OTHER SECTORS FINDING RECRUITMENT CHALLENGES
Nurses: Alberta is expecting a shortage of registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses over the next two years, according to the province’s job market forecast. Advocates have raised issues with nurses’ working conditions and pay across Canada for years, but COVID-19 exacerbated the issue, driving burnout that’s leading some nurses to retire earlier than planned or switch careers entirely.
Hotel staff:
Hospitality was among the hardest-hit industries during the height of public-health restrictions to drive down COVID numbers. Business trips and leisure travel ground to a total halt, and hotels had to resort to mass layoffs. Some were rehired only to be laid off again during another COVID wave, and Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association president and CEO Dave Kaiser says as a result, the industry permanently lost a large portion of the workforce.
“Some folks just gave up with the perception of precarious employment, and they found jobs in other sectors as the economy was reopening,” he said. “And so now there’s a hole to fill.”
EMPLOYER ANECDOTES Scott Tetz, president and founder of Sherwood Parkbased Truck Part Solutions:
“It’s a really tough market for programmers. We have an IT position that’s been open for about a year ... (We’ve changed) the wording of our job ads, kind of highlighting that impact that they could have in our company, and we’ve changed the way our interview process works as well. Obviously, with inflation, the wages are different, too.”
Step Energy Services president and COO Steve Glanville:
“We have a lot of heavy tractor-trailer units, trucks driving up and down the road. So the biggest holdup for us has been finding qualified Class 1 drivers . ... We’ve been quite creative during this time and are looking at changing work schedules. In the past, it’s been kind of working for two weeks and having one week off. We’re looking at a bit more flexible schedules to get more time for a work-life balance perspective, as well as starting to recruit out in the East Coast.”
Sam Jenkins, managing partner at Edmonton-based software development company Punchcard Systems:
“We’ve been trying to hire development team leads for months . ... I’m very, very grateful that we can hire from everywhere. That does make it a little bit easier for us. But I think that the actual truth behind all of this is that fundamentally, there are more jobs to be done than people who are in the industry, and this is a global talent shortage when it comes to the technical space.”