The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Island Recruiting builds capacity
P.E.I. human resources firm bets on data mining
Charlottetown human resources firm Island Recruiting is hiring and building up its capacity for a much-hoped-for POST-COVID-19 surge in hiring and economic activity in Atlantic Canada.
“There's not a strong business case to add employees, but we're building capacity for a quarter out,” says Island Recruiting president Blake Doyle.
“I'm anticipating growth in the next quarter and after the summer.”
A serial entrepreneur, Doyle owns Island Recruiting and its sister companies, HR Consulting and Confederation Group, through parent company Confederation Capital Inc. He also owns the property management firm Octavian Group and the venture capital company Cube Incubator.
Even though Prince Edward Island was largely spared the brunt of the pandemic, the province did go into forced lockdowns last spring.
“At the end of March, we were in a shutdown,” said Doyle.
“I was in quarantine for a couple of weeks and everyone was working remotely with the exception of one person who worked in the office.
“We locked the doors and had a note on the doors and reacted with our customers virtually.”
Demand for Island Recruiting's services dried up. Almost no-one, it seemed, was hiring. Business after business laid off staff.
The human resources firm slashed its prices by as much as 75 per cent, but it seemed to have no effect.
“For one or two quarters, there was no activity,” Doyle said. “Nobody was interested in what we were peddling. Nobody was hiring.”
SUBSIDY
Island Recruiting's revenue dropped by about 80 per cent. Doyle was forced to lay off two of his five employees. He applied for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which covered up to 75 per cent of an employee's salary depending on the company's pandemic losses, and stayed the course by serving a few clients who had longer-term contracts.
“We had a few human resources projects that were time sensitive. One of them was to recruit an IT manager for P.E.I. Mutual Insurance Company (in Summerside),” said Doyle.
Ottawa's wage subsidy and the end of lockdowns gradually allowed Island Recruiting to rehire for two positions.
The company also drew on a Canada Emergency Business Account loan of $40,000.
The privately held company does not divulge revenue or profit but Doyle said it is still in the red.
“We're down about 40 to 50 per cent off 2019 levels.”
Despite the low level of business activity, Doyle has added more human resources generalists to his staff and is recruiting for someone with a strong background in statistics to pore over data and grow the company.
The company currently employs 10.
“I want to get into data mining of the labour market and see where the opportunities will be,” Doyle said.
“There's a lot of siloed data. We want to get that data and consolidate it and see how we can use it.”
With that strategy, Island Recruiting is looking to get back into the black sometime in 2022.
“If we're not doubling annually, we're probably not in a good space,” said Doyle.
“I've always thought it would be a 2022 recovery.”
PPE
During the pandemic, Island Recruiting employees are using personal protective equipment, including face masks, and the company has installed Plexiglas barriers in its reception area and conference room. There are hand sanitizer stations and meetings with clients are conducted either virtually or in person by appointment.
While the loss of business has been huge, the direct cost of the supplies to comply with public health measures has been only about $1,000.
With its relatively low level of transmission, P.E.I. has become the envy of much of the rest of the country and is attracting Canadians from big cities who want to move to Atlantic Canada, enjoy a better work-life balance and work remotely on the Island.
The surge in the number of people working from home has made it much easier for employees to hang on to goodpaying jobs and live pretty much wherever they want, said Doyle.
“A lot of the barriers to relocation have been eliminated ... and we're seeing that here on Prince Edward Island, where people who want to leave the urban centres are coming here where we have more freedom.
“It's a drastic change. People are reflecting on a whole bunch of aspects of work-life balance.”
The Pivot is a regular feature about an Atlantic Canadian company adapting to new market realities with innovative products, services or strategies. To suggest a business, email: Pivot@saltwire.com.