Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs, long-hair freaky people can now apply.
Take off your hat, look at that, there’s a job waiting for you.
Over at Innovative Automation in south-end Barrie, there are 10 engineering positions.
The downtown Barrie cafe Bohemia is recruiting two people.
In Bradford, Freshii is on the lookout for more workers.
If you’re currently out of work in Simcoe County, now’s a good time to kick your search into high gear, because you may well find that you could have your pick of jobs.
Take a drive around Barrie — in industrial areas, up and down Bayfield Street or downtown — and you’re bound to come across at least a few 'Help Wanted' signs and organizations that are actively recruiting.
With businesses reopening or continuing with expansion plans that were on hold during the pandemic, employers are posting job positions and putting out the word that they’re recruiting.
“I think this is an unprecedented labour shortage that we’re seeing,” says Georgian career and community employer and employee relations liaison Gloria Evans. “For the last number of decades, it’s really been an employers’ market, and I’m seeing, definitely, a switch in that.
“It’s now much more of a job seekers' market. That unprecedented labour shortage that we’re seeing with increased job openings I think is an all-time high, specifically around the restaurant and hospitality industry.”
Repeated lockdowns during the lingering pandemic put many people out of work. While the ability for workers to access the Canada Emergency Recovery Benefit (CERB) has been blamed to have intervened with employers’ ability to recruit, some workers decided to take advantage of the situation and shift into other industries.
'I’ve done this for me'
Sarah Carder was surprised to hear how much the restaurant industry is having to scramble to find workers, but she has seen the exodus. She knows three women who ended up in automotive sales.
A mom of three in a shared-custody arrangement, Carder was hit by a double whammy when both the restaurant and salon industries where she had long been employed were forced to close their doors during the pandemic.
And then her rental home was sold, meaning she was suddenly paying an extra $500 per month for another place to live. CERB wasn’t going to cover rent, never mind the other expenses.
So she changed everything around, and, deciding to follow her dreams, registered in school. She’s just completing her third semester in Georgian College’s honours degree program in counselling psychology. Working on a reduced course load, she figures she can have it completed in four and a half years if she continues with her schooling during the summer months.
Sure, there’s stress, the uncertainty of where she may later end up and she’s going to have to deal with the student loan when she’s done, but she’s still delighted she made the decision.
“It truly has been a blessing,” Carder says. “I’ve done this for me.”
Carder’s shift reflects a wider change that occurred for some suddenly left jobless during the pandemic or in a different work environment when some industries were completely devastated and others thrived.
The result now — as businesses get back into gear, picking up where they left off and recalling staff back into the workplace — is a new reality.
That means, says Evans, that businesses and organizations, too, must shift away from their traditional recruiting methods and employ more creative approaches.
Right fit hard to find
A culture of self-recruitment is embedded at the three-year-old Freshii restaurant on Cundles Road at Bayfield Street, says owner Salim Bardai. So when someone knows they’re leaving, word goes out among their contacts about an upcoming opening and training begins before the position is even vacated.
But Bardai is encountering challenges at his newest location in Bradford, where he opened a Freshii in July 2020. Although business is ramping up quickly, finding the right fit during the past year has been a challenge in Bradford, which is reflected right across the industry there as restaurant after restaurant have lingering vacancies.
“The job is around me and my needs as opposed to when I got hired, you got hired, this is the job,” says Bardai. “Just trying to find that person who can work during the day, during the evening, that has a flexible schedule, is hard to find.
“We’ve done probably around 15 interviews in the past month. We probably wanted to hire four and three of the four accepted a job somewhere else. So the market is hot for employees that are looking for a job.”
Bardai noticed that shift toward an employees' market starting to occur during the pandemic when Freshii remained open with its substantial takeout business.
Jill Dyck relies on the supportive environment within her downtown restaurant Bohemia and her active Instagram account to fill vacancies. Over the 17 years since she opened the restaurant, she’s had some employees come back or stay for a long time.
And although now there is a competition for workers, particularly in the restaurant sector right across the country, she’s confident she’ll be able to find the people she needs.
“I’ve always tried to have a good place to work,” she says. “I try to be understanding of other commitments… (but) I’ve just been able to retain people.”
As a result, Dyck says, Bohemia is a place both employees and customers and want to come to. Although, the pandemic has introduced a new reality for Bohemia. Dyck has decided to continue operating for shorter hours and isn’t comfortable offering dine-in services just yet, relying entirely upon takeout and patio service.
Manufacturer seeing 15% void
Innovative Automation has grown to a workforce of 161 people and is picking up on a growth plan which it left on hold during the pandemic. In addition, when one employee recently left, he took a few colleagues with him.
“We probably have a void of 10 people, or 15 per cent,” says co-owner and president Steve Loftus.
He is now looking at filling that void for engineers, relying on social media and connections though its network of workers.
Combined with a myriad of other developments, many employers looking into the employee pool for help are finding that a new competition for workers has emerged.
Evans says some of the job seekers she’s been working with, particularly those emerging from the restaurant and hospitality industry, have indicated an interest in pursuing work with more regular hours, guaranteed income and benefits.
“When they were laid off, they took the opportunity to pursue careers and look at retraining, with more stability. A lot of those people, I would say, they’re not planning to return to restaurant work,” she says.
She points at increased costs, including Simcoe County’s precarious housing market, which has among the country’s highest rents and home purchase prices that have skyrocketed during the pandemic.
Add to that the uncertainty some have returning to the workplace with the delta variant continuing to pose a risk and the likelihood of other COVID-19 variants developing. Some in more public-facing roles may be concerned about their own safety given that the risk of infection hasn’t been eliminated.
“That re-evaluation of work-and-life balance, not just in the restaurant industry but in a lot of industries, is a big deal,” she says.
Evan says employers still have some options.
There’s that huge commuting population. Historically, somewhere around 30 per cent of the local workforce has had to drive, generally toward the Greater Toronto Area, to work. Now that offices and workplaces are reopening, many who have been working from home may no longer want to make that trek and are looking for an opportunity to work closer to home — even maybe at a reduced rate of pay.
She also suggests employers partner up with one of the local Employment Ontario service providers who are funded by the provincial government. They could get free help set up virtual job fairs or help employers get more creative with their recruitment efforts.
Other suggestions include reflecting the work environment or culture in the job posting. If it’s a fun place to work or if the company has something the competition doesn’t have, make that come across in the ad, Evans says.
Flexibility in scheduling, a competitive wage, increased vacation time, support for professional training and development, open communication and transparency are increasingly considered important for prospective employees.
“More candidates, better hires, adding a little more diversity to hiring practices I think opens up a whole opportunity for employers that may be feeling like they’re struggling right now,” Evans says.
