Competing with companies and provinces for resources.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: SKILLED TRADES

As major companies like CVRD-Inco and Xstrata plc are able to offer stronger salaries and benefits than service and supply firms who require many of the same skilled workers, many of these smaller companies are being increasingly careful about how they choose to compete for people.

"You want to offer competitive wages, but you don't want to cost yourself out of business," says Bart Hurley, marketing manager, Hurley Ventilation Technologies Inc.

"The cycle is high right now, and although some are calling it a super-cycle, you want to make sure that when the cycle drops you're not forced to fire people to keep yourself afloat. Nobody wants to have to fire skilled employees."

Although business at the Lively company is booming, Hurley says employee retention has become an ongoing issue as many of the company's welders have been scooped up by the competition or drawn out to the Albertan oil fields in the last five years.

Hurley says the problem has been worsened by the fact that the specialty nature of the work requires a three-month training period, creating lags which further increase pressure on the company

As a result, the company is trying to manage its growth appropriately, remaining equally mindful of new business opportunities as it is for the need to keep pace with its employee base, he says.

With a branch in Nevada, Cast Resource Equipment Ltd. is seeing much of the same lack of skilled labor in the United States market as it is in its Lively-based business.

"It's definitely a global problem," says Mike Castron, technical sales representative at the 35-employee firm. "It's forcing small companies everywhere to think outside the box to try and solve the problem."

With this in mind, Castron says that it's not unheard of for some companies to hire skilled labor from other countries.

"I've even heard of a mining services company in Manitoba hiring skilled trades workers from South Africa."

To successfully attract the necessary workers, smaller companies need to leverage their strengths, as competing with the bigger players on a financial level can spell trouble in the long run, he says.

This means taking advantage of the company's smaller size to create a competitive working environment. This...