The Board of Directors of Career Edge Organization is pleased to announce the appointment of Naguib Gouda as its next President and Chief Executive Officer. Naguib will be officially joining Career Edge Organization next Monday, December 17th, 2012.
“Naguib is a highly skilled executive with extensive corporate experience and a lifelong commitment to volunteering for community organizations,” says Matt Holland, Chair of Career Edge Organization’s Board of Directors.
Three weeks ago, we blogged about our partnership with the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP), which has already benefited both internationally qualified professionals joining the Canadian workforce and the employers looking for their skills and global experience.
Last week, Career Edge Organization was proud to be the latest employer benefiting from the CEO-CIIP talent pipeline as we welcomed Career Bridge intern, Rizwan Kalim, to the team. Rizwan has joined the team in a Technical Writer/IT Support role, and brings with him extensive technical writing, business process analysis and IT support experience with some of the world’s leading consulting firms, including BearingPoint/KPMG and Mazars.
We took this opportunity to sit down with Rizwan to learn more about how he found out about the partnership, and how this internship is contributing to launching a successful career in Canada.
Career Edge Organization, along with Skills International is pleased to support an exclusive partnership with the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP), a program funded by the Government of Canada, developed and implemented by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC).
CIIP provides pre-arrival orientation workshops to Federal Skilled Workers (FSWs) and Provincial Nominees (PNs) while they are still overseas during the final stages of the immigration process to help prepare for their economic success in Canada.
Currently under this partnership, job ready and top talent candidates are identified by CIIP Overseas Officers before their arrival in Canada, and are referred to Career Edge Organization.
Last year, we shared our 3 tips for employers looking to develop a diverse and inclusive workforce by bringing employees with vampirism into their organizations. Many employers have already started to recognize and value the skills and (literally) hundreds of years of experience that vampires bring to the workplace.
More recently, the team at Career Edge Organization has been proud to support a similar diversity recruitment trend lurching into Canada’s HR community. Unlike the popular depictions seen in films and television programs like AMC’s The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later, zombies actually represent a remarkably skilled and highly qualified group of professionals.
However, as the 2006 film Fido noted, “Good dead are hard to find.” As this talent pool is largely underground, employers often face challenges when it comes to the three R’s (Resurrection, Recruitment, and Retention). To address these challenges, we have developed the following Do’s and Don’ts as a guide to support employers looking to unearth this unique source of talent.
DO
Leverage zombie-serving community organizations to connect with the undead. Zombies often face barriers to employment and frequently turn to agencies that help them connect with employers that value their experience and “flesh” perspectives.
DON’T
Overlook qualified candidates based on appearances. Showing up for an interview having recently emerged from the grave can make some zombie professionals look a little worse for wear. Assess candidates based on skills and attitude to get the right fit for your company.
DO
Consider flexible work arrangements. While zombies have exceptional attendance records due to being oblivious to injury and illness (with the exception of decapitation), they fear bright lights and often prefer to avoid daylight.
DON’T
Mistake non-zombies for zombies. It can often be difficult to differentiate between zombies and other colleagues that haven’t consumed enough coffee. Make reasonable accommodations to optimize performance for zombies, and non-zombies alike.
DO
Celebrate the diverse skills of individuals that positively impact achieving business goals. Build recognition programs to incent those individuals who contribute to both personal and team performance.
DON’T
Build formal (or informal) employee reward programs that include elements that could offend or terrify workers, including zombies. As zombies have a strong fear of fire, think twice before lighting up the candles to celebrate a colleague’s birthday.
The key to developing a truly diverse and effective workplace is taking everyone’s needs into consideration. Whether your team includes zombies, vampires, ghosts, or werewolves, it is critical to have recruitment and retention practices that are accessible and that build on differences to achieve success.
The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) is pleased to announce the call for entries for the 7th Annual Immigrant Success (IS) Awards, sponsored by RBC. Each year, TRIEC presents the IS Awards to recognize innovation and leadership in integrating skilled immigrants into the Greater Toronto Region labour market.
If you or your organization deserve to be recognized, don’t miss your chance this year. Employers and individuals are invited to apply or submit a nomination by Thursday, November 15, 2012 at www.isawards.ca.
