Attracting talent North.

When it came to finding people to work for the first medical school in Ontario to be opened in over 30 years, Sheila Tyndall says she had no trouble finding applicants interested in moving to the North.

"There is a prestige and status working for the medical school," she says. "We had no trouble filling the administrative side with applicants interested in working there."

However, Tyndall, who helped staff the administration at the school's Thunder Bay and Sudbury campuses, says this is not always the case.

She says one of the keys to attracting and retaining the best and the brightest is to look for candidates with a genuine interest in moving to the region, including those who were born here, but had to move away.

"People who were born and raised in the North, and had to leave either for school or work, are interested in returning and like the lifestyle that comes from living in Northern Ontario," says Tyndall, principal of PeoplePlus North and a Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario board member.

"For many positions you are looking for candidates with a broad background, but opportunities like those do not exist in the North because they are usually found in larger companies, so people will have to move away and wait for an opportunity to come back," she adds.

The number one factor is family, Tyndall says, explaining people moving to Northern Ontario want to ensure their spouses can also find employment. She says in many cases the spouse is as equally educated and does not want to give up his or her job if there is no guarantee of employment.

Tyndall says an excellent way to ensure candidates are interested in making the move to Northern Ontario is through e-mail. When she is looking for a candidate, she says a good starting point is to send e-mails to associates asking if they know of anyone interested and usually these people forward the e-mail to others.

"It works like a virus; it just expands," says the 30-year HR veteran.

Domenic Rizzuto, HR manager at Placer Dome in Timmins, says in order to retain professionals once they arrive in the North, you need to offer incentives which may not be available in other areas of the province.

"You need to be a respected company. You have to offer competitive compensation packages, career development, training and advancement opportunities.

He says HR professjonals also have to target the family, and include them in company events to make them feel part of the business's community and not feel isolated. He says if the family also likes it in the area, they will not want to move away.

By Dean Lisk

For Northern Ontario Business