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By guest contributor, Heather Brown, Applicant Screener

As an Applicant Screener for the Career Bridge paid internship program, it’s really inspiring to know that over 1400 internationally qualified individuals have successfully gained professional Canadian work experience through our program.  But, I’ve come to realize it’s not just the interns, however, who are benefiting from the program.   Employers benefit too.  It’s essentially a “win/win” situation, both for internationally qualified job seekers and for employers seeking quality, diverse talent with exceptional English or bilingual English/French communication skills.

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August is almost upon us. That means more sunshine, long weekends and for many of us, vacation!

But before you hit the road, you’re well aware that there are a few key things you need to do first, to ensure that your vacation is truly relaxing and that you can leave the office with peace of mind.

#1 Make a list and check it twice

Make a list of all the things you need to do before you leave, and I cannot stress this enough – be realistic. The last thing you want is to be beating yourself up while on vacation because you didn’t get through your overly ambitious pre-vacation to-do list!

#2 Set boundaries and expectations

Unless you’re going on a top secret mission, let your team know where you’re going and what you’re planning to do. Being open will facilitate conversations about how accessible you’ll be.

For instance if it’s a “staycation,” (aka vacationing from home) you may be willing to participate in conference calls or even drop into the office occasionally. On the other hand, if you’re planning a camel-trek through the dessert, you may be off the grid where even a blackberry won’t help.

Set clear boundaries and expectations to define what your level of engagement will be with work while you’re gone. Part of this will be a function of where you’re going and what you’re doing, but also take your needs into consideration.

Some people prefer to stay engaged with work at some level, because it reduces the anxiety of the “unknown” waiting for their return. But most often, people need to disconnect altogether and take a real mental vacation from all things work-related. It’s healthy to take a proper break.

Whatever you decide, make sure you’re able to deliver on your promises – if you tell everyone you’ll be checking email often, you may want to ensure the resort you’re staying at has internet access!

#3 Delegate and communicate

To make sure you haven’t missed anything, make a list of all the tasks you do on a day-to-day basis. This could include any internal or external inquiries you handle or any unexpected fires you are called upon to put out. Think about who would be the right person to tackle each of these unique and important tasks. In some cases there will be an obvious choice but in some cases, you’ll want to consult with your team first.

People will often select one person as their point-of-contact in their absence. However this doesn’t necessarily mean that one person should shoulder all of your duties while you’re gone. That would be like inheriting a second job. Instead try to think of how you can divide things up amongst a team, whenever possible.

Make sure you have taken the time to communicate or meet with each person individually to ensure they have a good understanding of their responsibilities while you’re gone and that everyone knows who else on the team is handling which duties.

Finally, be sure your expectations are reasonable. Unless you have a clone, you need to be comfortable with the fact that many aspects of your job are simply going to have to be put on hold for a week or two.

#4 Leave your work station in a navigable state

Technically, we should be doing this every day, being mindful that at any point we may win the lottery and someone else will need to sit at your desk. But since that’s often not the case, take some time before you leave on vacation to organize your desk and virtual desk top in a way that is universally intuitive.

Not only will this make life easier for your teammates, but it will also reduce the chances that you’ll receive a phone call while on vacation from a desperate colleague who can’t locate critical pieces of information. This will just stress you out and take away from your vacation time.

#5 Set detailed auto-emails

Most people are pretty good about remembering to set out-of-office alerts for email. Often, this is a simple message saying “Hi, I’m on vacation and will be returning on such and such date…”

Short and sweet is always appreciated; however it doesn’t hurt to provide some additional details. Make sure your auto-reply covers off the following:

• When you left
• When you’re coming back
• Who to contact in your absence (and for which needs)
• Whether or not you have full, limited or no access to email/voicemail

If you’re like me, you’ll be in line at the airport when it hits you – oh no! I forgot to set my email to out-of-office!

In that case, set a reminder now on outlook or on your phone. Don’t forget voicemail too!

Today we received a beautiful thank-you card from Eric, our intern at Kraft whom we recently blogged about.

I think the note speaks for itself:

By guest contributor, Paula Calderon, Client Relations Manager/Applicant Screener

There is often a misconception that Career Edge Organization is a government funded agency that places people in internships.  This may not be surprising given the successful partnership between the Ontario Government and Career Edge Organization and the number of Career Bridge interns who have been placed in the Ontario Public Service Internship Program for Internationally Trained Individuals and the presence of the Career Bridge logo and links on the government’s public websites.

Career Edge Organization is in fact a national, private, self-sustaining not for profit organization that connects qualified talent and Canadian employers. A large number of employers from the private, public and non-profit sectors have accessed qualified talent through Career Edge Organization’s three paid internship programs.

So, how do the Government of Ontario and Career Edge Organization partner to implement the Career Bridge program across the Ontario Public Service?

The Ontario Public Service Internship Program for Internationally Trained Individuals (OPS ITI Program) is an innovative internship program specifically for professional newcomers to Canada, so that they can earn valuable Canadian work experience in their related career fields within the Ontario Public Service (OPS).

Through this important bridging program, the Ontario government is fulfilling its commitment to helping ITIs integrate into the Ontario labour market, enabling them to contribute to the provincial economy.

Since 2006, Career Edge Organization through its Career Bridge program has supported the implementation of the OPS ITI Program. As a Host Organization for Career Bridge interns, the Ontario Government has to date placed over 400 internationally qualified individuals in the OPS ITI Program across Ontario. YNPS, HR Ontario currently administers the program across the OPS in various ministries and regions in the province.  OPS managers have access to a pool of pre-screened, qualified Career Bridge registrants to select candidates for the internship program. Under the program, Career Edge Organization administers the interns’ payroll during the internship period.

