Call centres in Sault Ste. Marie are facing a critical labour shortage in anticipating a shortfall of 1,000 workers before Christmas.
This shortage covers the gamut from entry-level positions to back-end technical support workers.
To that end, the city’s economic development corporation is pulling together a print and Internet-based marketing campaign promoting the call centre industry, to entice former Sault residents across Northern and southern Ontario to consider coming home.
City council committed $35,000 in September to assist call centres with employment recruitment.
Their target focus will be appealing to former Sault residents living elsewhere to consider returning home.
The Web site will list contact information and the types of jobs offered at each call centre.
City statistics show that between 2002 and the end of June 2004, 494 full-time jobs have been created in the local customer contact industry (call centres), off the rolls of Ontario Works.
“We could fill a call centre with the people who found jobs off of welfare,” says Danny Krmpotich, the city’s human resources specialist for the EDC and Ontario Works.
Krmpotich says the local industry has matured since the first call centre appeared in the scene in the late 1990s.
Some call centres offer more high-tech jobs, requiring greater computer literacy, with many jobs paying as much as $16 per hour.
City officials were planning a call centre industry week this fall to get the message across to area employment counsellors, case managers and service providers.
