As per the latest reports from the Canadian Federation of the Independent Business, when it comes to the highest job vacancy rate in Canada, Northern BC continues to hold the second highest private sector job vacancy position. It offers 3.5% job opportunities, i.e. 66,000 unfilled job positions.
Ted Mallet, the vice president, and chief economist have revealed the multiple issues being faced by small businesses across the northern BC region.
According to him, businesses are now struggling vigorously to fill up the vacant positions. They are continuously on the hunt for the right candidate, ensuring the perfect working conditions to retain them. The high degree of turnover is one of the major problems of small firms as they have to spend a lot of time in the training process and recruitment.
He further said that companies that are easily visible can attract work quite often. The company website and social media platforms are some of the effective methods of the recruitment process. He added, unlike the bigger operations, workers seem to be really happier when working at small outfits.
According to the surveys conducted, workers have a high level of job satisfaction when working for medium and small-sized enterprises and it is partly because they really feel close to the owners of the concerns as well as they are aware of the business strategies and what the firm is actually trying to accomplish.
The job timings are usually quite flexible in small concerns from several aspects and off-days for emergencies and family needs are well taken care of. Mallet admits that posting jobs outside your location may not be the best way to approach when trying to come across new employees.
For most of the small businesses, it is really very difficult to attract individuals from outside the geographical location because similar businesses around the province would also provide similar opportunities, thus, allowing the candidates to make selections from the myriad range of opportunities.
As per the CGIB, it is really good for the small organizations to focus on the present workforce they have and utilize the word of mouth promotion strategy through their employees. A positive work environment will definitely benefit the storefront.