Connections are being made through a new employer database in Timmins.
The database helps arrange the sharing of an employee between two or more employers who need someone with a similar skill set.
“It’s been great so far, it’s a great initiative and we’re just really trying to let employers know,” said Scott McDowell, Northern College labour market research assistant.
McDowell talked about the how the program works and its benefits at the Timmins Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly membership meeting.
“In 2016, the greatest number of projected hires included general labourers, receptionists and sales people. These individuals have those transferrable skills, so say two employers collaborated to share a part-time sales person, this person would then have the potential to obtain those full-time hours and have a secure income and hopefully potentially you can retain the talent for both the employer as well as the north as a whole,” said McDowell.
“It’s a unique opportunity where this employee can go across multiple industries and obtain additional skillsets that they can then bring back to those employers.”
The database came about through a series of events.
“Employers were experiencing a loss of those great employees to the next best full-time opportunity,” he said, adding that leaving was attributed to not getting the desired hours.
For employees, he said it’s difficult to juggle multiple part time positions.
While this program will see them working for a couple companies, McDowell said the co-ordination is done by the employers.
The database launched with the chamber in February, and the downtown Timmins BIA in March.
“It went over pretty well, we’ve had quite a few responses, we’ve made a couple of matches. We’re hopefully going to be releasing some of those success stories soon,” he said.
One recent match has been for seasonal employment.
“It’s great because now that individual will have that guarantee of that full-time, year-round employment and when their time’s up in the summer, they’ll move to the winter employment and then these individuals have those transferrable skills that are adaptable to just about any industry,” he said.
There are two ways that McDowell sees how the matches are made.
The first is when two employers are both in need of an employee.
A company can also offer an employee to the job bank.
“That’s if you have that great non-full-time employee, but you really don’t want to lose them. They’re a great employee you just for whatever reason can’t provide them with…full-time hours. You enter them in there and you offer them to another employer,” he said.
Right now, McDowell is manually making the matches with the information that is received.
Through different conversations, he said the goal is to arrange an amicable sharing arrangement.
More information and registration for the database is available here.
