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A different kind of winter

Chamber won’t hold job fair this year, alternative solutions to be announced at Oct. 15 luncheon
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It is no secret that next winter season will be anything but usual.

While the 2010 Winter Games promise to keep the resort municipality hopping in February, there are fears the Olympic aversion factor may leave the village less-than-busy the rest of the winter.

As part of the preparations for the crazy times ahead, the Whistler Chamber of Commerce has announced it will not hold the traditional fall job fair this season.

Chamber President Fiona Famulak explained that the organization started to ask businesses in May whether they would find a job fair useful, given the nature of the upcoming season.

"We surveyed our membership and we polled some businesses in a focus group to ask how valuable a job fair would be. We also had some conversations with large employers in town as well as past job fair participants," said Famulak.

"We pulled a lot of the information together and in analyzing it we concluded a job fair would not be the best use of our resources this year and that we could help businesses more effectively by doing something different."

The chamber discovered that many businesses don't plan to start hiring their employees for the Olympic period until late December or early January. Many companies don't know what exactly their needs will be during the Games, explained Famulak, and they are hoping to get as far as possible with their current staff before hiring more.

She added other businesses in Whistler have already hired all the staff they need for next season.

However, even though the chamber will not be hosting a physical job fair this autumn, Famulak stressed the chamber still plans to help employers match up with employees this season.

The chamber will have a "range of tools available" to help businesses navigate the hiring process in the coming winter seasons. The details on their programs will be fleshed out during their Oct. 15 luncheon.

The luncheon will address four main questions:

• What are the latest human resource trends in the Sea to Sky corridor;

• What are Whistler Blackcomb and the Vancouver Organizing Committee's human resource plans;

• What are creative ways businesses can recruit for both the winter season and February 2010; and

• How can businesses retain employees throughout the coming winter season.

Famulak added the job fair won't be scratched out permanently.

"The vision at the chamber is to see the job fair return in 2010 and for it to be more of a job and career fair," said Famulak.

"The job fair before has really been a call to action for employees to go through the interview process and typically the type of employees that have come out have been people who are travelling or people who want to spend a season in Whistler. It hasn't reached out to universities or had a longer term view."

Famluak said she would like to see employers line up future work with students who are in the middle of their degrees so Whistler businesses move away from simply reacting to their staffing needs on a season-by-season basis.

Also, the chamber will still orchestrate its Shoestring Accommodation Project to connect job seekers with temporary accommodation in Whistler during the slow-tourism months of October and November.

 

 

Whistler Blackcomb to hold small job fair in November

Recruitment organizers at Whistler Blackcomb say they will hold another stripped down job fair on Nov. 8 and 9.

Karen Bauckham, recruiting manager, said Whistler Blackcomb has been busy pre-hiring about 600 staff since March, and the recruitment team has visited South Africa, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Toronto and Montreal.

Last year was the first time the company decided to hire the majority of its seasonal staff before the fall and Bauckham said Whistler Blackcomb plans to keep pre-hiring the majority of its staff before fall in the future.

"A couple of years ago, when there was a labour shortage, we were finding a lot of no shows at our recruiting fairs and we realized that we couldn't just sit back and wait until just before the winter season to ramp up our staff because there was too much competition," explained Bauckham.

"Of course, now the whole economy has shifted and we have actually got a labour surplus, but we still find that we are more successful going out and pre-hiring."

Bauckham suspects about 500 jobs will be up for grabs at Whistler Blackcomb's November job fair, although those details are still up in the air.

She added that Whistler Blackcomb is pleased with the candidates they interviewed in the Czech Republic and South Africa, even though these two countries aren't a traditional source of Whistler seasonal workers.

"We did the Czech Republic last year and although we only hired a few people from there, the quality of candidates was very good, so we decided to go back again this year," said Bauckham.

"And South Africa is a market that is relatively untouched by our industry, and the people again just have such a strong work ethic.... We took a bit of a risk and decided to go there this year, and we are pleasantly surprised. They are lovely people that are very guest services oriented."

Whistler Blackcomb also has held presentations in Squamish and Mount Currie and plans to interview First Nation candidates this week.