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Are you a business owner or manager in the Sea to Sky Corridor? Your company may need human resources more than ever.

“In Squamish, it is so tough to recruit people into jobs, so it’s even more important to retain them,” says Dawn Longshaw of . “Companies are considering their HR policies to reflect the value of who they are as a company. I am the person an owner or manager would call if they don’t have HR full time, but want some policies, procedures, and frameworks put in place.”

A business doesn’t have to be big to benefit from HR, and Longshaw tells us she has clients with as few as “4 employees needing her consulting services either on an ad-hoc, project, or retainer basis.”

“My clients are looking for solutions,” she says. “HR is not an entirely facts-based business, it is a feelings-dominated business, you are managing human interactions, and we help managers manage their people.”

Longshaw was a professional recruiter for over twenty years, formed her own business in 2010, and moved to Squamish from Vancouver in 2016. Settling in, and most certainly over the past two years of the pandemic, she sees that “Squamish is not just a resort community, there are a lot of tech-based and service-based companies that have established themselves here.”

Issues a business might have challenges with, and that could use her HR expertise? Longshaw puts it simply, saying “anyone can look up the employment standards online, but it is more about applying those regulations in a professional way within your workspace, so people feel connected to work, know what their rights are, and know their employer values that.”

That said, she believes every business should have an employee handbook that “gives people a sense of belonging to your organization, no matter what size.” Longshaw’s other services include recruitment, advice on programs, onboarding, compensating, job-loss messaging and more.

What changes and growth has Longshaw seen in her HR career? “The social contract around work has shifted,” she says. Years ago, “it was almost a patriarchal arrangement, and that has evolved to where the employee now wants to be valued. It’s more like ‘I sell you my services but in exchange I expect to be treated a certain way’. The legal framework has changed, responsibilities have changed and learning situations happen on the job. Employers must be really clear on expectations of the work, and communication is key, to articulate in a positive way.”  

Longshaw is passionate about her work and takes pride in “instilling spirit, change and action” into her clients.

To learn more about the services offered by Longshaw Consulting, visit the website at .