I put the employer first.

What could a wage subsidy do for you?

If you bring someone on at $25 an hour, you can receive 50% of that wage for up to 800 hours. That’s up to $10,000 in wages you’re not paying. You can pay more than $25 an hour — the subsidy just tops out at $12.50 an hour.

What’s important to note is what those dollars are for. This is a training program. That money buys you the time and space to train this person properly.

And you and I both know a properly trained employee is worth far more to your business than $10,000.

Figures are an example and a best-case scenario. Placement length is approved by WorkBC up to the 800-hour maximum.

What’s the cost of hiring? And more importantly, what’s the cost of a bad hire?

Think back to the worst hire you’ve made.

How many weeks of wages did you pay someone who was never going to stay? How many hours did your best guy spend training them — hours that came off billable work? What did it do to the rest of the crew, watching it play out?

Here’s the one that doesn’t get counted. When a supervisor is struggling with someone they’re training, that supervisor’s absence rate goes up. You lose your Red Seal on the job, and nobody traces that back to the hire that caused it.

Then you advertise again. Then you train from zero again. And the person doing that training has less left to give the next one.

You’re not alone in it. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, in its May 2026 report Work in Progress: Bridging the Gap Between Small Businesses and Canada’s Youth, found that among BC small businesses, 48 percent name the cost of training and onboarding as a barrier to hiring and 39 percent name retention. Those are the two things that stop an employer from bringing someone on who requires a bit more training or experience.

The WorkBC Wage Subsidy helps with both of them.

The onboarding cost is the obvious one — you’re reimbursed for a portion of the wages you pay while you train.

Retention is the one people don’t expect. In my experience, retention is higher on a wage subsidy. Once it starts, there’s a well thought out training plan, clear objectives, and additional people to support you and the employee in reaching those objectives. Over the duration of the subsidy, myself and the job developer are points of contact for both of you.

Most new hires hit a wall a few weeks in. They feel like they don’t know anything and it isn’t going well — while their employer is thinking the opposite, that it’s starting to click and they just need to hang in a little longer. That gap is where people quit.

It also opens a door for feedback that’s otherwise hard to walk through. In my experience, employers hold back on constructive feedback while someone is still learning, because they’re worried about losing them over it. I can often deliver that same message in a way that reduces that risk.

And before any of that — were you set up to ask the right questions the first time?

With my experience in employment services, working with me reduces your risk of a bad hire, reduces the risk of time and money wasted, and relieves the burden of bureaucracy and paperwork — because I take care of that for you.

The paperwork is where most employers stop

Employers see the dollar figure and it’s enticing. Then they see the paperwork and put it back down.

A well thought out training plan and application has real value.

WorkBC staff carry heavy caseloads and they’re stretched. A job developer can only assess what’s actually submitted, so an incomplete application means weeks of back and forth.

What I sell is a file that’s complete the first time.

One more thing that cuts the back and forth.

I know what gets asked for at each stage, because another job developer and I wrote that framework. There have been some tweaks since, but the basis is the same.

So it’s gathered and ready before anyone asks.

Two employers, same subsidy, different result

Two employers can apply for the same subsidy for the same role and walk away with very different agreements. One gets a couple hundred hours approved. The other gets up to the full 800. The difference is the quality of the file put in front of the job developer.

The difference usually isn’t the candidate. It’s what the file put in front of the job developer.

WorkBC makes every effort to ask the right questions and gather what they need. But their capacity is stretched a lot thinner than mine, with heavy caseloads and plenty of other responsibilities on top. Employment consultants have very booked schedules, and once a client is in, only so much fits in that window — they can only ask so many questions before the time is up. What doesn’t get covered waits for the next opening.

I knock it all out and have everything prepared before it’s asked for. And because I’m selective about how many projects I take on at once, I can respond to WorkBC quickly and keep your application moving.

A thin application leaves them guessing. A complete one gives them everything they need to justify the longer term. I know which pieces carry that weight, and those are the pieces I build out.

I’m advocating for you

Have you hired someone, gotten them out on site, and had it quickly become clear that they maybe don’t have the skills and experience they claimed to?

