Local businesses opening and hiring see positive trends in employees coming back to work as the province eases into a phased reopening.
"We had a really positive experience," said Laura McKenna, owner, The Art of Home. "We just hired three people yesterday. We posted last week and ran interviews and found some great candidates."
It's been a rocky road for retail said the downtown Cambridge business owner.
"There have been some closures and some ups and downs, but our business has remained open the whole time because we have an online store," said McKenna.
"At the very beginning, we did lay everybody off. But as soon as we saw that the online traffic was there and our customers moved to that platform, we brought the team back on."
But the same people have no returned to work for her business, McKenna said.
"Some people made changes in their lives, some decided to go back to school and some decided to start different career paths," she said.
While McKenna didn't have difficulty hiring, some other industries are still struggling, said Margaret Penner, manager of employment services at Lutherwood Employment and Housing Services.
"I've been in this industry for a couple of decades and I haven't seen anything that's impacted our local labour market this much," she said. "I've seen ebbs and flows, sometimes it's the employers that get to pick and choose and sometimes it's the employees."
Currently, Penner said, some of the hard-to-fill positions include general labourer, trades (construction, carpentry, forklift operators, warehouse, logistics, and drivers), retail, tourism, and restaurant industries.
All this, Penner said, is subject to change as the province opens.
Some other factors affecting hiring are an increase in average pay for some of the hard-to-fill positions and waiving of the probationary period so employees can access benefit package.
"Typically, in general manufacturing or labour, the salaries were up to $17. Now it's $16 to $22 an hour," she said, adding she's heard of employers getting in wage wars to nab the most qualified person.
As well, she said, uncertainty and continued concern around layoffs due to lockdown or closures affects the take up off jobs. In healthcare, Penner added, the pandemic limited the ability for nurses and personal support workers to continue working.
However, she said, call centre hires have increased due to demand and it being a home-based job.
Megan Stover, director of culture & development at the Charcoal Group of Restaurants, said she could identify with the uncertainty aspect.
"Some of the (hiring) difficulty has been around short notice reopening," she said. "We can go from serving 10 people on Friday night to being allowed to serve 50 people the next day.
"It would be great to know all of the rules of stage three ahead of time so we can communicate them to our staff in advance," added Stover. "No one can just drop everything in life at short notice."
Penner said there are other issues to consider, too.
"It's the fear of getting the virus as well," she said. "When you work with the public, you don't know what you're going to come in contact with. As a food service or retail worker, having to deal with that additional challenge of people that express their beliefs and anger, it's tough. I can completely empathize with them."
Plus, Penner said, with kids being schooled at home, parents have to figure out childcare if they're unable to work from home. Even if their job allows them to work from home, she added, they may not have access to the equipment, such as laptops, needed to do the work.
"Maybe there's only one computer at home to use," she said. "How do you work from home if your kid is studying from home? And how do you apply for jobs if you don't have a computer?"
The fear of catching COVID was real for Beertown employees too, said Stover.
But the company handled it by listening to the staff and educating them about the health and safety steps being taken, she said.
"They had a socially spaced training session before reopening last May," Stover said. "Employees get time off if they had to go test or quarantine, helped access government benefits while they were off."
All staff members, she said, are also provided with and required to wear masks and eye protection gear, such as a face shield or goggles.
Doing this, said Penner, can help allay fears employees may have.
"The one thing businesses can do is being their health and safety measure," she said, adding, "Be accommodating for parents so they're able to take care of their kids and earn a living."
In addition, Penner said, it's important that both job seekers and business have the ability to pivot and adapt.
Those that are not returning to work, for whatever, reason, she said, should focus on building technology skills.
"I'm surprised at how much I have learned with technology, but I have to be two steps ahead of my staff so I can train them," Penner said. "Being able to figure out the technology while you're learning a new job can be stressful. So build the technology skills and virtual skills, learn how to use Zoom and its etiquettes. Be comfortable with that virtual world. It's not going to go away."
