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By Jordan Davidson (Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow)

"it's an employees market"

To combat labour shortage, employers will need to adapt and evolve

Oct 8, 2021 | 2:53 PM

If you think there are a large number of businesses desperately seeking employees recently, you’re not imagining things.

Kimberley Worthington is the executive director of the Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP), and says it’s definitely an employees market right now.

“And because it’s an employees market, employees are shifting from one job to another. They are looking for a better job. They are looking for a higher wage. Lots of employers say ‘it’s not all about the money’ and I would suggest that’s correct, but I would say that money plays at least 51 per cent into the decision of where you’re going to work. The other 49 per cent is the quality of the work place.”

Worthington says areas being affected the most by these shortages are the hospitality, tourism and visitor centered areas, with the pandemic largely to blame. Trades are also experiencing a dwindle in numbers, especially in the truck driving industry.

However, she says the pandemic is not 100 per cent to blame.

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“There was a labour shortage prior to the pandemic, and the pandemic has definitely exacerbated it. Some of the general reasons why include the decrease of the working age demographic, so those who are of working age, there’s fewer of us because more people are retiring. The skills gap is really clear as well, and the pandemic also exacerbated that.”

She says employers are still seeing a lot of resumes come across their desks, but that doesn’t mean they are all qualified for the job. She uses her own experience trying to hire an office assistant as an example.

“I had 50+ resumes and out of those, there was five that I was willing to interview. Out of those five, I had two no-shows, and I had one late person that got the wrong day. So I’m down to two candidates, one that would be much more self-sufficient and the other one needed a lot of training but was very coachable. In the end, I hired the more experienced person because I don’t have time to hand-hold. But I’m experiencing that for an office admin position, I think it’s across the board.”

So what can employers do to make the most of this shortage? Worthington says they should first make sure to retain their existing employees, which is easier, less expensive and less time consuming than hiring new ones. They also need to make sure to stay up-to-date on all the latest technologies in their industry so they remain competitive.

She also says a lot of employers are saying that government subsidies are to blame for keeping people from finding work. She said those programs aren’t going to be around forever.

“Those programs are going to expire, and I would suggest those who are taking the utmost advantage of those programs probably don’t really want to work anyways, and if they were to work, they’re probably not going to be a quality employee. That’s a total hypotheses on my end. I don’t know for sure, but it’s a theme that people who live off subsidies, for the most part, that’s their mind set. It probably plays a small roll in it, but I wouldn’t suggest it plays a huge role in it.”

She says going forward, employers will have to be more flexible with their employees. The pandemic has made it clear that some jobs can easily be done by home, while the extra time away from the office is making some people realize how important maintaining a balanced work-life balance is.

“Being flexible with their time when they can be, not all business can be this way. Being more flexible with outcomes rather than the hours worked. We all know we can have a bad day and the hours worked don’t produce anything, whereas you can have a good day and the hours worked could produce twice as much as one would expect on a normal work day.”

She says employers will also have to be flexible and inclusive, as immigrants and other new arrivals to Canada will help fill some of those labour gaps.