It’s no secret that employers in this country are riddled with job vacancies, and continuing to struggle with recruitment issues, but I think a lot of us have been unaware of just how bad things have gotten.
As I was flipping through the headlines the other day, I came across an article from the CBC, which said that job vacancies in Canada have been skyrocketing this summer.
This was no surprise, and it’s nothing new, so initially, I didn’t pay much attention to it.
But when I read the full article, it was referring to data from Statistics Canada, and these figures are nothing short of staggering.
According to the CBC, as of June, Canadian employers were actively seeking to fill a whopping 1,037,900 positions, up from 1,005,700 in May, and Canada’s job vacancy rate was sitting at 5.9 per cent.
Now, I know that may not sound like much, but when you start breaking things down by industry, these numbers start to get pretty scary.
For example, in June, the health care and social assistance sector had more than 40 per cent more vacancies than it did at the same time last year.
For the accommodation and food services sector, vacancies were nearly 40 per cent higher than they were in June of last year, and in the retail sector, that figure was sitting at more than 22 per cent.
This data should be alarming to everyone in this country, not least the employers who are still fighting to fill these positions.
So, if you’re an employer who’s struggling with recruitment issues, or you’d just like to learn more about this unprecedented number of vacancies, then you should definitely keep reading.
In this article, I’m going to talk about why these vacancies are happening, what employers can do to deal with this sort of thing, and how I can help them to do that.
Why Are Job Vacancies in Canada So High?
As I said above, this is nothing new, but things have gotten considerably worse over the last few years.
That being said, I believe the main reason job vacancies in Canada are so high is because of a trend known as The Great Resignation, which has been rearing its ugly head in recent years.
This term refers to the record number of people who’ve been quitting their jobs, starting in the spring of 2021, which happened primarily due to baby boomers retiring early, along with several pandemic-related factors.
Now, a lot of these people would have been retiring soon anyway, but the fear, hopelessness, and lack of certainty that have pervaded our lives since March of 2020 have given them even more reasons to retire, and for many, it’s given them an excuse to retire even earlier than they’d originally planned.
Before COVID-19, plenty of people were planning on retiring within the next five years, but now many of those same people are asking themselves, “Why should I wait?”
Basically, people are taking a step back, looking at their lives, and changing their priorities as they ask themselves questions like “What’s more important? Working myself to death or spending time with my family?”
At the same time, as a result of the panic pushed by the media and government during the pandemic, there are still many people who are incredibly traumatized and have quit their jobs or gotten fired because they’re afraid of dying, getting sick, or getting other people sick.
As for those who work in healthcare, after the last couple of years, these people are incredibly burned out, and I’m sure lots of them just can’t hack it anymore and are looking at changing careers.
Simultaneously, thousands upon thousands of Canadians have lost their jobs due to the vaccine mandates we’ve seen in recent years, not least in the healthcare field.
Undoubtedly, there are other factors at play here, as well, but from my point of view, the main contributors are pandemic-inspired panic, burnout in the healthcare sector, people getting fired due to vaccine mandates, and the ongoing trend that is The Great Resignation.
If you want to learn more about The Great Resignation, you should check out my article on How to Survive The Great Resignation by Focusing on Employee Wellbeing.
What Can Employers Do to Prevent People from Quitting?
Aside from everything I’ve already discussed, I think the main reason people are quitting is that inflation is through the roof, and many employers aren’t keeping up with wage increases to compensate, which is causing employees to leave for companies that are actually willing to pay them more.
Statistics Canada data compiled by Trading Economics shows just how bad inflation has gotten in this country.
As you can see from the graph above, in June, Canada’s inflation rate was sitting at more than eight per cent, which is the highest it’s been in nearly 40 years.
So, obviously one of the best things employers can do to prevent more employees from quitting is to pay them higher wages.
But sadly, this just isn’t an option for a lot of employers, not least because of how businesses have suffered from the restrictions imposed during the pandemic.
That being said, all hope is not lost, as there are a lot of other things employers can do to retain their employees other than just forking over more money.
