Floor space

“We primarily use the HRDC [Human Resources Development Canada] Job Bank website, because newspaper advertising is so expensive. The results have been pretty decent. We can do prolonged searches for just the right people at no cost. We will possibly try Kijiji next time, again because it’s no cost.”

-Soren Holm, president, Soren Holm Inc., Mississauga, ON

“We use the Job Bank, newspaper and word-of-mouth.”

-Peter Alden, co-owner, Wessex Precision Machining Ltd., Ayr, ON

“We advertise careers via Job Bank.”

-Jason Bannerman, president, Xakt Komponents, Brampton, ON

“We recruit workers by both methods mentioned. Our ads are posted on our website via our employment blog or from the local newspaper. Although not as efficient as newspaper advertising, we have attained some of our best employees by word-of-mouth.”

-Adriano Oppio, vice president, Classic Tool & Die, Oldcastle, ON

“Most of the new employees are word-of-mouth. When we have more specific needs or want to bring in more specialized expertise, then we use web-based job postings. Being in rural Canada, it’s harder to find the specialized expertise, which is the reason we tend to use outside advertising.”

-Marco Gagnon, co-owner, Gagnon Ornamental Works, Grand Falls, NB

“On occasion we will get a personal referral. We advertise predominantly on the Internet, but also through the local newspapers. As we use temporary personnel, we get most of our people through an agency.”

-Debbie Blowe, Systems Manager, Vibra Finish, Mississauga, ON

“New recruits are hard to find. There are some drawbacks in both of these ways. If I use word-of-mouth, then it doesn’t travel very far and I end up with someone that my employees know and then we have this buddy buddy chit chat going when I hire them. Also, I find that local talent isn’t that great (no offence to my town) but recruiting from other locations can bring on new ideas and a change in personalities. If I advertise then I get hundreds of applicants and that makes for a lot of work and a lot of interviews. We usually start with temps (from a local temp service) and if one of them shows that they have what it takes, we wait out their term and then hire them full time. This gives us the opportunity to let the bad ones go if they don’t work out and there are no hard feelings.”

-Larry Stuyt, president, Ontario Laser Cutting, Tillsonburg, ON

“I like the Toronto Sun. Have done [other sources] but I get the best response from the Sun.”

-Rob Muru, president, A-Line Tool, Toronto, ON

“TMW recruits using a number of strategies including word-of-mouth, online advertising, student placements as well as direct recruiting. Most often we find our own staff are our best recruiters because they tell potential machinists their personal experience working in our shop and that kind of advertising just can’t be purchased. It speaks volumes about the organizational culture. We are very proud of the work we do at TMW and the customers we serve. Our success is a result of the high calibre of work our machinists produce. We have very talented people.”

-Ron Marks, president, Techtronics Machine Works, Musquodoboit Harbour, NS

“We have not hired much over the last couple of years. But in the past we used the newspapers for skilled trades. For technician/technologist types, we’ve used the college online system called Campus Work Link.”

-David Foscarini, president, Mecon Industries Ltd., Scarborough, ON

http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/intro-eng.aspx (Job Bank)

www.CampusWorkLink.com (Campus Work Link)