Action Plan

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

The Council for Automotive Human Resources (CAHR) is the industry driven, industry led organization that advocates on behalf of the sector and works with business, labour and educators, in partnership with all levels of government, to strengthen the industry with a skilled, flexible and innovative workforce.

Our goal is to facilitate collaboration across supply chains and advocate for the skill development and training necessary for the industry to navigate vital changes and ensure future competitiveness.

The Council’s three strategic priorities are: Forward Thinking Human Resource Practices, Improved Workforce Planning and Improved Learning Culture. Below is a brief description of the objectives and proposed activities intended to achieve these priorities.

Forward Thinking Human Resource Practices that ensures a workforce better prepared to adjust to changing economic, technological, and workplace conditions. The standardization of skills and consistency of training delivery will facilitate the development of career paths; maintain professional standards; and enhance workforce development practices.

• Activity: Develop and maintain functional standards.
• Activity: Establish a nationally-accepted skills recognition/certification program.
• Activity: Research alternative approaches to apprenticeship training, including the feasibility of a rotational apprenticeship model.
• Activity: Develop, launch and maintain a web-based skill assessment tool designed to match skills gaps with training opportunities on an individual, department, firm or industry basis.
• Activity: Develop and promote training assessment tools that assure Return on Training Investments (ROTI).
• Activity: Encourage supply chain learning strategy.
• Activity: Engage education and training providers in the design and implementation of programs that address changing industry requirements.

Improved Workforce Planning that creates and maintains a clear understanding of labour market intelligence and supports worker mobility. Trends in technology suggest the need for a more highly skilled workforce. Having an ample supply of highly qualified engineers, technicians, technologists, HR specialists, logistic experts and skilled trades will make Canada a more attractive investment location.

• Activity: Research labour market trends and assess the impact of changing technology on skill requirements.
• Activity: Establish and launch a mechanism to match automotive labour market supply and demand.
• Activity: Actively target highly qualified personnel in promotion and recruitment efforts to expand labour supply sources.
• Activity: Encourage adjustment programs that facilitate labour mobility for job affected employees in all occupational categories.
• Activity: Promote the automotive manufacturing industry as a safe, modern, environmentally friendly and technologically-advanced career option.

Improved Learning Culture that demonstrates the critical importance of human resources to the growth of the automotive assembly, supply chain and associated economic clusters within Canada.

• Activity: Design and maintain a strategy and action plan to communicate critical human resource challenges.
• Activity: Advocate for skill development and training that will enable workers to navigate changing work environment.
• Activity: Establish a framework to cultivate partnerships across automotive supply chains and economic clusters. Future research could help to clarify the possibilities and reveal ways in which greater cooperation between industry stakeholders can enhance the competitiveness of the industry.
• Activity: Organize industry events to showcase and promote best practices that promote collaboration as a means to enhance industry competitiveness. Promote continued dialogue through ‘leadership networks’.

By promoting leadership, skills and innovation in automotive human resources, CAHR works to contribute to the development of an increasingly flexible and adaptable work force that ensures future competitiveness.

• CAHR's Strategic Priorities (pdf)

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