When we blogged about Remembrance Day last year, we had no idea that almost a full year later this issue would continue to be a contentious topic among employers, workers, war veterans and average citizens alike. But our blog stats show that this post remains one of our most visited pages to date – evidence that the topic is still hot.
Click here to read the original blog post.
Tell us what you think – take the poll!
Lest we forget.
Contrary to widespread folklore, typical modern-day vampires are not the blood-sucking villains they are sometimes portrayed to be in mainstream media. In fact, rather than lurking the streets at night in search of innocent victims, vampires today are productive, contributing members of society. Read More
Last September we announced our upcoming panel session at the 2011 Recruitment Innovation Summit. The conference took place this past week and, not surprisingly, was a great success for the Human Resources Networking Group (HRNG) who hosted the event, attended by hundreds of senior level recruitment and HR professionals from organizations across Canada.
Career Edge Organization was one of a handful of exhibitors, representing the only not-for-profit, diverse talent solution there.
In addition to our booth, Career Edge Organization hosted a break-out session, Global Markets, World Class Talent, which featured a diverse panel of employers who spoke about their successes and challenges in hiring internationally qualified professionals.
Attendees were highly engaged, actively participating in the Q&A following the panel discussion. Many joined us at our booth during the networking reception that followed.
Here is what our panellists had to say during the session:
“We serve over 150 ethnicities within our hospital doors; [there is no] better way to provide culturally competent care than to have health professionals that reflect the patients that walk in the door.”
Kate Wilson
Manager, Corporate Staffing Strategies, St. Michael’s Hospital“We have an imperative as a government to ensure we are serving [our] communities in a manner that is equitable and which takes into consideration the diversity of its people… There is a commitment to both equity and diversity by the City of Toronto both as a service provider but also as an employer.”
Uzma Shakir
Director, Equity, Diversity & Human Rights, City of Toronto“We seek to leverage diversity as we reach out to cultural markets within cities like Toronto; leveraging the knowledge and the experience of internationally educated professionals is critical in doing so.”
Blair Crichlow
Manager, Diversity Recruitment, RBC“[Diversity] is not something we’re striving towards, it’s the basis and foundation of our business. We simply could not exist or compete internationally without internationally educated and qualified professionals”
Peter Kelk
President, George Kelk Corporation
Coinciding with National Disability Employment Awareness Month (October, for both US and Canada), I attended a conference earlier this week to listen to Rona Maynard (author, speaker and former editor-in-chief of Chatelaine) speak to employers about “the healing power of work,” and working with employees who have mental health disabilities.
The True Cost of Workplace Mental Health was the 4th annual conference held by Business Takes Action (BTA), a program of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) funded by the government of Ontario.
Rona Maynard who herself has battled with depression and was widely known as a voice to Canadian women (and men) during her reign at Chatelaine, was an ideal choice for keynote speaker, as she had also encountered under her leadership employees with mental illnesses such as severe depression. She candidly shared her successes and failures, as well as things she wished that she – as an employer – had done differently.
One of the things Rona touched upon was managing an employee’s return to work. This needs to be taken into consideration with any employee returning to work after any leave of absence due to illness, maternity leave, etc. But it is especially important when mental health is involved simply because of the stigma that still exists around illnesses such as depression.
If handled well, an employee’s return-to-work following illness could be a great success. Many organizations have written policies on how to handle this but even those with the best of intentions can sometimes miss the mark when it comes to reintegrating the employee into the team. Here are 5 tips for reintegrating employees with disabilities – mental, physical or any kind!
Earlier this year, Environics Research Group conducted a Client Satisfaction Survey on our behalf. The results were overhwhelmingly positive, and though it’s seldom that we toot our own horns, we thought it’d be ok to make an exception just this once: Toot, toot!
Here are some highlights from the results:
If you work with CEO and want to make your voice heard, let us know – why do you choose CEO?
By Anne Lamont, President and CEO, Career Edge Organization
Excerpt from Anne’s blog post for the Toronto Board of Trade’s VoteOntario2011 campaign.
To read the full article on the VoteOntario2011 blog, click here.
This past week, in an opinion editorial in the Toronto Star, John Tory and Julia Deans of CivicAction reminded us that the world has a lot to learn from Toronto when it comes to new and innovative ways to attract and integrate newcomers. Pointing out that “Canada has a productivity challenge” and that “the competition for talent is heating up,” our Career Bridge paid internship program was cited by CivicAction and an international delegation as “a model for other cities.”
We are delighted to be recognized in this positive way, not only by CivicAction, but by readers of The Star as well.
