Leaders in Workforce Development

Improving your workplace is an ongoing process. Whether it’s improvement to recruitment and retention, processes, or culture, there are always ways to optimize your workplace. There is one way to improve workplace culture that will give you and your employees far reaching benefits that can spark success in and outside of your business. It starts with your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Using guidelines to help you attract and hire a diverse staff and provide an inclusive and equitable workplace reduces turnover, improves job performance and strengthens team dynamics. So, if you want to know how to improve workplace culture, look at your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

By now you’ve probably heard not only about the need for DEI or diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace but the business case for DEI efforts. DEI is not just a morally right thing to do. DEI work has been proven to optimize productivity and reduce turnover. But what can diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace look like? Read on to learn more about DEI efforts and how to implement them in your workplace.

There’s a Great Resignation happening in the United States: it’s a term being used to describe how millions of people have quit their jobs because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. From frontline workers to CEOs, the US is seeing a huge labour shortage while people look for new jobs. It’s predicted that this Great Resignation will be felt in places all over the world. But what about in Canada?

Times are changing and with that so have recruitment priorities for businesses in eastern Ontario. You might feel that you are well versed in how to attract employees, but consider how technology, automation and the COVID-19 pandemic has changed things.

COVID-19 has changed the way workplaces function. Physical distancing has prompted more opportunities for remote work. Essential service providers have been prioritized as health care, grocery, pharmacy and delivery workers continued working on the front lines. This reliance on these workplaces has shed some light on how these - and all - workers are compensated, recruited and retained. As an employer, you need to know what employees are looking for in a job and show how you can provide it. Here’s some help to rethink what you’re offering new staff when hiring during a pandemic.

The bank for Canadian entrepreneurs has made it official: there is a labour shortage in Canada. According to a study released in September 2021 by the BDC, 55% of Canadian entrepreneurs are struggling to hire the workers they need to sustain growth.

Recruitment and retention in a post-COVID era means relearning how to recruit on some level. It also means learning how to retain employees you’ve attracted. Worker shortages mean you might not get new hires who can just walk in and know all about your business. They’ll need some guidance and consistent training to get on board faster. That’s where your legacy employees come in, and employers must work hard to retain them, their skill set and their knowledge.

A short talent supply means you have to exert more effort to recruit good, qualified staff. Here are some recruiting tips: a good hire should not be based on luck. Know what you want and what you have to offer (this is huge because workers expect quality from the employers so they can give quality in return).

There are so many employers looking to recruit new staff that you need to stand out in the crowd, especially because the process for finding new staff has changed drastically over the last few years and over the course of the pandemic. Much like with sales, by putting your business in front of the right people, you’ll get your vacancies filled, your business will be more productive, and your new employees will thrive. Here are some recruitment tips to help you compete.

In April 2021, Ontario employers were actively recruiting for an estimated 250,000 jobs, but by June 2021, Ontario’s unemployment rate was 8.4%. With job seekers in such high demand but the unemployment rate so high, there was clearly a disconnect between employers and job seekers in 2021. One explanation for this disconnect could be that the skills employers needed were not the skills reflected in the applicants. The good news? Up to 100,000 Ontario workers and job seekers could receive free online training to gain the skills and knowledge needed to restart their careers.