'It's wild out there': Employees gain upper hand amid war for talent
BNN Bloomberg
The surge of Omicron cases across Canada is putting employers in a double bind as they struggle to keep businesses afloat with staff away sick, while also keeping existing employees safe and happy amid the so-called great resignation trend.
The surge of Omicron cases across Canada is putting employers in a double bind as they struggle to keep businesses afloat with staff away sick, while also keeping existing employees safe and happy amid the so-called great resignation trend.
According to Statistics Canada, the number of job vacancies across all sectors reached an all-time high in the third quarter of 2021, up over 62 per cent from a year earlier. And that’s leaving employers scrambling to fill critical jobs and giving job seekers the upper hand amid a war for talent.
“I’m making placements without resumes now,” said head hunter Steven Cardwell of Steven Cardwell Recruitment, a nation-wide search firm. He’s currently looking to fill over 30 job openings for his clients in the banking, construction, and engineering sectors.
Pre-COVID, a project manager role in construction would require the candidate to be a civil engineer with three to four years of experience, according to Cardwell. “Now you don’t need that,” he said in a phone interview. “Clients are taking people with no experience but have willpower. Anybody is trainable.”
Because Omicron recovery times are typically short, finding, hiring, and training a replacement for staff who are sick with the virus, is not worth the effort for most employers. As a result, remaining staff are being forced to pick up extra workloads leading to greater resentment of their current employers, according to Travis O’Rourke, president at Hays Specialist Recruitment.
“Many jobs are available and candidates are tightening up again with their desire to move companies,” O’Rourke said in a phone interview.
