This text is taken from Courrier de l’ économique. To subscribe, click here.
To attract and retain employees, the tourism industry is trying to provide more and more stability to workers with traditionally seasonal jobs. This involves, in particular, job matching and employee sharing between companies.
Five years ago, there were 82 year-round employees at Bromont, a mountain of experience. Today, there are 179. This increase is explained by the growth of the company’s activities and the creation of around twenty positions combining summer and winter employment.
“We have a painter who works in the summer and who, in the winter, joins our team of patrollers,” reports Mélanie Fortier, senior talent acquisition advisor for the company.
As the activities are mainly centered on skiing, there is still three times more labor in winter at the Bromont mountain, or more than 1,700 workers. But its summer activities are growing more and more. In the summer, ski lift operators will “put the mountain bikes on the chairs” or, since last year, hold adventure activities.
A small employer in Bromont who does landscaping sends me people to work on the snow in the winter. There are three employees of the Château Bromont golf course who will work with us on the course in the winter, then return to the golf course in the summer. It’s brand new
Yves Juneau, president and CEO of the Association of Quebec Ski Resorts, believes that it is to the advantage of companies to offer more and more long-term positions to have competent staff. “The visitor experience will also benefit,” he adds.
Bromont, montagne d’experience is also starting to enter into agreements with other companies to accommodate employees. “A small employer in Bromont who does landscaping sends me people to work on the snow in the winter. There are three employees of the Château Bromont golf course who will work with us on the course in the winter, then return to the golf course in the summer. It’s brand new,” says M.me Fortier.
Share employees
The Quebec Council for Human Resources in Tourism (CQRHT) has just officially launched a platform, Boomerang, to facilitate this type of collaboration. “We did a survey of our workforce in the tourism industry, and 23% told us that they were interested in being shared to work all year round,” indicates Xavier Gret, general director of the CQRHT . The platform makes it easier for workers to build a schedule consisting of shifts for two or three collaborating employers.
Even if the labor shortage is less felt this year in the industry, approximately 17,500 positions are to be filled at the moment. The needs are increasingly greater in winter. This is why 40 companies in 12 regions are organizing winter open houses for the first time on Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5. Tours, workshops, meetings with workers and even job interviews are on the menu at participating hotels, parks, museums and convention centers.
The objective is to raise awareness and promote the approximately 400 different professions in the tourism industry, many of which are little known. Have you thought about becoming a snow skier, dog sled guide, ski lift mechanic or banquet server?