Lack of applicants, experience, hard skills top challenges
Forty-one per cent of Canadian employers are having difficulty filling jobs, according to a survey by Manpower.
Skilled trades are the hardest jobs to fill, followed by sales representatives and drivers.
At a time when organizations face a tightening labour market and the lowest unemployment in 40 years, most of the jobs where demand is growing are mid-skilled roles that require post-secondary training, but not always a full university degree, said Manpower.
More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of the companies are investing in learning platforms and development tools to build their talent pipeline, while 28 per cent per cent are changing existing work models, including offering flexible work arrangements to attract and retain talent, according to the nearly 2,000 employers surveyed.
More than half of companies (56 per cent) are looking at different talent pools for skills, including boomerang retirees or returning parents and part-timers.
"We continue to see increasing demand for skilled workers across all sectors of the Canadian economy, from trades and transport to sales," said Darlene Minatel, country manager at ManpowerGroup Canada. "Today's jobseekers don't always have the skills employers need. To solve our growing skills gap, we need to take a new approach. Employers need to buy skills in the short term, cultivate communities of talent by borrowing from external sources and help people with adjacent skills transition from one role to another. Above all, we need to build talent through upskilling and reskilling programs to develop a workforce with the skills companies and individuals need to succeed."
With global talent shortages at the highest level in 12 years ManpowerGroup recommends the following:
•Build: Invest in learning and development to grow the talent pipeline and upskill the existing and potential workforce.
•Buy: Go to the external market to find the best talent that cannot be built in-house in the timeframe required to fill immediate openings.
•Borrow: Cultivate communities of talent inside and outside the organization including part-time, freelance, contract and temporary workers to complement existing workforce.
•Bridge: Help people move on and move up to new roles inside or outside the organization.