Still, as Career Edge Organization’s President & CEO, Anne Lamont points out, looking to internationally qualified professionals is only part of the “creative solution” required. Here is Anne Lamont’s response to the article:
“Canada needs to attract, develop and retain a productive workforce – this means leveraging the skills, experience and potential of recent graduates and skilled immigrants to augment the talent pipeline for most companies. Having these discussions at a time when there is significant economic turmoil creates a disconnect between what is in Toronto or in fact Canada’s long term economic and prosperity interest and the immediacy of employers’ actions of reducing the number of employees as a cost saving measure in response to the challenging business environment. The lost opportunities for recent graduates who have made an initial investment in their future through education and the underemployment of many skilled immigrants that we have attracted to our country are both a reputational and an economic risk. However, the reality is that while it is not business as usual, organizations still have hiring needs, which presents an opportunity for seeking out creative hiring solutions. As the head of an organization that has worked with employers who have faced this dilemma before, I know that access to talent through our paid internship programs for recent grad and skilled immigrants has been an effective option. “
Anne Lamont
President & CEO
Career Edge Organization
Recognizing our expertise in the areas of employment and diversity, Career Edge Organization was invited by Richard Matthews and the organizers of the annual HRNG (Human Resources Networking Group) Recruitment Innovations Summit to assemble a panel of employers to talk about hiring diverse talent.
Our panel, “Global Markets, World-Class Talent: Building a Diverse Workforce,” will include representatives from RBC, St. Michale’s Hospital, the City of Toronto and George Kelk Corporation, and will be moderated by our own Paula Calderon.
This is a must-attend event for HR professionals and business decision-makers – we participated last year and were highly impressed with the level of professionalism and engagement of participants. To learn more about this event, or to register, I encourage you to visit the event website: http://www.hrng.ca/Conference2011/events.php
As an active member of JOIN (Job Opportunity Information Network), a network of community agencies of the Greater Toronto Area assisting persons with disabilities in finding and maintaining employment, Career Edge Organization is working collaboratively with 25 member agencies to help connect employers with pre-screened, career-minded Canadian college and university graduates with self-declared disabilities. Our Ability Edge paid internships provide meaningful work experience for persons with disabilities while guiding employers through the recruiting, hiring and integrating process.
Ability Edge Program currently has over 600 active registrants in the areas of Business (29%), Arts/Humanities (35%), Information Technology (13%), Engineering (2%) and Health/Sciences (9%).
Career Edge Organization is one of the key sponsors of JOIN’s 8th Annual Employer Conference, “Leading with Action” taking place November 21-22, 2011. Please note that the “Early Bird Rate” (discount) for registration ends September 15th.
Highlights of JOIN’s 8th Annual Employer Conference, Leading with Action includes:
People with disabilities are an underutilized and well educated labor force that can add a wealth of skills and diversity to the workplace. Yet the gap between people with disabilities and the greater population in terms of employment rate is still wide. Consider the facts:
So employers are subsequently missing out on the benefits that this diverse and qualified group has to offer.
JOIN’s Employer Conference, “Leading with Action,” will address these and many other issues. Learn about best practices for disability inclusion; get the tools to be a leader in this field.We hope to see you there!
In a hot-off-the-press study from Statistics Canada, a number of “projection scenarios” were used to get a glimpse of the Canadian labour force – twenty years into the future.
The first projection suggested that our labour force will grow slowly, to between 20.5 and 22.5 million by 2031 (from approximately 18.5 million, currently). The reason for this sluggish growth is the inevitable retirement of baby boomers. Overall “participation rate” (% of total population that is in the labour force) is actually expected to decline.
The study also predicts that within ten years, a record-setting one in four workers will be 55 years of age or older.
Cultural diversity is also expected to increase, according to Stats Can. By 2031, a third of our labour force may be “foreign born.”
So, what does this mean for employers?
Quite simply, it means that change is on the horizon, and Canadian employers that consider the trends in their strategic planning will be best prepared to compete in this increasingly dynamic and global market.
The data makes a great case for employing youth. Investing in entry level talent today can help foster the middle management and senior leaders of tomorrow. Twenty years from now, today’s Career Edge interns will represent skilled and experienced workers that will play a crucial role in filling the gap created by a mass baby boomer exodus.
Trends towards an increasingly foreign labour force means that employers that are not adequately equipped to recruit and retain internationally qualified professionals will be missing out on a third of Canada’s available talent.
Time will only tell whether the images conjured in Stats Canada’s crystal ball will come to life. In the mean time, Career Edge Organization’s host employers are getting proactive, drawing upon our tools, resources and top talent to address both short-term and long-term needs.
