March 2008 — VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3
Program may help keep staff
The new B.C. Provincial Nominee Program, which was launched in British Columbia last month, may help Sun Peaks retain staff in the busy winter season.
The program is aimed at tourism and hospitality workers such as front desk receptionists, servers and housekeepers, as well as the trucking industry, and allows immigrants who bring needed skills to British Columbia, and their immediate families, to obtain permanent residency more quickly. It will also help offset problems of workers having to leave because of visa expirations.
Last month Delta Sun Peaks Resort welcomed 12 new staff from Jamaica under the program. They will start in the housekeeping department on a two-year contract with the hotel.
Joel Rivera, people resources manager for the Delta Sun Peaks Resort, says the program will be great for retaining staff and maintaining a consistent service level.
"We try to deliver a consistent product to represent Sun Peaks and Delta Hotels and that being said, it's probably going to raise the bar," he says. "They're going to take it to the next level."
Jennifer Crawford, human resources co-ordinator for the Sun Peaks Resort Corporation, says there are other difficulties involved in staffing the resort, but the program will help. "The biggest issue with getting staff is still housing, but I think the nominee program will help to retain some of them," she says.
According to a press release, based on industry growth patterns, British Columbia's tourism and hospitality industry will need 84,000 more workers in the next decade-an average of one new job every hour for the next 10 years. As the province's economy keeps growing it has been projected that one million jobs will be created within the next 12 years; however, only 650,000 people are currently in the provincial school system.
British Columbia and Alberta have faced extreme labour shortages within the tourism and hospitality industry, and Rivera says it's been a challenge for many properties and areas to recruit staff locally, as well as nationally.
Rivera says criteria for endorsing the program include advertising for staff locally and nationally before turning to the Nominee Program to recruit internationally. The program also requires employers to offer good employment prospects and working conditions.
For Sun Peaks, where the local population more than doubles in the winter season, it could mean a more stable core group of staff and Rivera believes it will help increase morale and help lessen the turnover.
“People come for a season and leave,” she says. “These are people that are going to be with us long-term.”
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