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9 strategies to raise your profile among local employers
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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If effective job search is about networking and connections, then certainly effective job development builds on these qualities as well. The job developer who cultivates strong relationships with prominent employers will have a major advantage in securing lasting employment outcomes.
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Ironically, the services and supports job developers and other employer engagement professionals provide have tremendous value and are typically worth thousands of dollars and yet they are often perceived by employers as suspicious, complex and ineffective. I’ve often wondered why this is, since we can look at countless examples of employers who’ve hired these individuals and loved the program, the service and the employees they’ve hired.
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So, why are employers not getting on-board? I think some of the most common responses are that workers who are supported by these programs are not as valuable as the candidates being pitched by recruiters and search firms. Yet, new research shows employers are continually disappointed by the expensive results provided by recruiters.
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According to Indeed Flex, 70% of employers say working with recruiters results in low fulfilment rates and underqualified candidates.
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In spite these poor outcomes, employers are paying tens of thousands of dollars to hire these individuals.
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There are lot of other reasons why employers are resistant to hiring marginalized workers. They may not want to accommodate the actual challenges these individuals posses. Perhaps, they don’t want to invest the time in training individuals who may need a little more onboarding. In some cases, clients or students may need a little mentorship or coaching in Canadian workplace culture and an employer can’t be bothered.
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But what we see time and time again is that employers who invest the effort reap big dividends. They are what I referred to as ‘preferred employers’.
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How do we overcome perceptions and reluctance? It’s all about relationship. But before we talk about building relationship with employers, let’s talk about how you are perceived in the community. And by you, I mean the concept of job development or co-op employment.
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If one employer was describing what you do to another employer, neither of whom had ever utilized your services, what would they say? Would it be something like, ‘this Nancy, she helps people with problems find jobs’?
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I don’t even want to talk about this poor characterization of job development, but let’s just get to the root of it. ‘This is Nancy and she helps people find jobs’.
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I always talk about job development being this delicate balancing act of measuring the needs and expectations of job seekers against the needs and expectations of employers. But this employer isn’t acknowledging any of that they’re just saying Nancy helps job seekers.
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This almost seems natural. If I asked this same employer who the local food bank advocates for, they would say people who can’t afford food, not local growers and grocery chains. If I asked them who the local rehab centre advocates for, they would say people with substance use issues and if I asked them who the CNIB advocates for, they would say people who are visually impaired.
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Recruiters don’t struggle with this. If you meet any recruiter, they will always remind you that their client is the employer. That is who pays them and that is where their loyalty lies.
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To recruiters, job seekers are basically a commodity as evidenced by one recruiter I met who said, “anyone who is unemployed is not worth hiring in the first place.”
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Because most employers perceive we already have a bias to support job seekers, we lack authority as a member of the business community.
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And don’t forget this, as job developers we are members of the business community. We are not social workers. We’re not here to fix things that are broken. We represent job seekers and I’m sure your funder would agree that we are here to create lasting employment outcomes. That is all part of the business community.
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What we are talking about here is ‘branding’. What is your brand in the business community? Clearly, we’re here to best prepare our clients or students for effective job search, but beyond that, when we’re on social media, attending events, cold calling employers and sharing marketing, our brand should be as a ‘recruitment problem-solver’.
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It will be neither easy nor quick to change this brand, because you are just one person practicing job development in your community, but through that important relationship building, you can do it one employer at a time.
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The following are nine strategies that if you practice them on a regular basis, you can achieve lasting employment outcomes that will resonate in the business community and build your brand.
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Participate in Local Business Organizations and Events: You should be actively involved in your local board of trade, chamber of commerce, business improvement association, Rotary Club or any organization bringing together local business owners and leaders. Seek opportunities for leadership such as sitting on committees and organizing events. And when events occur, strive to be actively engaged, using them as networking opportunities to share the services and supports that make a real difference for local employers.
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Engage on Social Media: Certainly, LinkedIn is a valuable tool but really any social media platform lets you follow all of the major employers (both as individuals and organizations) in your community. When posts are placed, you should be liking, sharing and commenting on them. Even if you think social media is a giant waste of time, it’s like the Coca-Cola sign at the little league baseball game. It doesn’t sell individual bottles of Coke, but it reinforces name recognition. Social media is a terrific way of getting your name (brand) out there repeatedly. For many small business owners they will be doing their own social media and this is a great way of demonstrating interest in what they are doing.
