Pamphlets help firms in search for labour
The Daily News (Kamloops)
November 5, 2007
By: Michele Young

Like so many business operators these days, Hampton Inn manager Steve Earl needs more staff.

Finding them and keeping them is a challenge.

He hopes to find some ideas and answers about recruiting and retaining staff in a series of four booklets recently published by Venture Kamloops.

"There's a lot of useful information in there," Earl said.

"Our industry's starting to feel a bit of a pinch in certain fields. We've seen it in housekeeping and certain positions like night audit. We're OK, for the most part, for common shifts for front desk," he said.

But he faces challenges, particularly when looking for workers for night shifts or without transportation to get to the hotel at times when the buses aren't running.

"When you're making $10, $11, $12 an hour, spending $15 to get here for work doesn't make sense to them," he said.

As an employer, he faces challenges. Most of the workers he hires are women, which means child care can be an issue. Many speak English as a second language, so communication can be a challenge.

"Our industry's going to have to get creative on that. It's a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day operation, so child care and transportation are big issues."….

And with a big cluster of hotels in the area, he wonders if they can work together to solve the child-care problem…..

He noted a few strategies some employers are using to keep staff, including providing transportation subsidies, day care, snowboards, or having a 20-centimetre rule (if there's 20 cm of snow overnight, staff get the morning off to go skiing)….