As industries face changing skill requirements, an aging workforce and competition for talent, recruitment campaigns alone cannot address every barrier to building the workforce they need.
Across Canada and the United States, industries are confronting difficult questions about the future of their workforces. Experienced workers are retiring, technology is changing and growing industries are competing for people with similar qualifications. Meanwhile, employers in established sectors are trying to attract a new generation of workers who may have different expectations for their careers. Some industries are struggling to find workers with specialized skills, while others have interested candidates but lack clear pathways to connect them with training and employment opportunities.
These challenges vary considerably by industry, occupation and region, but they point to a broader issue: workforce development has become about much more than filling open positions. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, while 63% identified skill gaps as a major barrier to business transformation. Demographic changes are also reshaping the available workforce. Statistics Canada reported that the annual number of retirements increased from approximately 184,000 in August 2012 to nearly 277,000 in August 2025. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that healthcare and social assistance will be the fastest-growing major industry sector between 2024 and 2034.
For departments responsible for attracting and developing workers, it’s no longer enough to reach people who already have the required skills and are actively looking for an opportunity. Industries also need to engage people who have never considered working in their sector, demonstrate how existing skills might transfer into unfamiliar roles and help prospective workers navigate the steps required to enter.
The Problem With Competing for the Same Workers
When an industry faces a workforce shortage, the most immediate response is often to increase recruitment activity. Employers will invest in job advertising, attend career fairs, update recruitment websites and compete to attract qualified candidates. These efforts matter, but when multiple employers and industries are competing for the same workers, improved recruitment can only do so much.
Consider someone with technical skills relevant to construction, energy, manufacturing and transportation. Employers across all four sectors may be trying to attract this person, and a recruitment campaign might help one employer win their attention. But it doesn’t necessarily increase the number of people available to enter those industries.
The same challenge exists when organizations focus exclusively on candidates who already understand their career options. Someone may have the aptitude for a skilled trade but never considered it because of their perception of the work. An experienced employee may have transferable skills but assume moving into another sector would mean starting over. A young person may be interested in an industry but have no idea which educational or training pathway could get them there. In these cases, the barrier exists well before the application.
Industries need to become better at attracting qualified workers while also helping more people become interested in, prepared for and able to access those careers.
Workforce Development Is Also a Perception and Access Challenge
It’s easy to assume that a shortage of applicants means people aren’t interested in an industry, but there may be several reasons why someone never reaches the point of applying. They might not know the career exists, have an outdated impression of the industry or fail to see people like themselves represented in the work. They may not recognize how their existing experience could be relevant. Others might be interested but face practical barriers, including unclear qualifications, limited access to training, financial considerations or application processes that are difficult to navigate.
Each challenge requires a different response. A sector with a negative public image may need to address perceptions before promoting specific jobs. An industry with limited awareness of its career options may need to show people what the work involves. An employer attracting interested candidates but receiving few completed applications may need to improve the path from interest to action.
Workforce development needs to consider the decisions people make along the way, the barriers they encounter and the different organizations that can help them move forward. A recruitment campaign may be part of the solution, but the underlying challenge can be much broader.
From Perception to Entry
At UpHouse, we organize workforce development around six stages:
- Perception
- Awareness
- Interest
- Experience
- Application
- Entry
Each stage represents a different part of the journey, from how someone first thinks about an industry to how they successfully start a career in it. The framework helps organizations identify where their workforce challenges begin, which audiences they need to reach and what kinds of initiatives could make the greatest difference. It also provides a way to connect the work of employers, industry associations, educational institutions, workforce organizations and community partners, rather than treating their efforts as separate activities.
1. Perception: Can People Imagine Themselves Working in Your Industry?
Before someone considers a career, they need to believe it could be an option for them. Family, friends, school, popular culture, past experiences or assumptions about the type of people who work there can shape how someone perceives an industry. These impressions aren’t always accurate. A sector may offer meaningful work, strong career progression or opportunities involving advanced technology, but people may still associate it with outdated stereotypes. People may assume the work is too physically demanding, requires qualifications they don’t have or doesn’t offer the kind of future they’re looking for.
