Impact Story: Working with Government to Define and Scale Thriving Workplaces, a Dual-Client Employment Services Model

Many small businesses struggle to find and keep workers and adapt to our changing labour market. There are high levels of labour and skills shortages. At the same time, many people, including those from equity-deserving groups, find it difficult to secure and keep jobs.

Employment service models prioritize quick job placements, but this approach doesn’t address the deeper issues of job retention and misalignment between what employers and workers need and offer to one another. In Nova Scotia, where the labour market has not bounced back from the pandemic, the government has collaborated to test an innovative dual-client approach to its publicly funded employment services system to better meet the needs of jobseekers and small businesses. 

In partnership with the Future Skills Centre and led by MixtMode Consulting, the Canadian Career Development Foundation and Blueprint, the Thriving Workplaces project is helping to clarify workforce needs and job expectations through an innovative framework of “Magnetic Factors.” Project partners engaged employers and workers in Nova Scotia on their workplace experiences and needs, and from that research identified six factors that either attract employers and workers together or push them apart, including values, culture, work arrangements, skills and competencies, productivity and engagement, pay and benefits.

Amie Haughn, Director of Employment Nova Scotia in the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration, says the goal was to help small businesses rethink what they had to offer employees—beyond money. 

“The effort was around helping employers recruit and retain in the new world,” she said. “Employers were focused on pay, pay, pay. And if they don’t have enough to pay, they are encouraged to expand their mindset about what they can offer.”

Challenge: Attracting and retaining talent 

In Nova Scotia, as in many other places in Canada, many small businesses struggle to attract and retain qualified talent. Job seekers—especially those from equity-deserving backgrounds—often face barriers in finding stable, fulfilling work. By arming job seekers and small businesses with greater clarity and self-awareness about what they need and offer, the model aims to reduce workforce churn, improve job satisfaction, and enhance employer retention rates.

Solution: An emphasis on Magnetic Factors 

The Thriving Workplaces model engages jobseekers and employers in a set of activities to explore and identify their needs, what they are offering, and their mindsets about work. In the initial testing of the model, work seekers who completed the Magnetic Factors activities said they left with clearer insights into what they want and need from work. Employers said the Magnetic Factors activities helped them articulate what they offer prospective employees and how to clearly communicate their value to potential candidates. 

The project also helped career service practitioners strengthen their relationships with clients and has had a positive influence on their approach to service delivery. The model improved collaboration between practitioners who tend to be hived off to primarily serve job seekers or employers. 

In the beginning, practitioners found it difficult to recruit employers, but engagement increased with new messaging and group sessions that helped employers connect and share ideas related to the Magnetic Factors. 

Haughn says employer input in developing a framework like this is essential. “This project wouldn’t have worked without the involvement of employers in our research,” she said. “Employers helped determine those Magnetic Factors. It was not the government designing those.”

Lessons and future outlook: 

The next phase will focus on refining employer engagement strategies, expanding the Magnetic Factors model, and testing different service delivery methods to ensure broader accessibility. Future efforts will include scaling the model within the Nova Scotia Works system, collecting longer-term employment and retention data, and enhancing employer awareness of the Magnetic Factors approach to further strengthen job matches.

“This has been a win from our perspective because we know employers need to retain the people they’re recruiting,” Haughn said. “They need to get the right people there, and then they need to keep them and stop some of this churn while the labour market is shifting.” 

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint, official policy or position of the Future Skills Centre or any of its staff members or consortium partners.