Is it this challenging to find employees elsewhere?

[Rotax_Kid]

I've been looking for a few engineering/tech type of people, plus fill an admin role, for the past few months. Seems like now that things are a bit more normal, those who we hired during the pandemic, and turned out to be really good, young employees with potential, are finding other work in a good economy which is more lucrative. I always believed our company payed quite well as we are in the upper end of any salary survey, but we are finding that we are coming up a bit light on pay and benefits now. Guys who are 4-5 years out of school are getting 6 weeks vacation now! Consistently getting asked about remote work and flex schedule options.

I ran 3 rounds of interviews to replace a few positions. Real wide variety of people. Had a lady interviewing for an admin position ask for $160k/yr. Had another young guy come in and interview for an entry level position and tell me here's actual here to interview for a more senior position (which we've never advertised for??) and he wouldn't consider entry level - in person interview and flat out told me not to waste his time with entry level - he's a year out of school!!!! When I asked another fellow why his resume has so many gaps, he flat out told me he really only likes working half years and once he has enough cash to do what he wants, he'll likely quit or take leave - I guess honesty is a valuable attribute?

I get people nowadays don't want to work like some of us may be accustomed to. But wow...talk about having to lower expectations. I have close to 140 resumes for 2 of the 3 positions and I'm having trouble finding even someone with potential, never mind plug and play.

Is industry in Alberta/BC as busy as elsewhere? What are you finding is enticing people right now? Is this the norm???

 

[lilduke]

Who wants to be a slave for some company, especially when you see trudeau and celebrities fying around on private jets, living the good life and throwing it in your face every day

 

[Luke The Drifter]

Its super busy in my industry, things are getting painful to find good guys (techs, operators, etc). Lots of high expectations with minimal skills or work ethic. Companies are pretty much hiring anyone who can fog a window just to try and get projects moving and some of the end results show it. That being said, I've also witnessed some companies pull some boneheaded moves too. IE tell a whole department of long term, experienced employees to take a pay cut and work at the new warehouse or take a early retirement. Well said experienced employees took their retirement, chaos ensued and made life for everyone difficult trying to get parts from them.

 

[NoBrakes!]

A buddy here in Edmonton can't find carpenters, been a problem for a while.

 

[TylerG]

Its super busy in my industry, things are getting painful to find good guys (techs, operators, etc). Lots of high expectations with minimal skills or work ethic. Companies are pretty much hiring anyone who can fog a window just to try and get projects moving and some of the end results show it. That being said, I've also witnessed some companies pull some boneheaded moves too. IE tell a whole department of long term, experienced employees to take a pay cut and work at the new warehouse or take a early retirement. Well said experienced employees took their retirement, chaos ensued and made life for everyone difficult trying to get parts from them.

...........continues to make life brutal trying to get parts............

 

[niner]

I’ve been able to hire one guy in the last 2 months. Had one guy last 6 hrs and one guy we had to bring back to Camrose as soon as we got on site. Slim pickings.

 

[Rotax_Kid]

Appreciate the feedback - makes me feel a bit better that what I'm seeing isn't unique

 

[Bnorth]

Been taking longer to hire, in some cases 6+ weeks of posting and re-posting to get decent candidates but I am generally still getting quality employees. Have had to up salaries and holiday weeks to get those positions though. I have hired a couple fog on glass types in temporary roles and they aren't allstars but do more right than they screwup so keep the ship headed in the right direction.

 

[Luke The Drifter]

...........continues to make life brutal trying to get parts............

Its gotten better but for a while, going on a parts run was a hurry up and wait game and sometimes parts showing in stock, mysteriously getting lost during the order only to show up a few weeks later.

 

[TylerG]

Its gotten better but for a while, going on a parts run was a hurry up and wait game and sometimes parts showing in stock, mysteriously getting lost during the order only to show up a few weeks later.

yep, it's still embarrassing, I work for said company, it's not a good situation at all.
hopefully they will continue to iron out the kinks.

 

[Luke The Drifter]

yep, it's still embarrassing, I work for said company, it's not a good situation at all.
hopefully they will continue to iron out the kinks.

Yep, hopefully the higher ups see to it to smooth things out. I've voiced my opinion to my rep, they're well aware.

 

[Teth-Air]

Do you want to here the the side of the conversation? My son has graduated from SAIT recently. 2 year IT course, focusing on Programming. He has put out about 30 resumes and only got one offer for less than $20/hour with a 2 year contract. If he quits in the first 2 years the contract says he has to pay back 75% of his income. Might be hard for them to collect but I thought it was kinda-of a ballsie approach. Maybe they train for 2 years and are paying you to get training?? If so it might be worth considering but I would sure need to ask some questions before I would sign a contract like that.

 

[lilduke]

Do you want to here the the side of the conversation? My son has graduated from SAIT recently. 2 year IT course, focusing on Programming. He has put out about 30 resumes and only got one offer for less than $20/hour with a 2 year contract. If he quits in the first 2 years the contract says he has to pay back 75% of his income. Might be hard for them to collect but I thought it was kinda-of a ballsie approach. Maybe they train for 2 years and are paying you to get training?? If so it might be worth considering but I would sure need to ask some questions before I would sign a contract like that.

