ILC to recruit more nationalities in 2012

Saskatoon – The International Labour Centre (ILC) will step up its recruiting of immigrant workers from eastern European countries other than Ukraine in 2012 for a variety of oilfield jobs and related positions in Western Canada.

Since opening an office in Saskatoon in May after seven years of recruiting Ukrainian workers in Kiev, ILC began to broaden its recruiting scope to fill the hiring needs of oil and gas companies and associated businesses in transportation and trades.

“The main development for us in 2012 is expanding to recruiting from not only Ukraine, but also other nationalities, to provide employers with more choice and diff erent levels of experience and different levels of English as well,” said Gareth Charpentier, marketing and sales manager.

The first wave of experienced truck drivers of Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovakian and Irish descent recruited from Ireland for a Saskatchewan based transportation company arrived in Saskatoon in August and September.

The fact that all of the drivers had work experience in Ireland for at least the past three to five years means their English speaking skills have not been a barrier like it can be when hiring other nationalities.

“We are going to be continuing to recruit from Ireland for truck drivers,” said Charpentier.

“Mainly in 2012, we are focused on recruiting eastern Europeans for a variety of jobs because we found that we have the ability to understand their culture and communicate with them when they arrive.

“We have people in our office who speak Ukrainian and Russian, and in a lot of places in eastern Europe, they speak Russian.

“We see that there is a really strong demand in transportation, but as well we are going to be continuing to target the oil and gas sector because of the fact there is such a demand, especially in Alberta, where there is a lot more oil and gas development.”

Approximately, 20 oil rig floorhands from the Ukraine were recruited for a Lloydminster company in 2011 and more are on their way.

“We are targeting to bring in about 50 floorhands and possibly more to Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2012. That’s part of our plan,” said Charpentier.

Charpentier says ILC can help rig operators replace those skilled workers who didn’t return to the industry after the recession hit in 2008, forcing companies to compete for workers. Since 2004, ILC has helped companies in a variety of economic sectors in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario hire over 1,100 Ukrainian skilled workers.

ILC’s focus is to find the right worker for an employer’s needs.

“I think that the big success about our work is that we are very much a labour market kind of business,” said Charpentier.

“We are not only just looking at what’s right for the candidate, but what’s right for the employer. Hiring a worker is a lot of work and you want to make sure you get the right person.

“I think a lot of companies just go and find workers and just try to push the workers through to different companies.

“We have a much more consultative process where we are looking at the labour needs of the company and trying to find the right worker for that company based on their skills.”

For example, the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology works with ILC to prepare benchmark learning and skill levels for welders recruited from Kiev.

“We can also ask employers what are the most important welding tasks that you do in your business and we will have these welders in Ukraine tested to see if they have the skills to be able do these processes,” said Charpentier.

“The employer is able to choose a welder that they know is going to be able to do the work before they arrive.”

ILC recruited about 200 skilled workers for jobs in Saskatchewan in 2011 and approximately 600 to 700 workers and their families since 2004.

About 70 percent of successful recruits and their families come to Canada with the assistance of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program and receive settlement support from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Approximately 30 per cent of successful recruits are hired through the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Charpentier says companies in Western Canada widely apply to recruit immigrant rig floor hands in Ukraine because they are able to show the federal government they can’t fill these entry level positions locally.

“We were approached recently by a company that had positions for a rig operator, derrick hands and floor hand positions,” he said.

“The fact they are coming from abroad and coming into an entry level position, it’s kind of easier for them to work their way up after they have come.

“The guys that we have been bringing in to these positions definitely have the qualifications of a rig operator.” Charpentier says the new floor hands hired by ILC’s client in Lloydminster are exceeding expectations since many of the recruits were educated at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas in Ukraine.

“A lot of these guys have at least five years of experience before they come over,” he said.

“These guys are kind of blowing the local guys out of the water because of the fact they are motivated to make Canada their home,” he said.

“They are also motivated to earn money and work overtime, and the employer is very happy with their skills, and says from the beginning you could tell they know what they are doing.”

The number of recruiting inquires to ILC has increased since the opening of the Saskatoon office including calls for skilled positions in other sectors such as meat processing, agriculture, health care, construction, hospitality, manufacturing and transportation.

“We have been working to recruit a lot of welders, machinists and industrial painters – just a lot of trades – for workers that are working in industries that are supporting the oil and gas industry and truck drivers as well,” said Charpentier.

“It’s not necessarily all oil and gas related, but currently, we are working to recruit truck drivers for a company in Saskatchewan that does liquid and dry bulk transport, and part of that is hauling petroleum and fuel.

“We are getting a lot of demand for a lot of trades people.”

ILC is also looking to hire another office employee in Saskatoon to allow Charpentier to focus on managing a growing project list that includes promoting ILC’s services to more clients.

“December is meeting month and planning for 2012. In the new year, we are planning to go out and knock on doors a lot more,” he said.

Source www.pipelinenews.ca