– Doug Walker is Vice-President of the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at (778) 351-3544 or doug@cambiumleadership.ca. The Chamber of Commerce can be reached directly at (250) 656-3616 or execdir@peninsulachamber.ca.
SAANICH PENINSULA – According to Statistics Canada‘s July Labour Force Survey, BC still has Canada’s lowest unemployment rate, at 5.6 per cent (4.7 per cent in greater Victoria!). Total employment in BC is up by about 85,000 over the past 12 months, the highest in Canada.
We all know what this means for our private sector: increased difficulties finding and keeping great employees. Employee recruitment and retention are among businesses’ greatest immediate challenges. What can be done by businesses and how are Chambers supportive?
Businesses can improve their recruitment success by being visible, deliberate, and thorough with their recruitment strategies. Delays in starting recruitment or cutting corners due to lack of time or expertise rarely produce a better recruitment result. When it comes to hiring the right new employee, there is painful truth in the cliché “if you can’t take time to do it right you will find time to do it over”.
Other than retirement or lack of competitive compensation, employee resignations are most often due to conflicting values, where employees conclude that their futures are better served by changing employers, either locally or in another community.
Employers can reduce the impact of this by taking time to set out, communicate, and live by a set of core values. These values should also be part of the screening criteria used during employee recruitment. Provided compensation is competitive, employees who understand and share company values will stay longer.
How do Chambers of Commerce help with recruitment and retention challenges? We help directly by providing networking opportunities where business owners can build relationships with peers and trusted advisers, seminars and workshops for improving skills, free or low-cost mentoring programs for startups, access to member directories to help find support resources, and lower-cost benefit programs through group providers.
The Chamber Group Benefits programs are often the only such programs available to small businesses, providing a valuable employee recruitment and retention tool. We also hold public events where businesses can build their profile and reputation through sponsorship, recognize business excellence, and even attract potential employees.
We help indirectly by lobbying all levels of government on issues such as personal and corporate tax policies, community planning and development processes, workforce housing, and quality of community life. Arguably, these Chamber services benefit the entire community, not just member businesses.
