A recent Canadian Federation of Independent Business study shows there's a change in the quality of job candidates in Manitoba. CFIB Director of Provincial Affairs Elliot Sims says most employers consider employees vitally important.

"CFIB did this study about employers views about their employees to tackle some of the misconceptions in the workplace. The biggest finding, and not surprising to CFIB, is that business owners value their employees above all else in terms of what are the critical elements for the success of their business. Over two thirds of business owners say their employees are the most critical part of their business. They're higher than all the products that they sell, their customer's loyalty or even just the amount of hard work that's put into them by the firm. So, clearly their employees are their biggest asset."

However, he adds, misconceptions about the workplace led to a decrease in employee quality.

"The problem, is is that it's becoming more and more difficult to find good employees. That's happened over the last number of years for a number of reasons. Our members have indicated that there's been some changes in the quality of job applicants in a number of ways. One is that there seems to be a significant number of potential employees that have expectations that don't meet the reality of entry-level jobs."

Sims notes other unrealistic expectations include salaries.

"In fact, for job quality candidates, a majority of small business owners said that their salary expectations for an entry-level position in their firm were unrealistic. This is something that's becoming more and more commonplace amongst the job applicants. Another one of the issues that came up was the entitlement factor. Many new applicants for jobs these days don't want to work evenings or weekends, even if it might be their first job in the retail and the hospitality sector. This simply isn't realistic given the nature of the job. And new employees have to be considerate of the job market that's out there and when the positions are available."

He adds a problem with work ethic is one of the core issues.

"In the survey our members have indicated that they have seen a decrease in the quality of work ethic over the last number of years. The CFIB survey of small business owners found that, in fact, over 70% of entrepreneurs say they've seen the quality of work ethic deteriorate in the last number of years amongst new hires."

Sims notes some steps are being taken to resolve the problem.

"Entrepreneurs in the survey provided thousands of examples of behaviour that they thought was not acceptable, or that could be improved upon, to increase the attractiveness of potential employees to their firms. We've actually highlighted a number of those issues in the back of our report to give job seekers a better idea of what is expected of employees in small businesses."

He provides some tips if you're looking for work.

"Some things are rather simple, such as dress appropriately for both the job interview and the job. Don't come to work in your pyjamas, or for a job interview in your pyjamas, if you're required to wear a suit every day. The other things, though, is to encourage employees to be flexible. Most employers are willing to give flexibility to their employees, but it's something that has to be earned. It should not be entitled. If you're flexible with them, they'll be flexible with you when you've got personal issues come up that require your attention. Other things that have come up, especially in rural Manitoba, is small business owners are encouraging people to look outside the city of Winnipeg for work. Unfortunately, many new graduates think that all the jobs might be in Winnipeg. But it's a much more competitive marketplace here, whereas when we go to some of the communities in the Golden West Radio's area -- Morden, Winkler, Steinbach, Neepawa-- these are all places where there's lots of jobs, but not enough people to fill them. So, we're encouraging jobseekers to go where the work is to get that first job, to get a few years' experience, and then to see where they might want to go with their careers from there.,"

Sims adds, "I think it's important to note that 70% of Manitoba small businesses indicated they've had difficulty finding labour in the last three years in this Province. And that's something that can be addressed. There's 12,000 unfilled jobs in small businesses in the Province right now. We need to work with new graduates from different levels of education as well as current workers that might be looking for a new position, or a new career, to ensure there is that connection between employers and jobseekers. Right now there's a lot of jobs that are just waiting for the right candidate."