Concerns over changes to SaskJobs website
SaskJobs is expanding its longtime partnership with the National Job Bank, but some are concerned that job searching and posting will be more difficult as a result.
Announced by the provincial government in January, the services offered by SaskJobs.ca will now be accessed through the National Job Bank, requiring users to create new accounts and navigate a different system.
“I’ve heard from job seekers that they’re quite disappointed with the way that the program runs. I’ve heard from employers that it’s a more costly and cumbersome approach to posting jobs,” said NDP job critic Vicki Mowat.
Since it was announced in January, information has been shared with employers and job seekers, through emails and information on the SaskJobs website, to prepare them for the transition.
No new job postings were allowed as of March 30, and on May 1, all existing SaskJob.ca accounts will be inaccessible.
When people log on to SaskJobs. ca in the future it will automatically redirect them to a landing page and then to the National Job Bank website.
“It is a significant change,” said Alastair MacFadden, deputy minister of immigration and career training with the Government of Saskatchewan. “And we are confident that both job seekers and employers will see the net benefit.”
New or enhanced services include job matching services, job alerts, an online resume builder, career planning tools, labour market information and intelligence, a “visually accessible site” in both official languages, self-help support and security features, all at no cost to the user.
He said the decision was made after a review of both job sites and public opinion surveys over the last couple of years pointed to evidence of higher usability and functionality rates with the National Job Bank site. Search parameters will be a little different. Instead of 18 regions to filter searches by, there will be only six.
“A bigger repository means you’re going to expose people to more jobs,” said Jason Childs, an economics professor at the University of Regina. “The downside is going to be the sorting, the filtration that has to happen. The more jobs there are on a site, the more filtration that you as a searcher have to do.”
He said it will make finding a job that is geographically appropriate more difficult and potentially discouraging to job seekers.
Mowat said some employers have complained they can’t tailor the job titles to the degree they were able to with SaskJobs.ca. Instead of being able to enter free-form text, employers must choose from a list of pre-determined job titles. She said it makes them worry about finding properly qualified applicants.
MacFadden said the new jobmatching tool will work to find the right people for the right job. He said employers are prompted to list the required skills for the position, which is then matched with job seekers who have the same skills.
“There may be a period of concern and transition from employers who might not have heard that this was coming,” said Jeremy Harrison, minister of immigration and career training. “We tried to make sure everybody did, but I think ultimately we’re going to end up with a better site, better service and better functionality.”
In the past, SaskJobs has received federal funding through the Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA). Harrison said to continue getting funding through the LMDA, a transition to the National Job Bank was required.
He said the transition will likely be an evolutionary process as the public starts to use the new system and find out what works and what doesn’t.