About us

Mindfield is a pioneering force in Hourly Employee Recruitment, providing tailored solutions for businesses to easily attract and hire high-quality hourly workers. With deep industry expertise and cutting-edge technology, we make the hiring process simpler, more efficient, and more effective.

To start, I’d like to frame each newsletter within a certain perspective that’s been ringing in my thoughts lately. Here’s this weeks:

(Sometimes Not So) Deep Thoughts:

The world of talent acquisition is no longer bound by conventional norms. It's a realm of AI, fierce competition for skilled workers, international talent exploration, and the pursuit of flexible work arrangements. This makes it critical for Canadian talent acquisition teams to keep up and adopt smart recruitment strategies. 

And that’s exactly what we do at Mindfield. We’re a pioneering force in Hourly Employee Recruitment and have deep industry expertise to make hiring simpler, more efficient and more effective for HR and hiring managers like yourself. 

This is why it’s important for us to have this forum with The Hourly Minute. I’m committed to share immediate trends, insights, and recommendations as I learn them. By doing so, we’ll all be able to adapt our strategies and pivot as needed.

🎉 The Seasonal Hiring Season Is Here! 🎁

At Mindfield, we helped our clients hire over 2,400 seasonal staff last year, with an average cost of less than $300 per hire. This year, we're gearing up to exceed 3,000 hires! Here are some of our tried-and-true tips for success:

1. Early Job Openings: Start early! Give yourself at least 30 days to fill all your seasonal positions. This allows for a more comprehensive sourcing strategy, resulting in higher-quality hires.

2. Diversify Your Sourcing: Don't rely solely on job boards like Indeed. While National Hiring Days are fantastic, they typically cover only 50-75% of your hiring needs. To fill the remaining 25-50%, utilize email and text campaigns, direct calling, and social ads, especially in challenging markets.

3. Mini Hiring Events: To keep hiring managers productive, designate one afternoon per week for 4-6 weeks as a mini hiring event. During these periods, they can interview 3-10 candidates in 2-3 hours, reducing the need for daily recruiting efforts.

4. Overhire Slightly: Expect a 15-25% attrition rate in the first 30 days of seasonal hires. Many of these individuals might be seeking more long-term opportunities. Offering some job security beyond December can help retain quality talent.

5.  Flexibility Matters: Be open to hiring individuals who can only work part-time or a few days a week. Many job seekers are looking for side gigs to supplement their main income

While there's no foolproof method to guarantee full holiday staffing, these strategies should give you a head start on a successful seasonal hiring season! 🌟🎄

Talent Acquisition Round Table Discussion in Vancouver

Last week in Vancouver, I had the opportunity to sit down with some of the brightest minds in talent acquisition for a fantastic round table dinner discussion.  We had a total of 7 TA leaders attend from Seaspan, Canfor, Sanctuary.AI, Meta, Vancity, Arc’teryx and Article Furniture. 

None of these are exceptionally surprising but it’s always telling when numerous experts are drawing similar conclusions.

1. AI in Talent Acquisition:

While AI is intriguing, its predominant use lies in ChatGPT prompts, boolean searches, written communication, and job description optimization. How this will pan out in the future is difficult to predict. At times the race towards automation may not work out long-term. A recent newsletter by The Hustle pointed out how self-checkouts at big name stores like Walmart and Costco may be a cautionary tale. Whether it’s customer issues, theft, or the large expense, self-checkouts are not necessarily the be-all solution it was once thought of. 

2. Hourly Front-line Recruitment Challenge:

We've all been there – the continuous struggle to find the perfect front-line hourly workers. Many organizations find hourly front-line recruitment to be a persistent challenge, diverting resources away from strategic executive and management-level recruitment efforts.

3. Competition for Quality Tradespeople:

The competition for high-quality tradespeople is fierce, with companies offering signing bonuses, increased wages, and greater flexibility to attract and retain talent. 

4. International Talent Consideration:

Employers are interested in international talent, but the slow and challenging immigration process presents hurdles in getting staff back on-site. In BC just this week, Premier David Eby announced plans to attract and fast-track immigration of skilled professionals. The International Credential Act (Bill 38) will remove a number of barriers in BC for 29 professions, including engineers. The full bill details can be found here.

5. Flexible Work Arrangements:

Work is no longer one-size-fits-all. Prospective employees increasingly seek flexibility in their work arrangements, including the choice to work from home, the office, or a hybrid model. Mandatory office hours can hinder recruiting efforts. 

6. Smart Recruitment Strategy: 

Recruitment teams are adopting smart strategies by placing additional job requisitions on a waiting list when they reach capacity. This approach ensures a positive candidate experience and shorter time-to-hire. If TA becomes overloaded, hiring manager experience improves by having jobs in the queue.

7. Priority Shift: 

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are no longer the top priority. Instead, new tools such as chatbots, scheduling platforms, and job content creation tools are at the forefront of recruiters' minds.

Memes (that made us laugh, think, spit out our coffee)

And on a lighter note, I’d like to share this Halloween Costume Ideas for that one Hiring Manager near and dear to your hearts: (via Adam Karpiak | Linkedin)

And that’s all for this week, we’ll keep it appropriately light for our first edition. If you have any questions, stories to share, or ideas for future topics, don't hesitate to reach out. After all, The Hourly Minute is all about community and collaboration. Your support keeps us going, and we can't wait to embark on this adventure together.