When my clients ask me to speak with an employee who’s thinking of quitting, one of the first things I like to ask is, “If money wasn’t the object, would you still be leaving?” Then, I go through all the other aspects of the job with them to find out what else could be done to stop them from quitting.
Truth be told, the only thing some people care about is the dollar amount on their paycheck, but you might be surprised how many employees would be willing to stay for things other than money.
For instance, in my experience, a lot of people consider flexibility to be more valuable than getting higher compensation.
With that in mind, here are some of the things you can do to retain your employees, aside from just paying them more money:
- Showing greater respect toward your employees
- Giving more praise to employees when they do a good job
- Giving your employees greater flexibility with remote and/or hybrid work options
- Investing in your employees by offering them professional development opportunities
- Holding powerful team-building events that go beyond company outings and actually inspire camaraderie
- Having your employees participate in personality assessments, like The Birkman Method, so they can better understand each other and learn to be more empathetic
If you sense that an employee is about to quit, you can’t afford to lose them, and you’d like someone to step in and help you find out what can be done to retain them, I can help you.
I’ll sit down with the employee in question and pick their brain so we can get to the bottom of whatever issues they’re having, and hopefully mend the relationship and convince them to stay.
And if you’re struggling to find strategies to keep more of your employees, I can help you to determine which methods will be most effective in your situation.
What Can Employers Do to Find the Right People to Fill These Positions?
Whenever we have this kind of vacancy crisis, business owners are more likely to hire the wrong people.
Sadly, many of them are well aware of this, but they’re desperate to fill positions, so often, what happens is they end up hiring pretty much anyone who shows up to an interview.
Then, once it becomes obvious that they’re not a good fit, the employer feels like they have no choice but to put up with their bad behaviour or settle for their incompetency, as they’re afraid to fire anyone.
But this whole attitude is counterproductive because when you’re running a business, finding the right people is everything.
There’s a heck of a lot more to hiring than just filling positions, and if you hire the wrong person, it can wreak havoc on your operations and have an incredibly negative effect on every member of your team.
So, what can you do to make sure you’re hiring the right people?
Well, first of all, you have to resist the temptation to hire out of desperation and accept the fact that simply filling a position is not going to solve anything, and it might even make things worse.
That being said, what I like to do when I’m interviewing candidates is take them through a series of very revealing questions, so we can move far beyond the surface-level stuff.
Remember, everyone’s going to say what they think you want to hear, and if they’re wily enough, even the most toxic individuals can bluff their way through a run-of-the-mill interview.
That’s why you have to talk about more than just their resume and ask questions that are going to reveal their values, expose their personality, and let their true colours shine through.
These are the kinds of questions I’m talking about:
- Whom do you admire most in your life?
- What would your former manager say is most challenging about working with you?
- What’s something your parents taught you that’s really stuck with you over the years?
- Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a coworker. How did you resolve it?
The answers you’ll get to these questions are infinitely more important than asking someone about their qualifications because while you can always train someone, changing their personality can be damn near impossible.
Truth be told, this stuff is a lot easier said than done, and many business owners just aren’t equipped for these kinds of interviews.
I, on the other hand, have decades of experience recruiting top-notch candidates, so I know how to walk applicants through a rigorous recruitment process and ask the right questions.
No matter the situation, my main focus is always to hire those who are going to contribute to an employer’s team in the most positive way.
I do this by asking the kinds of questions I listed above, trusting my intuition, and using personality assessments like The Birkman Method to dig deeper into people’s demeanor so I can consider how they’ll complement everyone else in the company (or not) by comparing results between employers, candidates, and their potential coworkers.
Moreover, aside from just ensuring the person my client hires is right for the position, I also try to make sure the position is right for that person, so they’ll be able to thrive and have longevity in the company.
Are you still struggling to fill vacant positions? Do you have a key employee who’s about to quit, and you’d like someone to step in and try to convince them to stay? Contact me today to find out more about how I can help you retain your employees and recruit the right people.