Call for Participation: Contribute to Academic Research
The Quebec Quality Movement is pleased to share a call for participation from its partner, Interface&co, as part of a Canada-wide research project conducted in collaboration with [...]
The labor shortage in Quebec is taking a heavy toll on small and medium-sized businesses: unfilled positions, production delays, and pressure on the supply chain. Faced with a limited pool of candidates and competition for talent, companies must combine human resources and organizational solutions to maintain their operations and prepare for growth.
Among the standard solutions, in-house training helps transform versatile employees into skilled resources, reducing reliance on external hiring. Employee retention —through competitive salaries, flexible schedules, and targeted benefits—limits turnover and protects expertise.Targeted automation eliminates repetitive, low-value-added tasks, freeing up time for higher-value activities. Outsourcing provides immediate flexibility for specific skills, whilethe immigration of skilled workers remains an option for addressing structural labor shortages.
However, these levers are most effective when they are part of acontinuous improvement process. Lean Management provides a pragmatic method: mapping processes, identifying waste, standardizing best practices, and involving teams in problem-solving. By reducing wasted time, unnecessary movements, and defects, Lean increases productivity per employee and thus creates additional capacity without hiring new staff.
In practical terms, an SME can start with a quick assessment of its workflows, launch improvement initiatives to address bottlenecks, and then automate tasks identified as repetitive. At the same time, investing in training on problem-solving methodologies and the fundamental principles of continuous improvement—combined with employee retention strategies—strengthens the workforce. This combination—continuous improvement plus targeted tools—not only enables companies to weather the labor shortage but also to emerge from it more resilient and competitive.
Hiring new staff to work within inefficient processes is equivalent to utilizing only a fraction (sometimes a very small one) of their potential and contributes to reduced productivity (more effort without added value).
Before we talk about a labor shortage, shouldn’t we eliminate the hidden work time wasted on activities that don’t create value, and reclaim that time to build value for the company? As we continue to see that Quebec lags behind in productivity in North America (and elsewhere), is the labor shortage a cause of the problem or a consequence of our inefficient processes?