Canadian film and TV companies rarely place help-wanted ads in the classified section of the local newspaper, which would only lead to their fax machines then being gummed up with an onslaught of applications.

While headhunters and some form of advertising are usually used in search of senior executives, many companies report that they depend largely on a pool of personal contacts from which to spot and snag people for hire. It really does come down to ‘who you know’.

‘Our recruitment is based on word-of-mouth referrals, either from clients, technicians, production accountants or other people we work with,’ says Paul Bronfman, president of The Comweb Group, whose subsidiaries include equipment supplier William F. White.

Mary Powers, VP of communications and promotion at CHUM Television, points to the importance of hiring from within to encourage career advancement and allow division chiefs freedom and flexibility in recruitment.

‘We’ve always believed that each of the department heads should do their own hiring. They know best what they need,’ she says.

Nuria Bronfman, director of communications at the Toronto International Film Festival, says her organization depends on a vast supply of current and former volunteers and interns from which to draw new talent.

‘We’re not against posting [job openings],’ Bronfman says. ‘But we like to go internally first, because it is a nice thing to do, to give someone who has volunteered for a couple years a chance to get a job.’

Bob McCarthy, the Toronto festival’s volunteer co-ordinator, maintains a database of volunteers who are regularly notified about new openings.

Employee prospects are also increasingly found through online application systems on corporate websites, some more advanced and prominent than others.

Sandy Walker, director of human resources at Alliance Atlantis Communications, says that 25% to 30% of referrals come from the company’s Cool Jobs website, which lists openings and invites applications. The site, launched 18 months ago, has generated a database of 35,000 people interested in working at the company.

The site also includes a candidate profiler, where job hopefuls list their experience and ambitions and where they can be contacted via e-mail when an appropriate opportunity opens up.

The Cool Jobs website also has internal intra-net allowing current AAC employees to keep track of new openings for possible promotion.

‘It’s extremely important to ensure we have a very easily accessible and open system for employees to stay in tune with opportunities in other divisions,’ Walker says.

She adds that the Cool Jobs system throws up a special flag for internal candidates to ensure they get extra consideration during employee searches.

Similarly, Corus Entertainment has a Careers@Corus destination on its corporate website, casting its net wide for new and top talent.

‘If it’s shown to the street that you’re out there constantly looking for key talent, the prospective pool grows,’ points out Laura Thanasse, VP of human resources at Corus.

Scouting animation talent

In film and TV production, once a project’s director and key creative are on board, standard practice is to hire line producers based on their track record, says Juliet Jones, the Vancouver-based CEO of Peace Arch Entertainment Group. The line producers in turn staff a crew with able and available freelancers.

In the current economy, it is very much an employer’s market, but not everywhere. Animation production, for example, remains candidate-driven, as those with the skills needed to create and produce 2D and 3D animation are few and far between. Given that top animators can virtually write their own ticket, Deborah Fallows, director of recruiting at Corus, has to travel far afield to tout the virtues of working for Corus’ Nelvana.

‘It’s a full-time job to bring the talent in,’ says Fallows, who keeps her ear to the ground by attending major animation festivals and participating in workshops and panel discussions. ‘There’s not one magic source. It starts at the college level, where I track top talent even before they graduate, and then meet up with them one or two years later.’

Besides finding new talent, retaining top talent is also a challenge for entertainment companies, as rivals look to poach senior executives.

Daniel Weinzweig, managing director, global media, entertainment and convergence at headhunter Korn/Ferry International, points to this ‘war for talent,’ in which the top 20% of the industry’s talent pool remains in perpetual demand.

As well, senior executives jumping ship often bring loyal mid-level managers and staff with them, as when Ivan Fecan brought a following with him from the CBC to CTV and then Bell Globemedia, where he is currently president and CEO.

The Canadian film and TV industry is also getting back a number of ex-pats looking to come home, especially in light of the recent terrorist attacks in the U.S.

‘All of my partners have been fielding phone calls from Canadians living abroad wondering about a move back to Canada,’ Weinzweig says.

On the flip side, senior Canadian executives are for the first time popping up on the labor radar south of the border.

‘Historically, we’ve not exported that many senior broadcast executives to the U.S., and the reason for that is the American broadcast industry has never considered Canada to be a competitive environment compared to its TV market,’ Weinzweig says. ‘But as Canadian broadcasters become more competitive with one another, fighting tooth and nail for audiences, demand for them will increase.’

-www.comwebgroup.com

-www.chumlimited.com

-www.e.bell.ca/filmfest

-www.getacooljob.com

-www.corusentertainment.com

-www.peacearch.net

-www.kornferry.com