Manic Monday - March 21, 2016

Do you remember your first job?

Do you remember that moment when the call came in and the voice on the other end of the phone said “you can start this Saturday”? It might have been a paper route, delivering pizza, washing dishes at a diner or loading shelves at the local grocery store.   For many of us that phone call came when we were young, the job was basic and the pay definitely meager. Yet despite the simplicity of the position there is relatively little in our working lives since that can compare with the anticipation and excitement of our “first job”. Money in our jeans, freedom and independence, a sense of purpose and an escape from the parents…we were on our way!  How soon we would find out that it wasn’t all as simple as first thought and eventually we would come to appreciate the words “learning what you want to do in life often comes from doing things you don’t want to do”.

Nevertheless, like many young Canadians, my first job was in the tourism industry and mine did not really bring independence from the family but rather tied us even closer together. My foray into the industry was less by choice than by necessity as my parents first purchased a motel in Manitoba and later moved us BC where again they bought and ran a motel. It was there that I learned the magnitude of work that goes into a relatively small accommodation operation and it was also there that I came to understand and respect the world of tourism and hospitality.

In the Federal Government's Tourism Strategy released in 2010; it notes that 98% of the Tourism Industry in Canada is comprised of small and medium sized businesses employing just under 600,000 and accounting for more than 9% of the country’s overall employment. My family definitely contributed to those figures and in the Thompson Okanagan we know this all too well how important the industry is as an employer with our regional Tourism Industry employing more than 15,000 full time equivalents and growing rapidly.

Our regional work force is diverse and complex with a mixture of long term career professionals, young first time employees, individuals re-entering the work force after an extended period and healthy active seniors who are ready, willing and extremely capable.

As we head into the busy hiring season, take a moment to reflect on just how important having a job is to our wide cross section of employees, how working changes their lives and their sense of purpose and value in the community. No matter what the position each person is integral to the overall success of our businesses, our tourism products and the experiences of our guests.  What can we as employers do to better welcome employees into our industry, equip them with the tools they need, assist them in recognizing their individual significance and try to ensure that they truly appreciate their role in the big picture of Tourism.

The Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) together with Destination BC (DBC) and go2HR are working in partnership to assist tourism employers and potential employees in the Thompson Okanagan by providing opportunities for training, education, job fairs and online recruitment.  Our Breaking News release last week announced the appointment of Ginger Brunner as an HR specialist and resource who will be based in the TOTA office.  Ginger will be working as part of a new initiative between our three organizations and is there to assist you in connecting with the valuable assets of go2HR. While Ginger will be working hard to connect with our communities, we encourage you to visit their website, post your employment opportunities and contact her directly to explore training and best practice resources.

You could be the Tourism Employer of Choice in our region and better yet we could collectively aspire to be the Regional Tourism Employers of Choice. Lofty goals but ones that could be attained through a collective effort to make the employees experience welcoming and memorable. Work experiences that when they reflect back on their “first job”, their “re-entry into the work place” or when explaining their “role in tourism” to their grandchildren they can do so with enthusiasm and pride.

Glenn Mandziuk, TOTA President & CEO