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Career Edge Blog

Jan 13
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Contest: HR Q&A Wednesdays Kick-off!

By Uncategorized

Starting in February 2011, every other Wednesday Career Edge Organization will be lending our expertise to the business community by answering real questions from real employers. To kick things off, we’re putting out a challenge and calling upon our readers to submit relevant, thought-provoking HR or employment-related questions, and a prize is at stake!

Win 2 free tickets to the HR Summit Awards gala!

Send us your question along with your contact information (name, title, organization and email will do) to marketing@careeredge.ca. You can also tweet your question to @CareerEdgeOrg on Twitter! Or, you can leave a comment and submit your question here on the  blog!

The person who submits the most unique, relevant and though-provoking question, as determined by our resident experts, will win 2 free gala tickets, valued at $100 each – a total value of $200!

The winner and finalists will have their questions featured on our blog, along with answers from our resident expert!

Winners will be announced on Thursday, January 27th!

Contest rules

1. You must be a Canadian employer/manager/HR professional

2. You must be able to attend the HR Summit Awards gala the evening of Tuesday, February 1, 2011

3. Your question must be HR/employment related; Relevant topics may include:

  • recruitment for entry-level and/or professional-level roles
  • pre-screening for long-term retention
  • diversity and inclusion planning
  • workplace accessibility and accommodation
  • seasonal, short-term or project based work
  • contingency staffing
  • payroll, salary and compensation
  • unique issues pertaining to hiring in non-profit, private or public sectors

About the HR Summit Awards

Date: Tuesday February 1, 2011

Time: 6 pm Cocktails, 7 pm Dinner, 8 pm Awards Presentation

Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building, 222 Bremner Blvd. Toronto

More info: http://www.hrsummitawards.com

Learn from the best

Our “resident expert” is Donna Smith, Vice President, Career Edge Organization. Donna brings more than 30 years of senior management level experience in Human Resources and Operations. She holds a BA from the University of Toronto and a diploma in Advanced Human Resources and Strategic Planning from the Rotman Executive School of Business.

What do we know about employment?

Over the course of 15 years, Career Edge Organization has perfected the internship model; since 1996 we have worked with hundreds of employers and launched over 10,000 careers, putting talented recent grads, graduates with disabilities and internationally qualified professionals to work. Our work sees us collaborating with employers in the private, public and non-profit sectors, as well as with Canada’s leading post-secondary institutions and community-based agencies. As a result of this incredible vantage point, we bring a unique, multi-faceted perspective to diverse audiences on a wide range of topics related to employability, cultural diversity, Gen Y and accessibility.

Best of all we work with some of Canada’s top employers including RBC, Bell, GE, the Ontario Government and countless others. So if we don’t know the answer to your question, we could find someone in our vast employer network that does!

Jan 06
Love3

Another year, another resolution: 3 goals for HR professionals in 2011

By Uncategorized

Last year, we put together a great resolution list for career-minded individuals everywhere. Covering topics such as work-life balance, organization and learning, our Ten Resolutions for 2010 can be found here.

This year, we have but three simple but necessary tips for HR professionals. Consider these commandments for 2011:

1. Get Online and Get Social!

Social HR, Recruiting 3.0 – there are many names for it. The point is, job-seekers are increasingly turning to the online world of social networking to learn about an organization’s work culture and to find opportunities in hidden places. As attracting top talent becomes more competitive than ever, having the tools to build and maintain relationships with customers, employees and potential talent is going to be a key advantage in 2011.

Remember, using online tools will also help you develop your own personal and professional networks, meaning better access to new, up-to-date information, unique perspectives and exciting opportunities for you and your organization.

2. Swim in new talent pools!

Look for talent in new places by embracing diversity – this means focusing on the abilities of persons with disabilities, considering the potential of educated recent grads and acknowledging international skills and education. It not only makes good business sense to have a diverse workforce; as a hiring manager or HR professional, broadening your perspective and your understanding of what it means to be “qualified” will give you access to more and better talent.

3. Put fit first

In 2010 we told you about the importance of finding the right fit in our newsletter and on our blog. With the recession behind us and a skills shortage ahead, organizations need to recruit and retain strong talent to compete. It’s a fact that when hire for person-organization fit (and not just person-job fit) your employees will be more engaged, more productive and more likely stay!

Dec 24
Love3

Happy (politically correct) Holidays!

By Uncategorized

Here we are, Christmas Eve officially just hours away, and yet as our team at Career Edge Organization slowly trickle out one by one, “Merry Christmas” is seldom heard. Instead the message is, “happy holidays,” and “happy New Year.”

