Human Resource Projects

Overview

The Agriculture and Food Council has been working since 2005 to identify and address specific challenges and opportunities in agri-food human resources. Our HR projects are a set of strategic initiatives targeted at developing and sharing tools and information for supporting industry.

Soil to Sky

The Internet Portal

The Soil to Sky Internet portal is a product of the Human Resource Information Exchange Centre (HRIEC) project. The goal of the HRIEC project is to develop a centralized directory of agriculture and food-related HR and career information, including industry and institutional links, career profiling, and connections to career-building online tools. 

This Internet portal provides a clear and consistent picture of career opportunities in all aspects of the agriculture and food sector in Alberta and throughout Canada. Our users include youth, students, and employees early in their careers aiming to use their skills and interests to build a challenging and rewarding career in this industry.

With the goal of attracting young job seekers toward an agriculture and food career, Soil to Sky provides career information and links to employers in a single location. This Website was created in response to the worker shortage being experienced by employers in many sectors of Alberta’s economy, including agriculture and food.

Soil to Sky isn’t a job bank that advertises specific employment opportunities, and doesn’t duplicate the work of industry, government, and educational Websites in the area of recruitment. By collecting existing information and links, Soil to Sky presents many useful resources in an accessible and searchable central location.

A career in agriculture and agribusiness never looked so good!

We invite you to visit the Soil to Sky portal, a user-ranked collection of links and career profiles for the agriculture and food industry. Are you ready for a new opportunity? Are you searching for a career idea that you may not have considered? Explore these career options, and discover how rewarding—and how diverse—a future in Alberta’s agriculture and food industry can be!

www.soiltosky.ca

“With more and more hits on the site every day, interest in Soil to Sky seems to be growing throughout the community,” said Annette Zuidhof, Chair of the Agriculture and Food Council Action Team involved in the Internet portal’s development. “We’ve had tremendous initial support from our partners in sharing the link and spreading the word about this new tool.”

Strategic Human Resources

In early 2008, Council began to compile a series of information tools that use a cooperative and collaborative approach for the agriculture and food industry to build and share knowledge for advancing labour, leadership and education. The HR Programs, Projects and Services Inventory, HR Keynotes Database and the HR Stategy guide will be launched in mid to late 2009.

Programs, Projects and Services Inventory

Purpose: To summarize and index programs, projects and services for the agri-food industry on a publicly accessible site for both industry and HR professionals.

Overview: Summarized goals and objectives, along with information concerning contacts, status, funding, and organizational involvement.

Categorized based on goals, audience, location, and sphere of influence.

Includes any program, project, product, system, information tool, course, service, company or public agency that we deemed to have some resource allocated to the objective of improving, enhancing, or benefiting industry with respect to HR practice and policy, regardless of cost or other similar factors. 

Keynotes Database

Purpose: To provide information about effective speakers on topics relevant to human resources in agri-food to industry and HR representatives.

Overview: Event listings form the "trunk" of the information. Speaker presentations and topics are the "leaves".

Categorized and indexed for individuals or groups seeking a starting point for future planning and implementation of events and meetings.

Unranked and unrated, centered on historical cataloging of public information for expedited consumption by the people who need that information.

Strategy Guide

Purpose: To provide reference-supported insight into HR practice and policy in the agri-food industry (and beyond) for the information of those seeking ideas for improved HR systems.

Overview: Anecdotes and insights into real HR practices and policies based on numerous sources of information.

Grouped, categorized and cross-referenced with each other for similar topics or audiences.

Based on interviews, articles, presentations and publications.

Resourcing for the Future - The Human Resource Congress

A successful two-day event that took place in April 2009, Resourcing for the Future - The Human Resource Congress was a venue for industry leaders and stakeholders to understand challenges and address opportunities in HR. Information from the event was collected and is vital to creating a plan and report for industry to support a viable agriculture and agri-food sector. Click here for the final report.