above), Pride of Place for New Brunswickers is negatively impacted by the province’s low economic standing and increasing concern regarding the labour supply. This last specific factor was researched in depth by RecruitNB for New Brunswick’s largest employer, the Government of New Brunswick (GNB). The RecruitNB project consisted of communications coordinator Rikkie Guillemette, and student researchers Karan Anand, Olivia DeMerchant, and Sana Hashmat. This team researched and provided data pertaining to the current and future labour gaps in GNB. Like InvitationNB, this research project is part of the Future GNB stream of the 2022 P2P experiential learning program hosted by NB-IRDT.
Contextual Information
For the past decade, New Brunswick has witnessed the trend of a diminishing labour force in the province. Between 2009 and 2018, New Brunswick’s labour force increased by 1.4% overall – in comparison to the other provinces, this is 8.6% higher than the national labour force growth but 2.4% lower than the growth experienced by the other Atlantic provinces (combined) and increased to 8.6% nationally. Employment in the province faced a decrease of 1.7% in that period. This decrease in the labour force (and labour force participation rate) is attributed to the province’s shrinking working-age population and the influx of retirees.
New Brunswick’s labour market projection for 2018 to 2027 is that employment will make little development, with a 1.8% increase, but the provincial labour force will decline by 0.9% by 2027 (New Brunswick Labour Market Outlook 2018-2027).
The makeup of New Brunswick’s Public Administration sector in 2019 showed that 26,200 people were employed, with 95.4% working full-time and the remaining 4.6% working part-time. Of the employed individuals working in public service, 7.3% worked in civil service operations. (A Profile of the Public Administration Sector in New Brunswick, 2019).
Research
Compared to the extensive data available on the provincial labour market, further information regarding labour gaps within GNB has yet to materialize. This lack of extensive data has put GNB at a disadvantage since it must remain a competitive employer in the province and fulfill the services it provides.
To help address this lack of information, the RecruitNB team conducted a survey via SurveyMonkey that was sent to 1,200 leaders in GNB (Civil Service). The survey, in tandem with three stakeholder interviews, provided a picture of the labour gaps in GNB by inquiring about the where, why, and how of the labour gaps: finding where the gaps appear in the organization, why the gaps are occurring, and the impact of the labour gaps not only on GNB but also on the province as a whole. The survey results are the primary source of RecruitNB’s data, with the interviews providing contextual knowledge and comparison for these results.
The survey came back with a 60% response rate (720 respondents), which was a highly successful level of engagement. We found that of these respondents, 79.3% reported difficulties filling vacancies within their departments. The departments that reported the most vacancies were Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries, along with Social Development, Transportation and Infrastructure, Health, and Service New Brunswick. The factors identified as the cause for these vacancies were voluntary exit (definition: of one’s own volition to exit the organization), which accounted for nearly half of the responses (48.8%), followed by retirement (18.2%) and departmental transfer (14.2%). This was a surprising result considering retirement was the anticipated leading cause of the labour gaps in GNB. Critical staffing shortages are expected in the next five years by 66.5% of respondents, with 64.9% having no succession plan for those five years.
Conclusion
GNB is reaching a critical point where the issue of labour gaps is becoming progressively more pronounced and urgent. Essential services to New Brunswickers provided by the various departments at GNB are under threat, and the consequences are dire if the issue is not resolved. Public servants must use this data as a starting point to improve areas like hiring practices and intentional recruiting to tackle this issue. As a government and an organization, we must become proactive employers to remain competitive in the labour market and fill the critical labour shortages. As highlighted by InvitationNB, the labour market and the provincial economy are affecting Pride of Place and the potential growth that New Brunswick could have. By addressing the issues raised by both research teams, we can make a lasting impact on New Brunswick through systematic and policy changes implemented by the various departments in government.
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