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14 saturday june 7 2003 economist sunsuntribujnte a i employers face challenge maintaining stable effective workforce goes beyond wages by jeff mitchell staff writer when sabrina fried paused during her studies to envision her future beyond university she saw herself ensconced in a secure job with a progressive publishing company the reality of the working world has turned out differently however ms fried 24 has yet to land that longtenh fulltime position she hasfallen back on retail sales which sustained her through school in addition to tak ing whatever editing work she can get paying or nonrpaying as away to get her foot in the door lack of recognition is a big one everybody wants to feel as if theyre doing a good job and theyre contributing to put it bluntly im still working retail she said in an interview from her thornhill home i have twpdegrees and im stiu working retail ms frieds goal for a secure fulltime position is increasingly sought by workers accordirigto research a poll conducted for robert half international an interna- tional temporary staffing agency j mdlcated 65 per cent of workers z surveyed preferred the security of their existing jobs over the lure of taking a chance on the open market ij the result is surprising per- j haps because of the way in which the question was present- c staff photosjoerd witteveen freelance editor sabrina friedas goal of a secure fulltime job is one that is increasingly soughtby work ers according to research v ed workers were asked if the econofny improved how likely would you bje to make a job change in the next six months just 20 percent of 630 ran- domly selected respondents said they would be very likely to search for greener pastures with 14 per cent saying such an initia- tive on their part would be some what likely the other 66 per cent of respondents said they would be unlikely to aggressively seek new employment opportunities but thats np reason for employers to become compla- cent said lara dodpmanager of the richmond hill branch of office teahi a robert half corn- pany she predicts continuing improvement in the economy and accordingly more opportu nities for workers wended to do a better job of creating a stable workforce of people who want to stay with us said ms dodo whose agency matches employers and workers there are three parts to hiring theres recnxitirig trauiingand retaining i dont think we give enough emphasis to retaining maintaining a stable and effec- tive workforce goes beyond offer- mg competitive wages ms dodo said training providing opportu nities for advancement and recog nizing staff achieyements are all parts of the equation lack of recognition isa big onevshe said everybody wants to feel as if theyre doing a good job and theyre contributing indeed feeling youre part of a vibrant and progressive team is a benefit beyond the weekly pay- cheque saidcarolyn clegg- r brown the aurora resident a pro- duction specialist with the ipsos- reid polling service has been with her company 13 years ms cleggbrown loves the fastpaced and chauenging nature of her job and she appre ciates the flexibility her manager shows in scheduling holidays time off and other arrangemerits to accommodate her family it is probably the most important thing youve got to have a life outsidework ms cleggbrown said if your com pany places enough value on i that theyre in line with you and youre jtiot going to be fighting them oh that ms cleggbrown 45 noted many of her coworkers have the same sort of lengthytenure with thecompany she has she won ders if the culture of mutual loy alty between employer and employee is lost on a new gener ation of workers alotofpeoplewehireare see job page 15 by joan ransberry staff writer every thursday at 7 prn sharp emmanuelle lopez walks into a newmarket grocery store to be greeted by half a dozen men from mexico as me coordinator of the bradford- based migrant workers support centre part of ms lopezs job is to help the men do their weekly shopping v not only do migrant workers struggle with language issues while at the gro cery store the layout of an ontario store is very different from markets inmexico for instance directions on cans arid other goods are printed in french arid english bothforeign languages to the average migrant worker born in nicaragua and raised in brazil ms lopez 23 is fluent in spanish portuguese and englishims lopez arid her sister came to canada with their parents in 1988 a graduate of the university of guelph ms lopez is 1 famil iar with the agriculture industry includ ing its need to harvest crops and the dif ficulty of getting workers to do the job migrant workers have been coming to ontario for 40 years for some its a way of life leaving mexjco to work on an ontario farm for 20 consecutive years about 1500 offshore workers arrive in this part of ontario every spring they remain here until about the end of october the paper woik enabling the workers from south arid central america to gain erriploymertt is han died through canadas seasorial agricul tural workers saw program meanwhile ms lopez handles con cerns rangirig from canada pension plan contributions to loneliness and homesickness as well she works with community partners to provide resources for workers there is a goodsized spanish com- rriunity in york region ms lopez said our migrant workers are especially welcome in this community see second page 16 vj i k l- vi- f- ft see it hear it m there r better subscribe before june 20 2003 and you could win your subscription free cad s053c5sfcov ami for a free brochure