New CTHRC tools to help trucking companies hire and retain newcomers
The Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council (CTHRC) has unveiled a new series of tools it says will help trucking companies attract, hire and integrate Canada’s newcomers – a source of workers who are expected to play an increasing role in meeting the industry’s labour needs.
“The trucking industry faces a deepening labour shortage. More than 500,000 people already enjoy careers in Canada’s trucking industry, and they deliver 90% of all consumer foods and products, but the existing workforce is aging and must be renewed by a new generation of employees, said CTHRC Executive Director Angela Splinter.
About six in 10 fleets now struggle to find drivers, and the number of jobs in the trucking industry is expected to grow 26.6% between 2011 and 2021, CTHRC research shows.
Newcomers will play an important role in any solution. Immigrants account for one in five new job seekers in Canada, and some fleets are already turning to internationally trained workers to fill severe, regional shortages in long-haul truck drivers.
“Employers also need to successfully integrate and retain the newcomers they attract,” Splinter adds. “It costs as much as $10,000 to recruit and train a new truck driver, and this is on top of the business opportunities that are lost when jobs are unfilled.”
The CTHRC’s tools are available through the new web portal at www.cthrc.com/fcr along with an array of practical support. Resources aim to help newcomers determine if a career in Canada’s trucking industry is right for them; show employers how to attract, hire and integrate newcomers into a Canadian workplace; and supply Immigrant Serving Organizations with several resources to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
Newcomers considering careers in trucking can turn to the Trucking in Canada Orientation Guide, which provides an essential overview of Canada and its trucking industry. Related fact sheets highlight important steps in Canada’s immigration process.
Employers can turn to the updated Your Guide to Human Resources: Volume 2, which offers practical tools and checklists to build an inclusive, multicultural workforce. Lessons based on this guide are also available through educational seminars now being offered by CTHRC advisors, said a release.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.
Just focusing on getting and keeping newcommers is a very short sighted solution to a complex problem that been plaguing the industry for years.
The trucking companies also have to do their part by making the job more attractive to potential local employees and then finding ways to retain those employees but also keep them in the business because many new drivers get discouraged within weeks of either looking for work or having companies taking advantage of their inexperience after they get hired.
Bringing in foreign labour has only made things worst for drivers making them more disposable due to the fact that companies can replace them with foreign labour, the companies are too reliant now on foreign labour to the point where now they there is a whole system in place where companies are posting job ads with no company name, address or wage paid looking for drivers just to satisfy the requirement of the LMO (Labour Market Opinion) or AEO(Arranged Employment Opinion) some even say it on there ads that they are LMO available, the many web classified are full of those kind of ads and they are not interested in hiring local drivers and refuse to even disclose their name, address and wages paid to applicants while still asking for resumes, driver abstract, port pass number and fast pass number which of course any intelligent truck driver would refuse to send without getting all the info from the company first.
Many of those companies also have very high expectation of their local applicants, minimum of 2 years experience, a clean driving record, transport of dangerous goods cert., WHMIS training, port pass, fast pass I can’t really think of many jobs that has such low wages but all these requirements and I seriously doubt that the newcommer does too, but the companies will look passed all these requirement for a newcommer.
But in the transport industry that