Make sure your talent recruiter is licensed — or else!

If your Ontario P&C business is using a recruiter or temporary staffing organization to find talent, make sure they’re licensed as of Jan. 1, 2024. Otherwise, you may be subject to a hefty fine in the New Year.

As of January 1, 2024, temporary help agencies and recruiters operating in Ontario must be licensed. As of that date, any businesses leveraging unlicensed agencies or recruiters will be subject to fines, Alex Kagan and Jessica Schissler of Aird & Berlis LLP wrote in a Mondaq blog, published today.

The new licensing requirement arises from the Ontario’s Working for Workers Act, 2021, which is intended to protect temporary workers, the authors said. The government’s concern is that many temporary workers are foreign nationals acutely vulnerable to exploitation.

“For all…businesses in Ontario that leverage a temporary help agency or recruiter, they should engage their vendors to ensure their licensing applications are underway,” Kagan and Schissler wrote. “As of January 1, 2024, knowingly using an unlicensed temporary help agency or recruiter represents a breach of the [Ontario] ESA [Employment Standards Act] and exposes the business to penalties ranging from $15,000 up to $50,000, in the case of multiple contraventions.

“Fortunately, the Ontario government has created a database of licensed businesses for ease of reference.”

The move comes at a time when the P&C insurance industry is in the middle of an ultra-competitive quest to bring in new talent. P&C industry players are even hiring recruitment firms to make a pitch to poach talent from specific competitors, sources have told CU.

At the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO)’s annual general meeting last Thursday, Heather Masterson, president and CEO of Travelers Canada, urged the industry to pull together to address the recruitment issue.

First, she said, the P&C insurance industry needs to identify its talent gaps.

“We are competing [for talent] with banks, accounting firms, law firms, consulting firms,” she told brokers attending IBAOcon’23. “Are we getting our fair share of talent coming in? And if so, great. If not, what can we do about that?

“How are we going to mobilize as an industry to put some real effort and deliberate initiatives in place?”

She said the Insurance Institute of Canada, which released a P&C industry demographics report in the summer, is working on ‘a plan of attack’ for bringing talent into the industry.

Second, the P&C industry needs to start telling its own story, Masterson said.

“We’re letting other people tell our story, whether it’s politicians, regulators, lawyers, or consumers,” she said. “We need to start telling our story.

“Yes, we are diverse and highly competitive. That’s all good. But there is a lot of common ground, common goals, and common values we all share. And we have incredible stories to tell. We have amazing contributions we’re providing to the economy, to communities, to people, to families…..

“We really do need to harness that energy and start getting that messaging out there. And together, we all need to amplify it.”

Feature courtesy of iStock.com/VioletaStoimenova