Id keep Looking

 

[nast70]

We've had good luck poaching competitors. They come in trained, and already know all about the culture. It helps that the primary competitor is a complete chit show right now. Guys come with pretty low expectations and are blown away when we give them basic benefits, a couple bucks more an hour, and less stress.

 

[tmo1620]

We had over 150 resumes in for our last operator position, they shortlisted to 20 for phone interviews and could only get 3 guys good enough for an in person interview lol. Most of our recent (last 3 years) hires are terrible operators. One of our new guys is so bad he already has another crew saying he’s not allowed to work OT on their crew anymore, they would rather run short handed than have him come fill in lol.


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[firstdoo]

I feel this labour shortage is more than just an issue of not enough skilled workers. List form might be easiest to get my point across.
- Lack of skilled workers in an employers area.
- Lack of proper compensation from an employer. This includes entry lever positions where many employers think minimum wage or close should be enough.
- (potential) Employees wanting to maintain a proper work/life balance.
- Employers that want (potential) employees to agree to much more than 40 hours a week. In may cases, 50, 60, and even 70 hours per week minimum.
- People realizing, through/after covid, that a 70K salary and a 120K salary are close to the same with changes in spending habits. The more you make the more you spend.
Specific to the trades
- Travel compensation does not cover actual travel cost to go out of town.
- Live out allowances do not cover actual cost of accommodations
- Fort McMurray camps are absolutely atrocious. No one wants to be in a camp prison anymore.

My wife complete a 2 year certificate MOA/Unit Clerk that used to have a 97% hire rate after completion with a fair compensation. Top of her class with honors. It took her 18 months to find a medical office to hire her and the compensation was minimal. Yet over that 18 months, every office was urgently hiring.

Everyone is hiring, but no one is being hired.

On a side note, Harvey's hires burger flippers at a higher starting wage than a medical office assistant that schedules your tests, lab work, appointments. Every dollar a doctor pays their office staff is one less dollar in their pocket.

Probably 1000 Millwright position available across Canada right now too.

 

[wheels]

I applied for 4 different jobs never even got a reply. Maybe they filled the positions internally and just posted because they had to. I’m not sure. I agree with what Firstdoo said. Seems everyone is hiring but no one is hiring. Where did all the airport workers go? Or workers in the hospitality industry go? Do they all work at Amazon now? I know a few guys around here trying to hire and they get a lot of I don’t want to work 40hrs a week I’m not working weekends or I’m not working for less than 100k/year. Some of them only got 4 resumes total. It doesn’t add up to me. Not sure how people are paying their bills if they aren’t working. It sure is a weird time out there right now. I think we are in for a major recession and a lot of bankruptcies.

 

[firstdoo]

I applied for 4 different jobs never even got a reply. Maybe they filled the positions internally and just posted because they had to. I’m not sure. I agree with what Firstdoo said. Seems everyone is hiring but no one is hiring. Where did all the airport workers go? Or workers in the hospitality industry go? Do they all work at Amazon now? I know a few guys around here trying to hire and they get a lot of I don’t want to work 40hrs a week I’m not working weekends or I’m not working for less than 100k/year. Some of them only got 4 resumes total. It doesn’t add up to me. Not sure how people are paying their bills if they aren’t working. It sure is a weird time out there right now. I think we are in for a major recession and a lot of bankruptcies.

I am sure that there are a lot of industries out there, Trades, Engineering, Service Industry, Hospitality, and Tourism that have plenty of open positions that companies need filled. But I'd bet that a lot of those same employers grossly underpay, or ask for grossly over experienced expectation so they can go back to the labour minister(s) and say that there is no locals, or Canadian residents/workers that can fill their positions. That the only way they can operate is using TFW's (temporary foreign workers). A lot of profit to be made through employee exploitation. Why pay a service worker minimum wage when you can side skirt the 'rules' and pay less. Good working conditions, and pay cost too much. This isn't just a recent phenomenon either. TFW's have been used to undercut competitive wages across this country for years. The meat packing plants are a prime example of this. Very physically demanding work, grossly underpaid, and a lot of people do not want to do a job like that. With proper compensation, work standards, and actual productivity goals, I'd bet that lots of people may look at that industry as a work opportunity. Instead, the majority of employees are TFW's. They may or may not get a chance at permanent residency.

 

[2kDoo]

Do you want to here the the side of the conversation? My son has graduated from SAIT recently. 2 year IT course, focusing on Programming. He has put out about 30 resumes and only got one offer for less than $20/hour with a 2 year contract. If he quits in the first 2 years the contract says he has to pay back 75% of his income. Might be hard for them to collect but I thought it was kinda-of a ballsie approach. Maybe they train for 2 years and are paying you to get training?? If so it might be worth considering but I would sure need to ask some questions before I would sign a contract like that.

welcome to 2005. I went through same thing with a 2 year NAIT diploma. 4 months after grad I was working on an oilrig
Tell your son to look at MWD careers, it's what got me into the game
From someone who wasted two years in computer systems myself, that would be my advice.
Or spend another 60k for a degree from a university

 

[2kDoo]

Last year my friend broke the new record for firing rougnecks.
57 last year lololol
If they give him a wiff of attitude fired on the spot he says. No time to babysit, yet alone train ruh tards