A Big Issue for Pros: Finding Skilled Staff

Over 90% of professionals are having a tough time finding skilled staff, according to this month’s Knowledge Bureau Report Poll.  We thank Anne Laurin, Founder and CEO of Tax Busters in Barrie, Ontario for her astute commentary on this critical issue for Canadian tax professionals.  She offers several reasons for this troubling trend, and we hope you will weigh in too.

The last two years were tough for families and the individual.  Many long term employees (25 ++ years on the job) were terminated by big companies, who took advantage of letting go of their higher earners. I saw this first-hand at tax time.  This workforce, limited with skills and older, most made a call to take a package and retire. 

Now, there skills are out of the work force and the companies are hiring at minimum wage. But, who wants minimum wage? The CERB proved that you can earn more collecting from the government then keeping a part-time job. The CERB was a wonderful bridge for many; please do not take it the wrong way, and this is not to disrespect anyone, but to show reasons to why we are possibly in this pickle. 

Second, people had to make a judgement call - wait for their trade or employer to start back up after COVID or find work elsewhere, and in most cases, people just found work somewhere else.

When the pandemic rules lifted, and things slowly turned back to normal, a war emerged, and sent prices through the roof, so now we are back to work, masks off, and faced with a housing market that doubled.  It cost the average family or individual $800 a month more in gas and food. ($100 a week in food and $100 a week in groceries and other items).

I have seen more couples make a call to have mom or dad stay at home and raise kids, as it is just that much easier and more affordable then to have both working, both spending money on work or gas, then pay the cost of day care.

Also, a new tend in one income households has evolved.  Many seniors passed in the last two years, leaving a wealthy estate behind and I know may people who have retired in their 50’s because they now can.  Many people shifted, moved and settled outside the hustle and that means their kids are no longer filling the retail gap by working in fast food, or other retail outlets.

This is also our first, normal summer, and people are making plans - should I continue to not work and enjoy the next two months or go back to work. Plan B wins.

The final icing on the cake is this: many are working for cash. I have been asked to pay in cash as an option, and one employee who had a full time job quit as he could work for cash and not deal with deductions or additional cost on gas. So he quit to work for cash. 

There are many more reasons, and I am sure I have only covered a few.

My husband’s Masonry company can not find bricklayers, we are spending good money on advertising. But now, we will take the next step and offer incentives above their already good paying wage. Incentives are for tenor and hopefully we can keep staff. We will offer a gas incentive to help with their overhead, as we need to be productive too.  We have to keep our business growing so we have to dig a little deeper into our pockets, we do not want the alternative. 

I am further disappointed that we see an increase in our bank rates today, I just shook my head, really….we need this now?? 

Editor’s Note:  We wish to thank Anne for these great observations on the state of the labor market from on the ground in Barrie.  How does your community compare?  We’d like to hear from you.  The question: Are you or your clients finding it more difficult to hire skilled people this year? What are the reasons for this?