Changing these perceptions requires more than just advertising open positions. Organizations need to understand what people believe about the industry, identify where those beliefs differ from reality and show a more complete picture of the work and the people doing it. Real employees, relatable career stories and authentic experiences can help audiences see possibilities they may not have considered. For industries facing persistent labour shortages, perception can be one of the most important places to begin.
2. Awareness: Do People Know What Opportunities Exist?
People can view an industry positively without knowing its full range of careers. Healthcare needs more than clinicians, and construction extends beyond familiar trades. These sectors, along with agriculture, transportation, energy and manufacturing, offer technical, operational, administrative, digital and leadership roles that prospective workers may not know exist.
Awareness campaigns help make these opportunities visible and understandable by explaining what different roles involve, what qualifications are needed, which skills may transfer from other fields and what potential career pathways look like. Importantly, these efforts need to reach beyond people who are already searching for jobs. Students, career changers, newcomers and workers in adjacent industries may all be potential audiences, even if they aren’t currently considering a move. The objective is to help more people discover opportunities they didn’t previously know existed.
3. Interest: Why Would Someone Choose This Career or Employer?
Knowing an opportunity exists doesn’t mean someone will want to pursue it. At the interest stage, people begin evaluating whether a career aligns with their priorities, abilities, ambitions and circumstances. They may want to understand what the work is really like, whether the compensation is competitive, what career progression looks like or whether the workplace offers the flexibility and support they need.
Access to training and career development can also play an important role in building interest, particularly for people considering a new industry or career change. Free training programs, paid apprenticeships, on-the-job training, employer-funded certifications and opportunities to earn while learning can make careers more attractive and accessible. For someone who assumes they lack the necessary qualifications, understanding that an employer or industry offers a supported pathway into the work can make a significant difference.
Employer branding and employee value propositions should explain why the work matters and what employees can gain. Some people value stability and benefits while others seek opportunities to learn, make an impact, work with new technology or build a career without a traditional pathway. A strong workforce campaign connects employee motivations to credible reasons to consider an opportunity.
4. Experience: Can People See What the Work Is Actually Like?
Someone might be interested in a field but still have difficulty imagining what a typical day involves, what the workplace feels like or whether they would enjoy the work. Experiential recruitment helps bridge that gap through workplace tours, career exploration events, hands-on demonstrations, job shadowing, school activations and opportunities to meet employees.
These experiences can be particularly valuable for audiences who have limited exposure to an industry through their personal networks. They also allow organizations to address questions and concerns that may not emerge through traditional advertising. A prospective worker might discover that a role is more collaborative than expected, that the equipment is more advanced than they imagined or that their existing experience is more relevant than they realized. The more clearly people understand the work, the better equipped they are to decide whether it’s right for them.
5. Application: Can People Turn Their Interest Into Action?
Even someone who is motivated to pursue an opportunity can encounter barriers when it’s time to act. Application processes may be complicated, training requirements may be unclear and information might be spread across multiple websites or organizations. Prospective candidates may not know whether to contact an employer, apply to a training program, seek certification or speak with a workforce development organization. Every additional point of confusion creates another opportunity for someone to disengage.
Application and conversion strategies focus on making the next step clear and accessible. This can include better landing pages, simplified applications, clearer training pathways, lead capture strategies, follow-up communications and resources tailored to different audiences. It also means recognizing that not everyone is ready to apply immediately. Some people need more information, time or additional training to decide. Maintaining communication with those audiences can help turn initial interest into future participation.
6. Entry: What Happens After Someone Decides to Join?
The workforce journey doesn’t end when an application is submitted or an offer is accepted. People still need to successfully enter their new role, and that transition can involve training, onboarding, certification, orientation, mentorship and learning how to navigate an unfamiliar environment. For someone entering a new industry, especially through a non-traditional career pathway, these steps can feel overwhelming.