And by then you’re past the point where you can just let them go. I’m not an HR or legal professional and I won’t pretend to be — but I know there are real decisions involved in ending someone’s employment properly, and most business owners don’t have that memorized either. So that’s more of your time, reading up and figuring out where you stand.

Meanwhile the question in front of you is: what do I do with this person? More training? Move them? Start over?

And were you under pressure when you made that hire, because you needed someone on the job now? Nobody digs deep when they’re short a body on Monday.

Here’s something worth knowing about how this process is built. WorkBC is a client-centred program — the job developer’s role is to advocate for the jobseeker, and they do that well. My role sits on the other side of the table. I’m the one advocating for you.

That’s my role. When I’m handling recruitment, I run a prescreen against the must-haves you gave me, and you only see candidates who actually meet them. You’re not sorting a stack.

I’ll also be straight with you about a candidate’s history alongside their real strengths, rather than handing you a polished version. Honest placement is what makes a placement last — a placement that falls apart partway through costs you more than it saved.

AI has changed how people apply for jobs — a polished resume can be a well thought out prompt in AI. I do the prescreening for you: I talk to candidates so you have a shortlist to interview and consider, with resumes they can back up.

It’s your business, your crew, and your call

You know your business better than I ever will. You know what the job actually takes, who fits on your crew, and what you can and can’t work around. My job isn’t to tell you what you should want in a hire — it’s to take what matters to you and screen for it.

Which is why the final call stays with you. I put candidates in front of you and give you an honest read on each one. You do your own interview, you make your own decision, and you hire who you choose.

That’s not me stepping back from the work. That’s the only way it should be. It’s your business, your crew, and your call.

Accommodations & hiring people with disabilities

Reality check: you are hiring these people already — you probably don’t realize it.

When employers hear “accommodation,” a lot of them picture cost. Renovations, exceptions, something that disrupts their team and their workflow.

Most of the time it’s nothing like that. It’s a supervisor spending two minutes each morning running through the day’s priorities. It’s written instructions instead of verbal. It’s a consistent start time.

Many employers shy from the idea of accommodations simply because they just don’t know what it looks like — and chances are you’re already doing it for someone on your crew without calling it that.

Here’s the part worth sitting with. You’re already hiring people who need accommodations. A lot of people don’t feel safe disclosing that up front, so it surfaces later — usually once something’s already gone sideways. Most employers have been through some version of that.

My line of questioning often brings it out at the beginning instead. Not every time, but often. Which gives both of you the chance to look at it honestly and decide together whether it’s going to work — before anybody’s committed.

And if it does come up, I build the accommodation into the training plan and facilitate that conversation, so it’s understood on both sides before day one.

One more thing worth knowing. Employers are often surprised to find that the person they gave even a small accommodation to turns out to be their most loyal employee. Being seen does that. You’ll get someone who stays.

There’s more available than the wage subsidy

Think about someone showing up for their first day having pieced together what they could. Cold, because their gear isn’t right for the weather. Borrowing tools, or using ones that aren’t up to the job. Or in old, ill-fitting business casual that doesn’t put your business’s best foot forward.

That’s a distraction from the work, and depending on the role it’s a safety issue.

WorkBC may cover essential work clothing, tools, and short duration tickets — first aid and WHMIS are common examples. Worth asking about every time.

Policy sets what’s possible, and the employment consultants and job developers work within it. In my experience they’re some of the most well-intentioned people you’ll deal with, and they genuinely want these placements to work. What I bring is a file that gives them what they need to rationalize the ask, so tickets, duration, and rates get verified and justified as we build the application.

The items belong to the employee. What you get is someone who starts on the same footing as everyone else on your crew — and people work better when they do.

Myths

Let’s talk

You don’t need much to meet with me the first time. Just a general idea of what you’re looking for.

From there we can talk about which funding fits — a wage subsidy, an employer training grant, or something else you’re eligible for that you may not know about.

I’ll need some key data points to prepare the application, and we can circle back to those. Your WorkSafeBC number and rate letter, your business number, your BCeID login. If you don’t have them readily available, we make a plan.

Ultimately, I’m going to prepare the application for you. We’ll review it and submit it together.