Attracting Top Talent Becoming Difficult for Canadian Companies

The Canadian economy continues to boom, making it difficult for companies to retain staff. The employment atmosphere is now ideal for job seekers in search of better positions and benefits.

(PRWEB) June 18, 2007 -- An eerie echo is sounding off in corner office suites across corporate Canada and it is giving many CEOs economic chills. Fueled by the economic boom in Western Canada, the demand for experienced and educated Canadian talents has hit a high point. This has given job seekers a strong advantage in their search for new positions. It has also lead to a collective sense of dread currently being felt by company leaders as they watch top talent leave behind empty offices without adequate replacements.

Alberta's corporations have finessed the province's overall financial surplus to their advantage and coupled it with savvy head hunting and aggressive marketing campaigns. A typical ad from Western Canada often describes above average salaries with full medical benefits and includes complete coverage of all relocation and driving expenses.

These are among the most generous terms job seekers have seen in Canada. "Unless employers can offer candidates competitive renumeration and clear career paths, they will continue to leave their current positions in favour of better ones," according to David Inzlicht, CEO of Proforce Personnel (www.proforce.ca).

His company provides professional job placement services and he has seen the increasing demand for long-term employees during the latest boom. He believes that this movement is but an indication of things to come. Proforce Personnel has earned a reputation in the industry for placing highly qualified personnel in such areas as accounting and finance, fashion and textile, corporate and administration and legal services.

According to labour market forecasts as published by the Quebec Department of Immigration and Cultural Communities, there will be a need to hire 640,000 employees by the year 2008. New jobs alone will account for 260,000 of these positions due to expected economic growth. The remaining 380,000 jobs will be the result of retirement by senior workers.

"The estimates are realistic based on what we are seeing in our firm. Senior management can no longer view the HR functions of a company as a secondary priority," Inzlicht continues.

Skilled workers that do not see available opportunities locally are lured by out of province companies offering immediate positions with lucrative pay scales and flexible hours. Lower taxes, brilliant bonus packages and superior salaries are just some of the reasons motivating Quebec's best and brightest to look toward the West. In a recent Maclean's article, Quebec's economic outlook was portrayed as being in serious need of improvement.

Employment agencies such as Proforce Personnel take the guesswork out of the hiring process through selective screening and target-specific career training and placement. It is expected that companies will have to re-adjust to the new realities of the job market and look beyond the bottom line.

Inzlicht believes that in order to retain Quebec's top candidates, companies will have to overhaul their employee acquisition strategies and make recruiting and retention a top level priority in order to meet the needs of top level talent. This factor is increasingly becoming a necessary function of doing business. His company provides efficient and value-added services by helping companies locate the best candidate for the position in a time and cost effective way. These measures are expected to further strengthen working synergies in Quebec in the years to come.

Proforce Personnel is a direct recruiting (aka head hunting) and job placement agency in Montreal.
www.proforce.ca
514-905-0606

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