Williams Lake will be getting a business liaison to assist employers better understand and navigate the processes for all available hiring options so that they can make more proactive recruitment efforts.
“Williams Lake Hiring Initiative is a partnership funded by the government of Canada and the province, and it’s a labour market partnership,” said Beth Veenkamp, Economic Development Officer for the City of Williams Lake.
“We applied for this as a response to what we’ve been hearing in the community since the 2017 wildfires around the need for assistance in recruiting employees.”
The $99,000 worth of funding provided by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction will allow the project to be carried by the business liaison who will work out of the Community Futures office for one year.
Veenkamp said the liaison officer will be supervised from the Economic Development Office from the City of Williams Lake with a steering committee made up of local partners that will be overseeing the work and providing general direction.
“The City of Williams Lake has been working with several organizations in the community and employment recruiting keeps coming up as one of the most challenging things happening within our community right now,” Veenkamp said.
“We partnered with the Thrive Project to do the What Works! event in February and we’re really pleased that we’re going to be able to follow up this project with this very proactive, innovative, and hopefully useful solution for local area employers to tap into.”
(Editor’s Note: Listen to Beth Veenkamp, Economic Development Officer for the City of Williams Lake in the audio file below)