The BC Tourism & Hospitality industries continue to grow each year and the fact is we are facing a concerning shortage of labour to meet these demands. Housing and living are at a premium in BC and our industries need to start looking for more creative solutions to sustain its rate of growth.
Randy Shore of the Vancouver Sun shares the challenges of local established restaurants that are unable to attract employees and the tough decisions they have had to make to remain operating: http://bit.ly/RandyShore
In 2013, BC Business identified that the demand for employees would only increase over the next 7 years. In this article, Go2HR CEO Arlene Keis discusses the challenges ahead: http://bit.ly/BCLabour
While high wages are detrimental to the bottom line and operators cannot control the cost of products or affordable housing, here are 3 alternative recommendations to consider for finding that workforce:
- The local Tourism and Travel association Skål Vancouver has a program called Young Skål that focuses on young professionals. These are people between the ages of 18 to 34 who are establishing themselves in the Hospitality and Tourism industries. Membership in an association like Skål Vancouver which has a mentorship program provides a direct line to these experienced and well-connected individuals.
- Tourism and hospitality companies need to help local trade and technical schools by providing grants or scholarships to encourage more students to seek post-secondary education and training at these institutions. Forward-thinking companies would have an opportunity to shape the future of their own industry as well as cultivate loyalty in students who one day may be their employees.
- Employers could seek non-traditional avenues for filling positions rather than posting job ads. For example, there are several schools that help people recovering from addiction or mental health issues and want to be contributing members of society.
The traditional avenues for hiring labour in BC are not working. Vancouver area tourism and hospitality will continue to grow and unless a more creative approach is used to look for talent, and better incentives offered to enter our industries, tourism in BC may suffer.