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Creating benefits for local employers
(Part 3 of 4)
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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Hi everyone, as I mentioned previously, I'm traveling overseas this week but I don't want to lose momentum on our discussion topics. We'll be back with live #MotivatingMonday sessions on April 28th.
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There is incredible complexity in the array of employment service and supports available to employers in the community. This can be hard to understand for many career professionals and nearly impossible for business owners and other employers.
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Employers are regularly approached by employer engagement professionals working with government-funded employment programs, some funded by the provincial government while others are funded by the federal government. This is in addition to Indigenous-specific organizations marketing clients under the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training (ISET) program. There are also job search professionals who work exclusively with youth, mature workers, women, those who identify as LGBTQ2S+, individuals with disabilities, Francophones, immigrants, refugees and survivors of violence and/or abuse.
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That’s certainly a lot to keep track of but it’s only the beginning. We also have employer engagement professionals in the education sector working with high schools as well as both public and private colleges and universities. This often includes separate departments marketing co-op programming and career and employment services.
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There is also fee-for-service career development organizations. There are a myriad of companies providing placement and search services for employers, where employers may spend thousands of dollars to recruit the right candidate. This is very different from temp agencies, where employers are looking for immediate assistance in the absence of having the candidate they need right now.
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While the impact of these services is going to be different in a small community of 5,000 to 20,000 people versus a larger city of 80,000 to 120,000 people; and certainly quite a bit different in cities reaching up to and beyond a million people; the cross communication among all these stakeholders can be difficult.
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Employment services are a high value industry employing thousands of people to engage employers. Each year, the Government of Canada spends over $2 billion through the Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDAs) with provinces and territories so they can support Canadians with Employment Insurance (EI)-funded skills training and employment assistance. This doesn’t count the money spent independently by Service Canada to offer employment services or the funds spent through other federal departments and the provinces and territories from their own budgets.
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While $2 billion may seem like a lot of money, it’s nothing compared with what is spent in the private sector. In 2022, ‘Employment Services’, which includes employment placement agencies, executive search services and temporary help services generated $23.1 billion in Canada, which was a 17.7% increase over 2021. To put this in context, private sector recruiting is 11 times bigger in Canada than all government-funded employment programming put together.
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And while there certainly are a wide range of voices trying to get the attention of employers at any one time, what they are discussing is equally complex. Job developers and employer engagement professionals are attempting to market specific individuals, programs, wage subsidy, training, mentorship and workplace financial supports. They’re attempting to arrange permanent placements, temporary placements, paid and unpaid placements.
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While many of these programs are intended to save employers potentially thousands of dollars, they have difficulty understanding the benefits simply because they are too busy with their recruitment challenges, operating their organization and many employers have a natural suspicion of anything that sounds too good.
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Organizing a Mastermind Group for job developers and other employer engagement professionals can help you develop a better sense of what everyone in the space is doing to support employers, develop a coordinated approach to avoid crosstalk and better educate local employers about the services and supports available to them.
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Long-Term Projects for a Mastermind Group
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One of the key objectives of your Mastermind Group should be to do more than the participants can do on their own. While discussing employer interactions, creating professional development and networking will all be valuable, this group may also be an opportunity to undertake larger projects that shine a light on your employer engagement.
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This group may be a valuable forum to help develop large community job fairs. This will help you share costs, coordinate marketing, better engage employers and ensure maximum attendance.
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You may also choose to use the group to highlight employers that are making a real difference in the community. You don’t want to call out bad employers, but it doesn’t mean you can’t create lists of the best employers in the community for youth, immigrants, those with disabilities, women, for families, etc.
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In speaking with one voice, you can create an aspirational goal for many employers who want to be recognized for their progressive hiring practices. This can be an encouragement for many local employers who aren’t particularly inclusive in their hiring but wish to become more inclusive.
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While it may be valuable to create public lists of great employers, you may want to take this a step further and issue awards to employers who are establishing themselves as ‘employers of choice’. Working together, you’ll be in a better place to garner mainstream and social media attention.
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You may even choose to undertake research projects that highlight the hidden potential of many underrepresented groups and apply this research on a community basis to demonstrate for employers the value of hiring individuals from these groups.
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What does it mean to be ‘recognized’ as a CJDN Mastermind Group for Job Development?
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We recognize there may be hundreds of Job Developer networking groups already meeting across the country and we want to encourage and support these groups. If these groups wish to be recognized as CJDN Mastermind Groups, we’re supportive of this as well. Our goal is to simply assist in placing a spotlight on the important work being done by job developers across the country.
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Individuals and organizations are encouraged to start groups and we’re here to help you organize your efforts and draw attention to them. If job developer networking groups don’t wish to be part of the network, that’s fine too.
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This said, if a group wants to be added to our national list of Mastermind Groups for Job Development, we have a few expectations. These include: .
- There needs to be a single point of contact for the group and they must supply a contact name, sponsor organization (typically the employer of the contact individual), job title, email address, mailing address and telephone number.
- We need to be able to publicize the basic contact information (name, organization, phone number and website or social media page) on JobDevelopment.org
- Groups need to identify how often they meet, when they meet (eg: second Thursday of the month at 10am), whether it’s virtual or in-person and where individuals can go to gather information for the next meeting
- Organizations and individuals can share costs with other participants but cannot charge their members for membership in their group
- Organizations wishing to start a Mastermind Group for Job Development must submit an application (which we will make available in the next few weeks) and once reviewed and approved, the basic contact information for the group will be updated and posted online
- When an organization approaches us to set up a Mastermind Group in a particular community, they need to identify this community in their application
- Once we have selected an organization for a particular community, if we get a second request for that city or community, we will suggest they contact the first group
- While we hope to encourage a spirit of collaboration and employer engagement, we reserve the right to remove any organization or group for any reason from our list of approved CJDN Mastermind Groups
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Networking Round-up
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While it’s the focus of the Canadian Job Development Network, to place a spotlight on effective job development, we believe local networking and employer engagement is critical to achieving positive employment outcomes.
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Within your community, there is a vast reservoir of talent and knowledge. Historically, career professionals in government programs, education, vocational rehabilitation and in the private sector have remained siloed and we believe a community-based Mastermind Group for Job Development can go far to breaking down barriers, create greater awareness in the community and assist you in achieving far stronger employment and placement outcomes.
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There is an exciting future that awaits us all whereby those in job development are linked coast-to-coast, building on best practices, creating powerful networks and helping to ensure we assist employers in building a workforce that is inclusive and productive.
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The National Networking Day for Job Developers
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Next week, (April 28th), we will return with a LIVE session on Monday morning, at 8:30am Pacific / 11:30am Eastern where I will share our plans for a National Networking Day, providing an opportunity for Job Developers to gather coast to coast to establish Mastermind Groups, develop community plans and seek opportunities to significantly grow the awareness of job development services in the community.
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The link to next week's meeting will be in the April 28th Job Development Pulse where you will be able to attend the LIVE session on Microsoft Teams but if you can't attend, we'll be sharing it on YouTube and on most podcast platforms. See you then.
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We'll be sharing these thoughts at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Tuesday Apr. 22nd 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 Tuesday April 22nd 'Click this Link' to join the session on YouTube. (We're returning with LIVE sessions on April 28th.)
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