Like many urban, Canadian workplaces, our team is incredible diverse. For many of us, the “holidays” have passed.

Hanukkah for instance took place at the beginning of December this year. And Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, took place this last September! Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, took place September 10th.

For Orthodox Christians, Christmas doesn’t come until January 7th, so put your “Ho Ho Ho’s” on hold for your Greek and East European friends of this faith.

While many of us in Canada will be out hunting for deals on Boxing Day, others will be observing Kwanza, a week-long holiday honouring African culture.

But we can’t go wrong with “happy New Year,” right? Well actually, different cultures have different calendars. The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) took place back in February, and the Chinese New Year won’t come until February 3rd.

Whenever you celebrate your holidays, there is something undeniably special about this time of year in North America… Maybe it’s the cookies, the gifts, or the beautiful lights that illuminate our streets on these short, dark days; or perhaps it’s the multicultural potlucks that have allowed us to showcase our cooking skills and learn more about each other.

Despite our cultural differences, we all share one very important thing in common here at Career Edge Organization: The holidays mean more time with family and loved ones. So happy statutory holidays to you and your workplace as you lock your doors, shut down your computers, and enjoy some well-earned time off!

Dec 17
Love3

Paid vs. Unpaid internships: 4 reasons why it makes good business sense to pay your intern

By General

Paid vs. unpaid internship?

The debate was recently highlighted in the Globe and Mail. The article, The ins and outs of internships by Marjo Johne, features Career Edge Organization as their subject matter expert, and explores the benefits of internships in addition to the “paid vs. unpaid” debate.

Well, it’s not a simple choice. Clearly, a paid internship is better for the intern, but what about for you, the employers? What makes better business sense?

While in this post-recession economy, unpaid internships may make good business sense to employers, we can think of a few good reasons why paid internships are the way to go:

1. Motivation

While we are aware that money isn’t the single most important form of motivation, compensation is still a factor in getting the best results from your employees. If workers do not feel that they are getting compensated fairly for the work they do, they may not be giving you 100%.

You know what they say: you get what you pay for! Top talent are willing to work hard to get that much-needed first experience, but you’ll get the most if you pay them fairly. Even a modest stipend will do.

2. Talent Pool

Many people – including talented newcomers, persons with disabilities and recent university or college graduates – simply cannot afford to accept a job without pay. This is a scary thought because it means that your unpaid internship is cutting a significant population out of the talent pool.

One way of looking at it is that you could be systematically filtering out all of the dedicated, hardworking candidates who have to financially support themselves.

3. Retention

If you do bring on an unpaid intern, it may prove difficult to keep them. First of all, your unpaid intern may have to work a second job just to stay afloat – after a while they may find the balance too difficult.

Even if the person is being financially supported by family or loved ones during the internship, it may not be long before they start looking at job boards. Promises of potential paid opportunities “down the road” may not go very far either, as so many unpaid interns have been strung along by companies in the past, they may not take the bait.

4. Reputation and Ethics Considerations

Unpaid internships have a bit of a bad reputation. Some view it as exploitative and even unethical. In the comments that accompanied our Globe & Mail article, some even remarked that unpaid internships were “slave” labour! A bit of an extreme view point… but it’s not an uncommon one.

We’re not saying unpaid internships are all bad. For many job-seekers and employers alike, this has been a viable solution to their hiring needs. But there are countless advantages to hosting paid internships. We’ve been doing this for 15 years – we’ve place over 10,000 paid interns and helped over 1,000 employers find cost-effective talent solutions. Trust me, we would know!

Click here to read the full Globe and Mail article

What do you think about this? Leave a comment below!

Dec 09
Love4

Ability Edge in the Canadian HR Reporter!

By Uncategorized

We are pleased to share the following article, originally published in the Canadian HR Reporter on November 29, 2010, which features host employer Kaye Leslie at Scotiabank and former Ability Edge intern, Elizabeth Novak.

Attitude top barrier to employment for the blind

Visual disabilities to double in 25 years, firms need to do more to accommodate

By Shannon Klie

Attitude is the number one barrier to employment for people with a visual disability, according to Kaye Leslie, manager of workforce diversity at Scotiabank in Toronto, who herself has only two per cent of her vision because of juvenile macular degeneration.

“It’s perceived to be the most difficult disability to accommodate,” said Leslie, who has worked at Scotiabank for six years.

People are afraid of blindness in a way they aren’t afraid of other disabilities, she said.

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