A report by Hays Canada shows the following predictions based on a survey of 3000 Canadian employers:

• Overall, Canada faces a shortage of skills and candidates, in addition to an ageing workforce as the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age. Research by TD Bank shows that Canada will need 360,000 immigrants every year from 2016 if it’s to maintain adequate growth.
• Hiring strategies in 2013 will be aimed strategically to attract particular skills and professions rather than a wide recruitment. It is expected to be extremely difficult to recruit top talent in certain skill areas.
• 62% of employers expect business activity to increase in the next year
• 35% of employers expect their permanent staff to increase to handle this higher activity
• The survey found that slightly less than half of all employers will increase salaries by less than three percent, while 37% of employers will increase salaries between three and six percent.

Tons of interesting articles get buried under new content every day on the web. Find a great read one day, but lose it the next. We try to keep an eye on industry trends and interesting writings to share with our followers, but in case you missed them,  here is a list of some recent HR and Recruiter related articles we’ve shared to our @HireGroundATS Twitter followers:

• Oil Sands will be Canada’s Economic Engine for next 30 years: Deloitte
• 9% of Workers Have Landed their Childhood Dream Job
• 44% of Workers Feel Overqualified for their Job
• Facebook Careers Site More Aggregator than Job Board

These will be the five hardest slots for you (and any start-up) to fill in the new year

The year flew by mostly because it was a very, very busy one.

Although the economy continues to face many challenges, the startup and tech industries are very much alive.  The IPO window slightly opened up for companies like LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon, Zynga, and Carbonite.  We saw monster rounds of funding for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox.  The appetite for seed and angel investing was extremely active.  Tech incubators and accelerator programs kept popping up.

It was also a very busy year for hiring at startup companies, as you know, and it doesn’t look like that will slow down in 2012.  We’ve certainly seen opinions on both sides of the fence as to whether or not there is a tech bubble or 2012 will be another active year of investing.  I’m an optimist and I believe the pace of investing will remain consistent.  Yes, some companies will fail, of course, but others will scale and grow their teams at a steady clip.

Hiring the best of the best is an absolute must if you are going to build a successful company.  You will need to be prepared to compete against big companies with deep pockets and other up-and-coming startups that also have blue chip investors and a game-changing idea.

So, what are the most competitive areas for talent these days?  Here’s a look:

5: Software Engineers and Web Developers

The demand for top-tier engineering talent sharply outweighs the supply in almost every market especially in San Francisco, New York, and Boston.  This is a major, major pain point and problem that almost every company is facing, regardless of the technology “stack” their engineers are working on.

4: Creative Design and User Experience

After engineers, the biggest challenge for companies is finding high-quality creative design and user-experience talent.  Since almost every company is trying to create a highly compelling user experience that keeps people engaged with their product, it is tough to find people who have this type of experience (especially with mobile devices including tablets) and a demonstrated track record of success.

3: Product Management

It is always helpful for an early-stage company to hire someone who has very relevant and specific experience in your industry.  This is especially true for product management, since the person in this role will interface with customers and define the product strategy and use cases.  However, be prepared, as it will be a challenge to find people with experience in these high-growth industries: consumer web, e-commerce, mobile, software as a service, and cloud computing.

2: Marketing

I’m not talking about old-school marketing communications. Companies are looking for expert online marketers who know how to create a buzz of inbound marketing or viral traffic through the web, social media, and content discovery.  Writing a good press release just doesn’t cut it anymore, as everyone is looking for the savvy online marketing professional who understands how the current state of the web operates and knows how to make it work to their benefit.

1: Analytics

Since data is becoming more and more accessible, smart companies are increasingly making decisions driven by metrics.  Analytics is becoming a central hub across companies where everything (web, marketing, sales, operations) is being measured and each decision is supported by data.  Thus, we are seeing a high level of demand for analytics and business intelligence professionals who almost act like internal consultants; they help determine what should be measured and then build out the capability for a company.

Source ( Keith Cline |  @VentureFizz   | Dec 19, 2011 http://www.inc.com/keith-cline/talent-shortages-in-2012.html)

HireGround Software Solutions is attending both the BCHRMA (www.bchrma.org)  and HRIA (www.hria.ca) Conferences in Vancouver and Edmonton, respectively. We invite anyone interested in more information on either our Applicant Tracking Software and related HR tools or the HireGround Job Board to stop by our booth. We will be in booth 312 at the BCHRMA Conference and in booth 223 at the HRIA Conference. If you wish more information on our ATS products, please visit www.HireGroundSoftware.com to view a complete listing of our product line with contacts. To see more information on the HireGround Technical Job Board visit  www.HGcareers.com. 

For those who are new to our job board and have a in excess of 15 positions to fill, we offer a one month trial on the HireGround Job Board free of charge. The HireGround Job Board focuses on the energy, mining, engineering, manufacturing, construction, and other skilled trade industries.

Our Applicant Tracking Software is a ”best of breed” recruitment software with full function for managing the intake of your jobs for one or more divisions. There are many unique configurations available for a host of needs for a host of industries or variable company sizes. We pride ourselves on our excellent support and service.

We look forward to seeing you at one or both conferences.

Every month we want to promote great HR people we think you should follow, and why. Last month we chose which blogs to follow, and it was a huge success! So here we go again:

• OpenForum.ca: a large corporate blog that covers everything from money to marketing, OpenForum.ca has articles written by international and world-renowned CEOs, Editor-in-Chiefs, and small business experts.
• Capterra Blog: Capterra.ca’s corporate blog has great articles related to all kinds of corporate software.
• Pivitol Solutions HR Blog: A truly Canadian blog, Pivitol Solutions has grown to become a leader in providing the broadest range of HR solutions for companies in Canada.

Just a few weeks ago, the University of Lethbridge put out a Request for Proposal: what were they looking for? An Applicant Tracking System. The University realized that with over 4,000 employees, from teachers to administration, they could no longer afford to fill new positions the old fashioned way: they needed a fast, sturdy, complex system that would symplify their hiring needs and ease the heavy burden placed on their human resources department.

Not only can the University use an Applicant Tracking System to help them hire anyone from marketing to IT support, they can also use it to bring on new students and help them through the application process. Tamara Joiner explains some of the benefits of an Applicant Tracking System to include:

• Finding the right candidates within the least amount of time and for the most minimal cost.
• Matching candidate profiles to job descriptions and short-listing candidates through automated screening processes that lessen the activities required by your recruiters.
• Storing candidate information in a central repository for easy retrieval later.
• Reducing the dollars spent on employment ads.
• Eliminate paper applications!
• Generating reports and metrics to track recruiter productivity.
• Integration with HRIS = reduction in paper and reduction in time spent creating employee records

And those are just a few of the benefits, she says. She says that “Having an ATS will drastically improve the candidate experience by creating a tailored and intuitive environment and by providing access to your company information. Linking the ATS to a performance management tool will enhance the employer’s ability to manage the employee. Having an ATS absolutely reduces the manual recruitment activities, allowing your recruiters to 1) focus on other tasks 2) fill positions quicker, and equally as important, 3) do these things at the most minimal cost possible.”

Good luck University of Lethbridge: we hope you find the best, most robust system you need.