With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1199442
FEBRUARY 2020 BCBUSINESS 51 Uphill Battle A NEW WEBSITE CONNECTS SKI RESORTS LOOKING TO HIRE WITH JOB SEEKERS KEEN TO HIT THE SLOPES Resort businesses have their own challenges when it comes to hiring. Hospitality wages are typi- cally low. Housing prices are often high. This past July, after six years living and working in Canadian ski towns, Whistler-based Shane Martz came up with a potential solution– a website to connect ski resort employers with prospective staff. Modelled after travellers' job site iBackpacker, which Martz previously launched in Australia, Ski Resort Jobs gives employers a choice of free or featured listings and a tick box for "Staff Accommodation Avail- able," if it's offered. "This way, job seekers can easily see which jobs provide accommodation right away when browsing," Martz says. "While unfortunately we cannot do anything about the actual shortage in housing, at least we can show potential applicants the jobs that can sort this out for them." At the moment, Martz adds, the best the site can do to offset high living costs is to increase the exposure of ski resort job opportuni- ties, on an easy-to-use platform that helps people potentially get a second or third gig. The service is free for job seek- ers, 7,000 of whom were visiting each month by late November. Though Martz doesn't yet track metrics for hires, at that time 400 employers had posted 450 openings and 4,000 people had submitted applications. –F.S. estate services firm CBRE Group, Vancou- ver had the strongest high-tech employ- ment growth among the sector's 30 leading job markets in the U.S. and Canada. Given the shortage of tech talent across Canada, finding ideal candidates is a challenge, says Sarah Rideout, Finger Food's global talent acquisition manager. The company works with new and emerging technologies, often creating products for its corporate clients that only a few developers have exposure to, Rideout explains. Complicating the search, non-disclosure agreements prevent most potential recruits with that sort of experi- ence from publishing it in their resumés and on LinkedIn. Finger Food at tends recr uit ment events like university career fairs and tech festivals, and in the latter half of 2020 it plans to host its own gatherings. "We take pride in our career page trying to show a complete picture of the FFATG life," Rideout says. "We also share our new hires' stories through our website and social media to spread the word. Word of mouth helps as well." Vancouver resident Sang Park, who joined as director of user experience in November after his previous employer went bankrupt, was recruited by Finger Food's chief creative officer, Chris Waind. The two had worked together at a digital agency more than 15 years ago and kept in touch. Finger Food has clients looking for unique solutions, many of which touch on the cutting edge of user experience, Park says. "They've created a diverse range of individuals that have really interesting art, hardware and technology backgrounds. The result is an exciting place to work where there are no limits to creativity or your imagination." CEO Peterson believes that attracting top talent is about the work. "The big thing is meaning- ful work that has an impact on the world," he says. "So ensuring that you are com- municating your principles to the people that are apply- ing is really important. Peo- ple have never had so much choice where to work, so you need to put yourself out there [to convey] both what your work and what your culture's like." –F.S. HAD TO WORK MORE THAN IDEAL PAY HIGHER WAGES/ OVERTIME CHANGE GROWTH PLANS REDUCE BUSINESS OUTPUT REDUCE HOURS 5% 6% 32% 57% 13% 17% 23% 53% 10% 19% 17% 36% 42% 41% 22% 41% 25% 17% 8% 16% GIVEN THIS CHOICE OF MOVES IN RESPONSE TO LABOUR CHALLENGES, BC CHAMBER MEMBERS REVEALED THAT THEY'RE LOGGING MORE HOURS Working Overtime TOP RIGHT: ISTOCK; SOURCE: ABACUS DATA AND THE BC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE REGULARLY OCCASIONALLY HARDLY EVER NEVER