Pain points and successes highlighted in COVID-19 business impact survey

A recent survey shows 32 per cent of respondents had a positive change in attitude about doing business in the Windsor-Essex community over the last year.

Workforce WindsorEssex, Invest WindsorEssex and St. Clair College launched the results of their Windsor-Essex Economic Development Survey on Thursday.

THE SURVEY RESULTS

The survey received 117 responses from local businesses, the majority of which were from the manufacturing and other Services sectors. Of the 117 responses, 41 per cent were from micro businesses, which have between one and four employees.

This annual survey, which was conducted from May 2 to June 3, 2022, identifies the needs of businesses and assists economic development professionals to develop strategies that will support businesses to stay, grow, and become more competitive.

Survey respondents varied in their recent experiences with the community. While 54 per cent of respondents reported no attitude change about doing business in the community since last year, 14 per cent feel more negative since last year.

Of the respondents, 68 businesses reported they plan to expand and four indicated they will be closing.

The top barriers to growth in the region were identified as workforce skills shortage, marketing and financing. The cost of space for rent or lease, cost of electricity and support from municipality were identified by respondents as the most negative factors in doing business in the community.

On the brighter side, 81 per cent of respondents feel that the Windsor-Essex region is an excellent or good community in which to do business and most positively ranked the following factors: access to high speed or fiber optic internet and availability of adequate electricity.

Responses from the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Survey will inform efforts in developing economic recovery plans for the region and for individual sectors as well as for broader programming for Windsor-Essex businesses.

When looking at how businesses are operating, a total of 72 per cent of respondents have all employees in the workplace, while 9 per cent of respondents noted that they will continue to operate their businesses remotely on an indefinite basis.

When looking to hire, 39 per cent of employers ranked the availability of qualified workers as fair, and 31 per cent of respondents ranking the ability to retain new employees as good.

“The Windsor-Essex Economic Development Survey provides valuable data and insights that help shape the region’s action plan including the development of relevant programming and business resources. A number of positive opportunities and business needs have been highlighted from our local companies,” said Stephen MacKenzie, president and CEO of Invest WindsorEssex.

THE PERSPECTIVE OF WORKFORCE WINDSOR-ESSEX

For Tashlyn Teskey, manager of projects and research at Workforce WindsorEssex, the survey is a sign of positive things to come.

“Through the survey we are able to not only identify pain points of employers, but their successes as well. Sharing the findings with the community allows all stakeholders to identify where they can better support employers and the labour market overall, whether through funding, training, education, or recruitment,” said Teskey.

Teskey said the survey captured how the business community is feeling since the pandemic and can help guide future local economic decisions.

“There's a really positive attitude coming from the majority of our respondents,” said Teskey. “Which is really great to see as we're moving away from COVID really into our prime recovery period.”

Christian Saab, owner of CPG Incorporated. (Chris Campbell/CTV News London)Before the pandemic, there was a shortage of workers in the Windsor region and Teskey believes now is the time to fix it.

“We've been feeling it historically, for almost decades it feels like, so this is really kind of the time with these investments coming we really have to focus on our talent shortage,” Teskey said.

But having the required facilities in operation isn’t the only thing to keep in mind, as Teskey points out that top talent is also needed in order to fill them.

“So whether that's increasing the students enrolled at local training programs, getting new workers or current workers trained on things like electric vehicles, battery maintenance, things like that, we have to be ready,” Teskey said.

Teskey added, “We really want to tap into our current workforce and those that have some experience, see how we can upskill them to be ready. As well as making sure that the students enrolled already in things like computer science engineering, are really ready for some of these niche technologies coming out.”

THE PERSPECTIVE OF A LOCAL BUSINESS

Meanwhile, a soirée with CPG Incorporated, a local human resources consulting company, is scheduled at the Serbian Centre this Friday evening for business leaders and employers to talk about how they can make adjustments to hire the right people and keep employment high.

“Employee retention in my opinion should be what companies are focusing on right now because everyone's talking about the staffing shortage, organizer Christian Saab told CTV News. “So we know it's going to be hard to find people. I think right now companies need to be focusing on, if we can't find them, let's make sure we don't lose them.”

Saab continued, “50 per cent of the hires that we've done for our customers come from actually finding someone who's already employed and not a job seeker and reaching out to them versus someone who's actually looking for a job.”

That the event also serves as a fundraiser for the Canadian Mental Heath Association saying a focus on mental health is imperative in retaining a happy workforce.

“CMHA is going to be really showcasing that and giving businesses a 13 step process of what companies need to be doing to make sure they have everything in place with their staff, and how to address mental health in the workplace,” said Saab.