Tourism HR Canada recently joined the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association (ORHMA) for its three-stop roadshow addressing pressing industry issues. The Hospitality Action Series offered tourism operators a free opportunity to learn about programs and resources to help them tackle workforce challenges and reduce high operating costs, as well as network ahead of the upcoming peak summer tourist season.
Dena Maxwell, Director, Workforce Development, spoke to audiences in Kitchener/Waterloo, London, and Kingston, detailing the current state of the tourism workforce and the impacts on businesses. She highlighted that while the public sees tourism as recovered, businesses are still struggling. There is a demand for workers, but employment remains precarious and there is a growing number of part-time workers despite the need to fill full-time jobs. Wages have increased, but retention and attraction rates have gone down. Despite appearances and soaring demand, tourism has not recovered, and the shortfall of workers will continue to hold the sector back against the rest of the economy.
To help with hiring and retention efforts, Dena provided an overview and links to the wide range of programming Tourism HR Canada offers:
- Now Hiring Guide: helping employers attract and retain workers in a post-pandemic environment.
- Discover Tourism: national attraction and retention career campaign, plus HR advice and tools for employers.
- Propel: the only Student Work Placement Program specific to tourism employers.
- Hiring International Talent (infographics): navigating Canada’s immigration system.Â
- And other supports such as webinars, Emerit training and certification, labour market information, and so on.
Thanks to ORHMA for hosting these key opportunities to connect directly with industry stakeholders and to all the attendees for the engaging dialogue.