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Whistler prepares for long-term labour crunch

Employers all looking in the same shrinking labour pool

It used to be at Wild Willies Ski Shop there was a set schedule of hours and a specific job description for employees.

That was when employees flocked to Whistler and workers were a dime a dozen.

Now Wild Willies owner Bill Lamond has to make a new work schedule every week to accommodate his employees. He tries to be more flexible with hours and moves workers among his three store locations to fill in the gaps in staffing.

He had just enough employees this winter to make it through the busy ski season but he admits it was touch and go at first. These days he finds himself working more, not less, to make up for staffing shortfalls.

"Every year we take on one more job ourselves," he said. "And that would be nice if that trend could stop."

That trend, by all accounts, looks like it’s only going to get worse.

The employment growth rate in the region for tourism related jobs is expected to grow between two and two and a half per cent on an annual basis, according to draft figures presented to go2, B.C.’s tourism industry human resources association, this week.

Go2 commissioned the tourism labour study in the Sea to Sky corridor in December 2005. The draft report was presented this week.

"It’s good to know because up until this report we didn’t really have a handle on what was happening in the region," said John Leschyson, director industry human resource development with go2.

But the gap created by the growing job market is increasingly exacerbated by the rapidly shrinking labour pool.

The labour market is being affected by a variety of factors.

The baby boomer population is aging, with more people retiring than are able to fill their jobs. The Canadian economy is booming with unemployment levels lower than they have been in more than 30 years. And young mobile workers are being rapidly enticed to high-paying jobs, unbeatable benefit packages, and over-the-top signing bonues in Alberta’s oil sands.

In the last quarter of 2005, 17,000 Canadians moved to Alberta from other provinces.

While the lack of good employees is a familiar refrain in Whistler come shoulder season, for the first time ever employers are concerned with more than just the natural ebb and flow of workers in a resort town.

"If there’s one thing I wake up thinking about and go to bed thinking about, it’s recruiting," said Whistler-Blackcomb’s Kirby Brown.

Labour shortages have been on Whistler-Blackcomb’s radar screen for the past six years but it wasn’t until last year that the reality of the problem really set in.

For the first time there was a significant drop off in traffic to Whistler-Blackcomb’s annual fall recruiting fair in 2005. Prior to that there had been increases in the numbers from year to year. While there was still enough applicants to run the mountain operations this season, it was a real eye-opener, said Brown, and possibly a sign of tougher times to come.

Some of the drop-off may be due to the snow hangover from the previous year. The bad weather could have kept young seasonal workers away. But the booming economy and the aging population are most definitely playing a role in those declining numbers too, he said.

The company isn’t sitting back and waiting to see what happens at next fall’s fair. They are aggressively finding workers to fill the jobs, whether it’s in Canada or overseas in traditional markets where they have a presence, such as Australia and Great Britain.

"We’re being far more aggressive and we’re expecting stiffer competition so we’re hoping that our aggressive recruiting campaigns through all the various channels will result in the same amount of people," said Brown. "We don’t want it to be any leaner than it is but we’re also being realistic."

Part of the realism is recognizing that places such as Australia are also experiencing the same demographic trends, which means there will be lures and enticements to keep Australian workers Down Under rather than flitting off to Canada for a year.

Another reality is that frontline tourism jobs simply don’t pay as much as entry level positions in other industries, such as the booming construction industry.

It is, quite simply, a job seekers market.

"I have never had so many jobs on file," said Cathy Goddard, owner of Whistler’s Personnel Solutions. Her company, which has been in business the past decade, is an employment agency dealing with the business community filling accounting, administration and managerial positions.

She had so few resumes coming in via her website this weekend she thought there were technical difficulties. It turns out there was just no interest.

"I’m having to be a little more creative and dig a lot deeper to get qualified candidates that can live here and want to live here," she said.

When she does find a suitable candidate she lets employers know they have to act fast. It’s not so much potential employees selling themselves as much as companies trying to win them over.

Whistler has to sell itself too.

"We have to be the best resort," said Goddard. "We have to be the best employers. We have to figure out how to make this a home for people…. We need to make this a desirable place to live and work."

That’s top of mind for new Whistler Chamber of Commerce President Louise Lundy.

Anecdotal reports from local businesses this winter, said Lundy, repeated Bill Lamond’s refrain – employers were just a little bit short this winter and ended up doing extra work themselves.

The two big things on Lundy’s agenda this year are the labour issue and the customer service issue. In many respects they go hand in hand.

Lundy also sees housing and affordability as key issues in attracting workers.

"We definitely need to be able to attract people so we’re going to have to find more and more incentives for people to come here, not just for the lifestyle but also to work and live here long term," said Lundy.

The go2 study also highlights Whistler's dependence on foreign workers. There are roughly 3,000 full-time equivalent employment opportunities that need to be filled from outside the Sea to Sky corridor annually.

"It would indicate to me that we’ve got to really look at opening a better dialogue with the federal and provincial governments in terms of the flexibility with respect to foreign workers," said Leschyson.

For example, having the working holiday visa extended would give more flexibility.

That would be great for Lamond at Wild Willies, who has had fabulous foreign workers in his store unable to stay longer than a year.

"We’ve had fantastic people from down south, Aussies and Kiwis, that we would loved to have kept for two or three years, and they wanted to stay but weren’t allowed," he said. "It takes at least a year to train somebody in our specialty business."

Go2, which has formed the Sea To Sky Tourism HR Strategy Steering Committee with local stakeholders, will be holding forums in the coming weeks to solicit feedback on the situation.

This isn’t a Whistler problem, however, and the crunch is being felt across the province and the country.

Kirby Brown was speaking at a Canada West Ski Areas Association meeting on the labour shortage this week.

He’s hoping that Whistler’s reputation will continue to entice workers from around the world even as Whistler-Blackcomb ramps up its efforts to draw in workers.

"Now I think the next few years will tell the tale about how present Whistler as a community is in the international employment market place," said Brown. "We’re going to see whether or not our cachet is strong enough to get the people to buck the trend that’s out there."