By Tom Taylor | NWT News/North
The Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) is on the hunt for new employees.
NTPC, based in Hay River, provides power to the approximate 43,000 people that live across the NWT. The company currently employs about 200 people in various posts across the territory, but is still facing a vacancy rate of over 15 per cent, according to director of human resources Erin Dean.
“Over the past number of years, especially since the pandemic, recruitment has been a bit of a challenge,” said Dean. “We’ve got a number of jobs that are unfilled.
“Having said that, when we looked at the numbers last year, 77 per cent of our hires were from within the territory and that’s something that is really positive for us.”
There are a number of factors working against NTPC in terms of recruitment, in Dean’s opinion. One issue is that, since the pandemic, many people now prefer to work remotely.
As a power company, NTPC is unable to offer fully remote jobs.
“I think the job market in different jurisdictions across Canada has changed a lot since the pandemic, and so we’re seeing that in our recruitment, as are other utilities,” Dean said. “We know that many of the potential applicants that are looking for work, they might be looking for remote work opportunities. We don’t offer fully remote opportunities. We do have some hybrid opportunities, but we do require our employees to live and work in the same community, so they are residing locally.”
Many of NTPC’s current vacancies also require certain kinds of training that the average job-seeker may not have, according to Dean.
“One of the things that we’re facing as a challenge is we’re a pretty technical organization, and many of our jobs can be hazardous, and we have a small staff complement, so there can be limited opportunities for hiring people that are at an entry level or finding really specialized skills that are available locally here in the communities,” she said. “That can be a challenge for us, for sure.”
Yet Dean is optimistic the company will be able to attract the employees it needs. NTPC offers an “attractive compensation package,” she said, both in terms of wages and benefits, as well as paid leave and pension plans.
The company also provides relocation assistance for “people within the North that might want to move to other communities, but also for folks in the south.”
It also aims to help its employees grow, Dean said, “whether that’s through continued professional development, or supporting more formal education.”
“We also support Northern apprentices here at NTPC, which we think is important to growing the trade, and we do try to get out to talk to students in communities and go to career fairs just to get the message out there that we are a good employer in North,” she said. “We’re a small utility. Because of that, there’s a lot of opportunity for people to grow in their careers faster than might be possible in other places or in the south.”
Time will tell if NTPC is able to fill its vacancies, but Dean is hoping to spread the word that the power company is “a great place to work.”
“We have a lot to offer at NTPC and in the North,” she said. “We have a great pace of life, and we’re working really hard to intentionally create an engaging and positive work environment for our employees, and we hope that will help us retain the employees we have and attract workers to us as well.”
