Business Retention and Expansion Final Report - City of Brantford

51Forty-one percent (41%) of the businesses surveyed reported an increase in employees in the past three years. The mainreasons reported were: other (33%), an increase in sales (31%), management effectiveness (27%) and a change incorporate decisions or policies (27%). Forty-either percent (48%) think that the number of employees will remain thesame in the next 3 years and forty-four percent (44%) think it will increase for the following reasons: increase in sales(50%), corporate decisions or polices (40%) and new products or services being introduced (38%).Availability of workers was deemed excellent to good by 59% of the businesses interviewed and fair to poor by 42%.Difficulties expressed were that employees were hard to find and most need specialized training.The quality of the workforce was rated as excellent to good by 79% of the businesses, and fair to poor by 22%. Themajor concerns noted were lack of training and the tendency to “recycle”.Stability of the workforce was rated as excellent to good by 72%. Twenty-seven percent (27%) rated the stability of theworkforce as fair to poor. Some businesses reported that once trained, they would then lose the employee to othercommunities.The current type of employees needed and the current number of employees needed and projected needs inthree (3) years are:Type of Employee Current ProjectedSkilled trades 54 50Unskilled trades 136 123Industry specialists 8 9Manufacturing technology 0 0Environmental technology/management 5 7Electric engineering 1 2Clerical 148 63Sales 17 21Business administration 29 39Product development 1 2Market development 3 4Other business needs 141 159Apprenticeship 0 0Total Employee Needed 543 479In total there are 543 employees needed currently and 479 projected over the next three years.Sixty-nine percent (69%) of businesses believe they are able to recruit sufficient qualified employees, while thirty-onepercent (31%) were having problems recruiting labour. The recruitment difficulties were noted to be related to both theindustry sector and the availability of qualified skilled resources locally. A large majority of the businesses surveyed arehaving no difficulties retaining employees (78%). Those that were having problems retaining employees cited “other”(44%), wages (39%), seasonal (28%) and competition (22%) as reasons for these difficulties.Sixty-nine percent (69%) of those answering the survey would like information on employee retention strategies.Workforce skill improvement needs were cited in computer software, customer service and sales and marketing.Seventy-nine percent (79%) of businesses were training employees in-house while customized training (49%) and university(30%) and local community college (30%) were the next most commonly used sources, followed by distanceeducation (28%).