Staffing for Canada Week

This week marks Staffing for Canada Week. There are thousands of industries, and many have been around for decades, but few have existed as long as the Staffing industry. Most people don’t realize that the business of recruitment and temporary staffing is one of the most successful long standing industries. I have many good friends in the Staffing industry, and I am not aware of any other group of competitors in any type of industry who truly like each other, understand each other, and share with each other, like the Staffing industry. This type of work is not for everyone, certainly not for the weak hearted, and we work very hard to place the right candidates with our clients.

As the unemployment rate continues to fall, sourcing candidates becomes more and more difficult. Staffing agencies need to be the best, the fastest, and the most attractive to candidates. Stress levels begin to rise when clients need to hire quickly, and the pressure can be unimaginable. We are trained to read between the lines, assess people quickly and accurately, and to think outside the box every minute of every day. Sometimes our industry makes the employment world look easy, because we live and breathe staffing; we are professionals and we are required to be licensed.

The staffing industry pros need to know a lot about human resources, labour standards, human rights, privacy issues, and enough on virtually every other industry we fill positions for in order to truly understand our clients’ needs. We watch the unemployment rates, and pay attention to world events and the local economy, so that we are prepared to fill jobs quickly and accurately. We try to understand what people want and need, what businesses can live with and without, in a very small window of time, and get it right the first time. We serve a purpose, filling short and long term job requirements, and sometimes we don’t know which it will be.

We care about our clients and our candidates, and we care about each other. Most industries do not communicate like the Staffing industry; we, whether big, small, specialized, generalists, new or old, all share the same desire to place as many candidates as possible in the right roles. And we play an important role in supporting our community, keeping businesses operating smoothly.

The staffing industry is not the easiest way to make a living, but it is extremely fulfilling, and the rewards come with the relationships that are built overtime. Our industry has survived many lows, from the great depression through to this last recession, and we continue to look forward, to greater things to come, such as the growing need for workplace flexibility.

Very few industries have earned the right to celebrate a week in their honour, so for those touched by the Staffing industry, Happy Staffing for Canada Week! I, for one, am proud to be a part of the Staffing industry, and I know my staffing friends are too.