Clear communications and practical resources help new workers understand what to expect, what support is available and how to succeed in their new environment. This is particularly important when workforce initiatives are designed to attract people who haven’t historically had strong connections to a sector. If an organization succeeds in creating interest but doesn’t support people through their transition into work, much of that effort can be lost. Workforce development should consider whether people can successfully enter and remain engaged in the opportunities being promoted.
The Stages Need to Work Together
The value of this framework goes beyond dividing workforce development into six categories. It helps organizations understand how the stages influence one another. A sector might invest heavily in recruitment advertising but continue struggling to attract applicants because its public perception remains negative. An employer might generate significant interest through a career campaign but lose potential candidates through a complicated application process. An industry association might successfully raise awareness of career opportunities without connecting people to employers or training programs that can help them take the next step.
In each case, the individual initiative may be doing its job, but the overall journey remains incomplete. The strongest workforce development programs connect the stages rather than treating each one as a separate communications problem.
This doesn’t mean every organization needs to invest equally in all six areas. An employer with strong awareness and a steady flow of interested candidates may need to focus on application conversion or onboarding, while a sector struggling with outdated perceptions may need to invest much earlier in the journey. The important step is understanding where the greatest barriers exist before deciding where to invest.
Workforce Development Requires Coordination Across Organizations
Workforce challenges become harder to address when multiple organizations share responsibility. Industry associations shape sector perceptions, governments and workforce organizations fund career awareness and training, educational institutions help people gain qualifications and employers recruit and onboard. Each plays a valuable role, but their efforts don’t always connect.
A more coordinated approach begins with understanding the full journey and identifying where different partners can contribute. For example, an industry association could lead a sector-wide perception campaign, while educators provide opportunities to explore careers and employers create accessible routes into entry-level roles. Community organizations can help identify barriers that might prevent certain audiences from accessing opportunities, while workforce partners can connect prospective candidates to training and support.
This approach also creates opportunities to expand the available workforce rather than simply competing for the same pool of experienced workers. People already have skills, interests and experiences that may be relevant to careers they’ve never considered. Helping them recognize those connections, understand the training required and find a practical route forward can introduce new people to a sector.
Measure Progress Across the Journey
Recruitment campaigns are often evaluated through applications, hires and cost per applicant. These are important measures, but they don’t tell the whole story, particularly when a program is trying to change long-standing perceptions or introduce unfamiliar careers to new audiences.
Different stages call for different ways to measure success. At the perception stage, organizations might examine changes in attitudes, familiarity or willingness to consider an industry. How well people understand available career opportunities can indicate awareness, while engagement with career content, inquiries and requests for additional information can help gauge interest. At the experience stage, participation rates and changes in people’s understanding or interest can show whether these activities are making a difference.
Further along the journey, application efforts can measure completed applications, conversion rates and where candidates may abandon the process. Organizations can evaluate entry through successful onboarding, training completion and early retention. Looking across the full journey helps organizations understand what’s working, where additional attention is needed and how future workforce funding and marketing budgets should be allocated.
Building a Workforce Means Expanding Who Sees the Opportunity
When employers face workforce shortages, it’s natural to focus on finding people who already have the necessary skills and experience. But if multiple sectors are competing for those same workers, recruitment alone has limits. Long-term workforce development also requires reaching people who haven’t considered the industry, helping them understand the opportunities available and creating accessible pathways to participate.
That includes students exploring their futures, people considering a career change, newcomers entering the labour market and workers whose existing skills could transfer into another field. Reaching these audiences requires understanding what they believe, what they know, what interests them, what experiences they can access and what support they need to take the next step.
A job posting can reach someone who’s already looking for a particular opportunity. A connected workforce development strategy can help someone discover an opportunity they didn’t know was possible.
At UpHouse, we help organizations address workforce challenges across the full journey, from sector perception and career awareness to employer branding, experiential recruitment, application conversion and workforce communications. By connecting these activities, organizations can build programs that do more than promote current openings. They can help more people recognize, pursue and successfully enter the careers that industries need to grow.
Read more about our previous recruitment campaigns with Penn College Workforce Development and Tourism HR Canada.
