Optimistic Thinking Versus What the Hiring Data is Really Telling Us

If you’ve been struggling to find the right people for your company, take heart – you’re not alone. According to Talent Canada, a recent cross-Canada survey found 77% of employers are facing significant challenges in recruiting skilled talent. In contrast, a decade ago just 31% of employers experienced such “talent scarcity.”

This problem is even more acute in niched recruiting such as Bilingual (French/English) hiring. We see this in the workforce every day.

Survey respondents did say, they’re taking several steps to address their recruitment woes, such as:

• Salaries: 29% are increasing remuneration for hard-to-hire positions (check out our blog post on how to manage skyrocketing salary expectations)
• Training: 26% are prioritizing upskilling or reskilling staff (this is among the top 5 insights we identified for HR in 2025)
• New talent pools: 24% are expanding their searches to new talent pools (e.g. internationally-trained talent who haven’t yet amassed Canadian experience)
• Flexibility: One-in-five employers are offering more schedule and location flexibility to attract skilled talent (emerging from the pandemic, these remain persuasive considerations today)
• Use of AI: Only 10% of employers are experimenting with emerging technologies to help manage talent shortages (interestingly, we’re still seeing critical AI blind spots in support of Bilingual recruitment)

Did you know, the Conference Board of Canada estimates that unfilled job vacancies represent an unrealized economic value of $25 billion each year? Despite the efforts above (which are smart strategies), many new clients are still coming to us feeling incredibly frustrated after exhausting all options in their internal searches.

Why is this the case? Several new clients have told us they optimistically thought they could find talent on their own. They hear people are being laid off, jobseekers are reporting in the news that they’ve been looking for work for a long time, etc., and then, they are caught off-guard when they still can’t recruit the best talent on their own. After continuing to struggle, with unfilled positions taking a toll on productivity, morale, and profitability, they finally reached out to us for specialized help.

Once our clients begin working with us though, they immediately feel the benefits of our expertise, as Bilingual (French/English) recruitment is our bread and butter. Many clients then continue working with us for years, and even decades, seeing us as a trusted business-building partner.

Here is a glimpse into how we operate: 

Step 1: The Discovery Call – We take a 360º approach to your hiring needs. We’re honest with you from the get-go and ask you to be the same with us. Often, we can immediately think of potential candidates who could fit your profile. Plus, we usually know right away if a search will be difficult or challenging, and we share that up front too. 

Step 2: Within 3 days – You’ll get one to two résumés from us matching the exact profile you’re seeking both for the job and your work culture. We do the heavy lifting, so you can save time and only interview top prospects. 

Step 3: If we can’t send candidates within this timeframe, we’ll explain why and discuss our findings. Then, we work with you to adjust factors like the salary rate, transferrable skills, training options, or flexibility, etc. before returning to Step 2.

Why do we succeed when so many others struggle? If we may say so humbly: We are highly successful because we’ve spent decades building trusted relationships with Canada’s top Bilingual talent. In addition, our whole team at BlueSky Personnel Solutions is fluent in French and English, which allows us to accurately assess language proficiency in-house, use code-switching, and connect meaningfully with Bilingual candidates.

According to the 2021 Canadian Census, only 9.5% of the population outside of Quebec is fluent in both English and French (when Quebec is included, that figure is still only 18% nationally). This means, out of every 10 available skilled workers, we can only ever consider one to two candidates who fit our client’s Bilingual needs.

We speak to our network of candidates every day. We celebrate their career and life milestones with them, and cheer on their professional growth. If someone isn’t right for one client, we stay in touch and inevitably find a better match for them somewhere else.

Many candidates in our proprietary database also aren’t actively job searching online or advertising their Bilingual skills on social media, but we’ve already verified their language proficiency and know their strengths and skills. That is why clients find tapping into our network is so valuable.

Moreover, when we don’t have a candidate in mind, we start sleuthing. We proactively reach out to employed talent who might be open to new opportunities. Over the years, we’ve honed specialized strategies to locate elusive Bilingual (French/English) candidates too, such as identifying Bilingual graduates from schools worldwide, finding talent who have lived and worked in French-speaking cities, or tapping into Canada’s talent pool for remote positions.

The key questions we ask prospective clients to consider are: 1) How much of your time, effort, and resources are being spent outside of your core expertise, on niched recruitment when they are not yielding results?  2) What is that time and mental energy worth to you and to your organization? And finally, 3) How much is an unfilled position costing your company in lost productivity and profitability?

Many business leaders, and HR/hiring managers today recognize the value of deep expertise among recruiters who serve niche markets. Just as in the legal profession, if someone is looking for guidance on copyright laws, their best bet is to consult a lawyer who focuses exclusively on copyright law as a specialty, in contrast to only seeking guidance from Google or ChatGPT, for example.

You don’t have to live with unfilled roles or spend valuable time and resources on unsuccessful endeavors. This doesn’t have to feel hard. In partnering with experts in Bilingual (French/English) recruitment like us, you’ll enjoy faster, more reliable hiring outcomes. That’s our guarantee.  In today’s competitive market, working with specialized experts is indeed a game-changer.

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If your organization needs exceptional Bilingual (English/French) talent, call or email us today at: 416-236-3303, or by email at: [email protected]. It would be our pleasure to help you find your company’s next superstar. We look forward to speaking with you soon!