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Share Knowledge: Using your own social media, you share news that is going to be relevant to local employers. This might include new trends in human resources, AI tools, government grants, major events or new online resources. Many small employers don’t have their own human resources department and so you can provide much of the new HR information we share each week in the Job Development Pulse as part of the Canadian Job Development Network. Double down on recruitment not hiring. Have your messaging reflect the information you are sharing is to help the employers recruit the best workforce possible, not as a pretense to hire your clients.
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Comment on Major Issues: When things happen in the labour market, comment on them. Every month, Statistics Canada releases the Labour Force Survey in which they give direction on the job market. Organizations like Robert Half, Indeed, Express Employment Professionals, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Conference Board of Canada release new research (which we link to each week in the Job Development Pulse). Share this information with local media outlets, the Chamber of Commerce newsletter, on social media and in your own curated email distribution list or newsletter where you share ‘HR Insights’ with local employers.
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Gather Employer Testimonials: We spend a lot of time talking about sharing client testimonials and in many ways that’s indicative of this ‘my client is my client’ mindset. We need to be publicly sharing employer testimonials on social media and at public events. When employers hire our clients, we should be asking them if they know of any other employers who might benefit from our services and ask for an introduction or to get together for coffee. As much as we want to reinforce we’re members of the business community, other business people advocating for us, based on personal experience, will be the most effective.
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Deliver Training Sessions: While we think nothing of doing client training on resume development, job search, cover letter writing, etc., how often do we think of doing training for local employers on important recruitment issues? One topic I enjoy speaking to employers about is how to adopt networking as a strategy for attracting future employees. All employers should be scouting prospective future workers, sharing their business card and building a database. This could be a training session. And if you think employer training would not generate enough interest for in-person sessions, record YouTube training sessions on recruitment, interviewing, resume screening, and reference checks. You can share links to these videos whenever you meet with new employers.
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Create a Local Guide to Business Resources: You may want to work with your local small business start-up organization(s) to develop a list of business resources. This can include information on hiring, developing great teams, employment standards fact sheets, human rights guidelines and a list of local organizations working to support businesses. Preparing a guide such as this may lead to speaking engagements with local business organizations who can benefit from its content.
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Establish a Business Owner Welcome Wagon: If you are scouring lists of new business licenses issued, new chamber of commerce members or municipal business development permit applications, you may be the first person who greets new employers in town. Put together a welcome wagon kit that includes some sort of treat, but also your local guide to business resources, a list of community supports, a brochure and your business card. These employers may not be hiring right now, but this can be a great way to get them to think about you when next they are hiring.
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Establish Specific Months to Acknowledge Great Employers: We all know that October is Disability Employment Month in every province in Canada; well – except British Columbia for some reason. This is an opportunity for us to discuss the contribution disabled workers can make but also feature employers who stand out as great employers of disabled workers. Why can’t we choose other months to highlight other inclusive employers. Why not feature great employers of youth in April, coinciding with the annual build up to summer employment; or great employers of newcomers in July, to coincide with Canada Day? We acknowledge Truth and Reconciliation Day in September; why not use the month to promote employers who are exceling in the employment of Indigenous workers?
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While much of what I’ve been discussing here is about changing minds and perceptions, the first person you need to convince is yourself.
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Are you doing valuable work that is really benefiting people. Absolutely, I don’t have any doubt about it, but don’t let that define you. Lean into whatever you can do to be a prominent voice in the business community. You will always be perceived as an advocate of your clients or students. At least you can be perceived as a trustworthy advocate.
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The way you can best champion inclusive employment is understanding the challenges and focus of employers. If employers respect and trust you, if they believe you are working to support them, they will trust your insights into recruitment and ultimately be open to hiring your clients or students. .
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We’ll be discussing the value of discovery in learning about the challenges of employers at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday July 14th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday July 14th 'Click this Link' to join the session LIVE.
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'Developing a Comprehensive Approach to Effective Job Development'
WORKSHOP
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Just a reminder, we’ve opened registration for this year’s workshop series, ‘Developing a Comprehensive Approach to Job Development’, one session for each time zone, September 8th to 12th. I know we’ve had hundreds of job developers and other employer engagement professionals already take this training but the sector is always growing and new professionals are joining the sector. If you would like to know more, just visit: www.jobdevelopment.org/pro-d
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'National Networking Day for Job Developers'
NETWORKING IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES
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We’re also still gathering registration for the National Networking Day for Job Developers, taking place on September 19th. We’ve made registration FREE for everyone who attends. To learn more, just visit: www.jobdevelopment.org/nnd
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We already have 16 communities arranged and we’re adding more. If we don’t have one in your community, maybe your organization would be interested in hosting one. There is no direct cost to hosting a session. Just go to: www.jobdevelopment.org/sponsors
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