The OPS ITI Program’s goals and objectives are to:

• Promote OPS as an employer of first choice by providing newcomers with the skills, knowledge and coaching/mentorship that will assist them in securing employment in their field.
• Support the Government of Ontario’s commitment to maximize bridging programs by providing a coordinated enterprise-wide approach to increasing access to Canadian work experience for newcomers in Ontario.
• Contribute to a welcoming community/work environment that promotes diversity.
• Help OPS to gain an increased understanding of settlement issues and barriers faced by newcomers to Ontario.
• To be an inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible organization.

And from my perspective, most importantly…

• To demonstrate government leadership in the recognition and support of internationally trained individuals in labour market integration by providing short-term work experience in the OPS.

Not only is OPS demonstrating leadership, but it is also proving first-hand that the Career Bridge Program provides an excellent opportunity for Internationally Qualified Professionals to demonstrate their value and skills while gaining meaningful work experience, which they can leverage to full time employment in their field. It is clear that an internship can be the perfect bridge to employment.

In the last three years, surveys have shown that over 75% of Career Bridge interns within the OPS ITI Program have secured employment in their field within six months of completing their internship.

This success should be a call to action for the entire business community to follow the Government of Ontario’s example of utilizing this valuable resource to fulfill their recruitment needs, as they help grow and sustain our economy.

By Guest Contributer, Janice Rudkowski, Director, Marketing & Communications at Career Edge Organization

Workplaces are full of assumptions. We make assumptions everyday – sometimes out of pure necessity but mostly for efficiency. Let’s face it – assumptions help us work faster, they make us feel smarter and they help us make quick, time-sensitive decisions.

Just for fun, next time you’re in a meeting count how many times you hear the phrase, “let’s just assume….”. Making assumptions occurs very naturally for some people; they have to make assumptions all the time, all day long. For others, making assumptions is a more methodical and conscious process. Whatever the method or the reason, assumptions are a systemic part of any organization. It’s not a good or a bad thing; it’s just part of organizational culture.

Take for example the famous assumption, “…big is always better.” We just need a bigger team. We’re just waiting for that big idea. We just need a bigger budget. So, is big always better? I was wondering about this assumption when someone said to me the other day, “I just assumed you’re a big organization…”. Really, why? And then someone said it again a couple of days later so I really started to ponder. When I asked them to clarify what they meant when they said “big” they said “50-100 people big.” Wow, that’s fairly big.

Well, we’re not big; at least in terms of number of employees. Career Edge Organization is actually only 19 people big. But, we have a really unique, diverse and passionate team who absolutely love what they do. That is often the case with not-for-profits; it’s especially so in our case since most of us had other careers in the private or public sectors before making the deliberate move over to Career Edge Organization.

Assuming that we’re bigger than what we are may speak to the overall impression that we leave, the quality that we deliver and the thought that we put into our work. Maybe it means that we’ve been able to accomplish a lot considering our size. Maybe we’ve been able to make a big impact with the people that we work with, and maybe we’ve been able to achieve exactly what we set out to do everyday, which is to connect employers with great talent to help launch their careers. I think that would be pretty safe to assume.

The scene in the city of Toronto’s downtown core this afternoon is like something from apocalyptic fiction. Three meter high fencing encloses the G20 zone of the city-turned-fortress where many Career Edge Organization employers and inters currently work.

Within the fenced area, police on foot, bicycles and even horses have taken up post at almost every street corner, providing a mixed sense of both security and heightened awareness of the potential chaos looming ahead as the world’s most powerful leaders come together.

It is a significant departure from the typical scene on a beautiful Thursday afternoon when the streets would normally be pulsating with activity. Instead the streets are eerily quiet and deserted, leaving one to ask – where is everybody?

And most importantly, who is doing the work?

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Picture this: amidst a skills and talent crunch, an organization’s most senior leaders and top-performers retire, taking with them much more than a gold watch – 30 or more years of experience and intimate knowledge of the company. As middle managers move up to fill the gaps, new gaps will appear, until the entire organization from top to bottom is riddled with vacancies – and customers hanging in the balance.

Suddenly recent grads of the Y generation will be at the forefront of the battle for top talent, and companies will have to compete for honour roll students and campus superstars.

Why not hire them now?

Recruiting recent grads is something some employers are making a priority – not just to fill entry-level roles, but as a strategic component of succession planning and sustainability. It’s about being proactive, rather than reactive, as some would say.

As the Globe and Mail recently rolled out their list of “Top 50 Employers for Young People” (with the editors of “Canada’s Top 100 Employers”), Career Edge was profiled in a timely feature in the Globe today, entitled “Keeping a Generation from Getting Lost.”

The article by Randy Ray highlighted the challenges faced by the large number of unemployed youth in today’s tough job market, particularly those who graduated at the height of the recession and have remained unemployed since.

The article, featuring an interview with our own Janice Rudkowski, Director, Marketing & Communications, raises the question – what will become of this cohort, and what will happen when employers need fresh talent? Will they be “passed over in favour of the next crop of fresh graduates,” as Janice postulates in the article. Will they lose some of the skills and knowledge they graduated with months, or in some cases, over a year ago?

Fortunately there are some excellent companies out there that recognize the value of recruiting and training new talent now. Loblaw and Kraft – both host employers to our Career Edge program for recent grads – both appeared in the article as examples of excellent programs that are “kick-starting careers” and enjoying the benefits of new talent.

As the economy recovers, now is a great time to build a “talent pipeline,” because before we know it, we’ll be facing a talent drought.