Brandon businesses look for ways to hire, retain young professionals in southwestern Manitoba

A Brandon University professor says southwestern Manitoba's biggest city needs to find a way to compete with urban centres when it comes to retaining young professionals.

Manitoba faced an eight per cent net skill loss of young skilled workers, according to a 2024 Statistics Canada report. 

Cora Dupuis, Brandon University's co-operative education co-ordinator, said without community efforts to retain talent, the city of 54,000 and surrounding region's workforce will struggle. 

Individuals, institutions and government need to work together to create a strategy to track what's working when it comes to recruitment and retention of young professionals, she said.

"We're big enough to make change, but we're small enough to have all the change-makers at the same table," said Dupuis.

Growing up in rural Ontario, Dupuis was inundated with messages she had to leave to build her career — a message many young professionals still receive, she says. Dupuis wants to break that cycle, because when young people move away for work, Brandon loses out.

"I can't help but think that if someone stood on a stage and said that there is room for you here, then my story would be different," Dupuis said.

It's up to business owners and institutions like Brandon University to challenge those narratives and highlight how Brandon offers young people a place to grow their careers in an affordable community, Dupuis said. The city still has a small-town feel, so it's easier to make helpful connections, but it's also only a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Winnipeg, 200 kilometres to the east.

Some businesses are already taking action. Through Brandon University's co-op program, local companies are meeting and hiring students to retain talent, she said.

A challenge finding workers

Brandon's Greenstone Building Products — a manufacturing plant making panels for the outer shell of buildings — is trying to catch young professionals as soon as they graduate, says business manager Tilda Fortier. 

Greenstone has about 60 employees, but it's been challenging getting roles filled. She says job vacancies can sit empty for more than a year —  a problem worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Greenstone has three programmers on site and five drafting seats. Fortier says all are from Manitoba, and partnerships with post-secondary programs like Dupuis's co-op program helped Greenstone make connections with the workers.

"The solution … is to not let our talent go away to begin with," she said. "If we can engage with them right out of the gates and show them what the city has to offer professionals … we can avoid that drain."

When it comes to recruiting and retaining employees they follow the golden rule of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," she said.

"People like working here and they want their friends to come work with them."

Andrew Suggett didn't see a future in Brandon until he connected with Greenstone while enrolled in computer sciences at Brandon University. Starting as an intern in 2021, he's now a full-time IT and software developer at the company.

"I thought I would have to move to Vancouver or Toronto to find a tech job. But it turns out there's a lot of tech jobs in Brandon," he said.

He's referred a friend to Greenstone, but others haven't been as lucky, moving to larger urban centres like Calgary because they can't find work, Suggett said. He's grateful he found a job at Greenstone because he gets to stay close to his family in Portage la Prairie, build his career and save money due to Brandon's lower cost of living.

Suggett can see building a tech career in Brandon, but stressed businesses must connect with young professionals so they know they're needed in the city, he said.

Connecting with youth

Jennifer Ludwig, the Brandon Chamber of Commerce's vice-president and the president of Super Thrifty Drugs Canada, says concerns about skilled labour shortages are ongoing, and more businesses are trying to connect with young professionals like Suggett.

In 2021, the province's Manitoba Labour Market Outlook said the southwest region — including Brandon — had a workforce of 55,700 individuals and more than 7,200 job openings. 

While businesses are tapping into Assiniboine College and Brandon University to help train and get people into the workforce, there are still some obstacles, said Ludwig.

Super Thrifty needs pharmacists, but competing with bigger cities is a struggle, she said. The business needs to fill six positions, and has been looking for a couple of years.

There's no pharmacy school in Brandon, which makes recruitment harder. She said one of the biggest challenges is perception, as many falsely believe Brandon lacks career opportunities and the excitement of larger centres.

Ludwig wants to help change the narrative by showing everything Brandon has to offer those starting their careers. 

"They're the ones that are going to be carrying the torches of … [businesses] that were built by stakeholders that started them years ago," she said. "We need those young people to carry them forward."