Bockstael Construction’s homepage on their website states that they “are changing the face of the construction industry in Manitoba through constant innovation, deeply collaborative processes, and a client-first approach to doing business”. While those values certainly shine through in their construction practices, they also shine through in their recruitment and retention strategies.   

An area of collaboration that Bockstael is particularly focusing on is recruiting more employees from the Indigenous community. With a large Indigenous population in Manitoba, Bockstael knows that building relationships with the Indigenous community will be mutually beneficial to both their organization and Indigenous people in Manitoba.   

“We have a number of Indigenous organizations and governments as our clients, so we have adopted and implemented a lot of their procurement policies as it relates to labour,” said Sarah Anderson, Director of Talent Management and Business Development Manager at Bockstael. “In particular, we work a lot with the Manitoba Metis Federation. We’re also working with Treaty One Development Corporation on their new apartment building at Naawi Oodena. Both those organizations want to see strong participation from an Indigenous labour force, as well as contracting Indigenous owned companies. We’ve been building out programs with them, ensuring other trades understand what that means as well, and trying to connect the labour force to the organizations.”  

One relationship that has Anderson particularly excited is with Shawenim Abinoojii Inc. (which means Nurture the Child), a not-for-profit Indigenous-led organization that supports Indigenous youth who have aged out of foster care.   

Bockstael was contracted to do work for Shawenim Abinoojii Inc., both for their own office space and transitional housing for the youth they support. Their relationship has now grown beyond that, and includes a program called Wii’chi’eyag Oshkidiziwad Waabung (Supporting our Youth for Tomorrow) that helps connect Indigenous youth to job opportunities at Bockstael.   

“We had five youth interviewed through them for a construction summer job opportunity,” noted Anderson. “We’ll assess if this is something those youth want to continue with and perhaps go through the carpentry apprenticeship program.”  

“Truly working in reconciliation requires moving beyond ideological discussion to investing in tangible action that provides experiences that create equitable opportunity for our young people,” said Victoria Fisher, Executive Director of Shawenim Abinoojii Inc. “What we’ve valued the most in our partnership with Bockstael is the working relationship that has been established, with our focus on the people we serve. Working to engage our First Nations people in all levels of operations is smart business practice, and companies that put into action practices that build strong and wholesome workforces will yield the advantage of making moves to do the work in a good way.”  

Bockstael’s commitment to the community in this way is indicative of their company culture. In the words of Anderson, Bockstael’s culture is the strongest thing they have going for them.   

“Word of mouth is a very strong recruitment tool for us, and it goes hand in hand with retention. We’re able to retain people because we have a good culture, and the word spreads, and we can attract more people.”   

Anderson will be the first to admit that some of their retention strategies have been learned through experience, though. The first three months of employment is where they noticed employees were leaving. Rather than sticking to the status quo, they’ve worked to address the reasons employees were leaving.   

“When we bring somebody on board, we can’t just throw them onto the job,” explained Anderson. “So we’ve added more structure to our onboarding program, and we make sure that someone who’s new to us has a buddy to learn from, particularly for the first three months.”  

Beyond the first three months, retention for Bockstael really is about supporting their employees along the journey, such as through their internal apprenticeship intake program that helps employees complete the carpentry apprenticeship program, as well as creating meaningful career pathways and communicating those to employees.   

“We’re starting to communicate more about what the steps are to get into different roles and what it means to be a part of those roles,” said Anderson. “We want to make sure that people understand what is involved so they can make their career decisions with what they want to do.”   

Whether working on recruitment and retention efforts internally or externally, it’s these collaborative processes that Bockstael mentions in their mission statement that will continue to lead the company in changing the face of the construction industry in Manitoba.