A new Canadian company with Island roots is bridging the gap between Canadian workers and American firms in need of talent.
Job Arc, founded by Bradley Gunn and twin brothers Trevor and Sean Misfeldt, who graduated from Brentwood College School on the Island, launched last year and has been mining Canadian tech talent that wants to stay in Canada but work remotely for American firms.
“Our timing was kind of impeccable,” said Trevor Misfeldt. He noted the pandemic had much of the tech sector working remotely anyway and companies were more open to flexible working arrangements, and the U.S. border under former president Donald Trump had become more of a hurdle for foreign workers.
While Trevor Misfeldt currently works in Oregon, Kelowna-based Sean Misfeldt has consulted in the U.S. over the years and both say any time you need to cross the border it can be a hassle.
Sean said even if your paperwork is impeccable and documents are in order, if you catch the wrong border guard on the wrong day, it can be a problem.
The company’s goal is to make it easy for American firms to access the well-educated and talented workforce on their northern doorstep, while offering more job opportunities to Canadian workers.
Trevor said Job Arc takes care of Canadian taxes, labour laws, visas or benefits for U.S. companies so they don’t have to worry about it.
The service would not reveal the number of companies it has worked with or how many Canadians have been placed in jobs.
Trevor said their company is geared to the small and medium-sized firms that compete with Google, Amazon and Facebook for talent.
He said big players that want to access foreign talent may buy foreign companies for the team, or set up subsidiaries in a foreign city — both scenarios that have happened in Victoria — but small and medium-sized firms can’t do that.
“So, they have to try and convince the worker to move to the U.S,” he said, and that means visas, legal hurdles and the danger of losing those workers when their time runs out. “We realized as long as people are working remotely, what difference does it make where they live?”
Job Arc finds the talent, takes care of paperwork, is responsible for taxes and benefits, and manages the relationship between American employer and Canadian employee. It then sends the U.S. company a monthly invoice covering it all.
Trevor said that because paying Canada Pension Plan benefits is cheaper than social security in the U.S. and health care is universal in Canada, companies offering the same U.S. salary may be better off hiring a Canadian to work remotely.
“In the U.S., the big issue is making it simple and it’s also about liability. We take all of the liability — if something goes wrong, it’s on us,” Sean said.
Companies like the talent in Canada, the proximity of the remote workplace and the lack of time-zone issues. Workers like the fact they get to stay in Canada and still access what can be a lucrative job market, he said.
Those jobs tend to come with bigger salaries.
A Computing Technology Industry Association report released in 2020 said the median wage of a Canadian tech worker in 2019 was $76,471 Cdn, while the American equivalent was $84,284 US.
It said the median wage in B.C. for a tech worker was $75,626 Cdn, while in Seattle it was $108,700 US, $115,318 US in San Francisco and $121,792 US in San Jose.
Trevor said the company has fielded interest from workers in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. It has also heard from Canadians working in the U.S. who want to return to Canada and a number of tech workers who have good jobs in Canada but are being asked to return to offices after working remotely. “They don’t want to go back [into the office] just yet,” he said. “So they are looking around for options.”
Trevor said this kind of service may also be good for the Canadian tech sector in the long run, even though workers are toiling for U.S. firms. “The best tech centres in the world are places where everyone is fighting for talent,” creating an “ecosystem” that can lead to spinoff companies and keeps talent in Canada.
