Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Faith in the Workplace: Exploring Canada's Rapidly Changing Employment Landscape

Today at the KPMG building in downtown Toronto, Skills for Change, a settlement agency and TalentOyster partner, will be presenting a conference on culture and faith in the workplace.

Faith and culture are emerging as critical issues for Canadian companies in light of forecasts that call for 100% of job pool growth coming from immigration by 2015. The diversity@work conference is an opportunity to hear from thought-leaders on the front lines of support and integration of new Canadians into society and the workplace.

The conference features a keynote address by Senator Don Meredith, a provocative panel discussion and an opportunity to speak with prominent Canadian employers invested in diversity hiring, including Scotiabank, Home Depot and the University of Toronto.

For more information on this event visit the Diversity@work website at http://www.diversityatwork.org/

Monday, October 17, 2011

Elections and the Ethnic Vote: Numbers Lottery or Political Representation?

This coming Thursday, October 20th from 6 to 8pm, the South Asian Journalists' Association is co-presenting a public discussion at the Munk School of Global Affairs on the "ethnic" vote. The discussion is focused on answering questions like "Is there a South Asian ethnic vote?" and "Are political parties really interested in hearing new voices."

The discussion panel includes MPP-elect Jagmeet Singh (NDP) from Brampton-Gore-Malton, CBC TV's Steve D'Souza, The Agenda's Piya Chattopadhay, Rana Sarkar (former Liberal and federal candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River, and Sunil Rao, editor of South Asian Focus.

For more information or to register to attend this event visit the website at http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=11115

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Saying hello (again) to a healthcare employer

Mount Sinai Hospital, located in Toronto has been a TalentOyster employer since the early summer of 2010. In their first year they simply used our services to post their healthcare related jobs on our site.

This year though, having seen the value for diverse employees in using TalentOyster they expanded their solution package with us to include an employer profile page.

The profile page for Mount Sinai is a good example of what an employer profile page should be.

It starts by clearly identifying the employer and gives a general idea of what kind of industry and roles the employer is in. Then the profile lists some of the reasons that any candidate, but especially in the TalentOyster case a diverse candidate, would want to work at the employer. In this specific example beyond the basics of compensation and assistance the benefits of an inclusive environment embracing diversity are mentioned. It might seem like an obvious thing but letting diverse candidates know an employer has a diverse workforce and is interested in expanding it is a good thing.

At any rate be sure to check out their new profile page. And if you know someone who is looking for a healthcare related job in the GTA region let them know about all the opportunities they can find on TalentOyster. As an example there have been over 100 healthcare jobs posted on our site in just the past 3 1/2 weeks.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The importance of being truthful

A recent survey by OfficeTeam raises some questions about the level of truth on many resumes. In response to the question "Do you know anyone who misrepresented or exaggerated information on his or her resume?" 44% of respondents said yes. Equally notable in a question put only to managers 47% said that applicants misrepresent or exaggerate information some of or all of the time. All of which suggests that many people do lie on their resumes but that employers "expect" this. At least to a point.

For many people whether or not to lie/spin/misrepresent or exaggerate information in their resume is a difficult question. This can be especially true in an "employers" market, as is the case currently, when the number of job seekers exceeds the number of available positions. It can be difficult to get people to discuss the subject but in most cases it happens because candidates feel that they won't land a job without stretching the truth. And in at least some cases they feel that part of the reason they can't land a job without lying is that their competition for the job is already lying. It's a vicious circle and not a good thing.

But if you do feel that way should you do it? Is it ever justifiable?

In a word no. And here's three reasons why.

First there is the basic moral reason. No matter how you try and justify it lying is wrong. In fact if you do it because you think others are it's almost worse because you are increasing the depth of the problem. It shouldn't be forgotten that good job isn't just a job but part of your career, aka part of your life. There is a personal cost you will pay if you treat cynicism and lack of truthfulness as part of your job. It's simply not part of the recipe of a happy work-life balance.

Second, you stand a good chance of being caught. The increasing power of the internet and the information available and accessible to all and more companies are conducting full background and reference checks on candidates before making offers. Conducting due diligence on candidates is now considered not just a best practice but a required one for many organizations. Another way to think about this is consider would you as an employer rather work for an organization that followed best practices for hiring or not?

Third, it's a small world, at least in Canada. The potential of being caught lying on your resume and the penalties for doing so are greater than you might think they are at first glance. You should consider how being caught in a lie at company A in a given industry may be found out by companies B and C in the same industry. You run the risk of not just blowing your chances with one company but several in the same industry or vertical.

It is also important to remember that the recruiting/hiring and staffing industries in Canada are even more closely knit. A recruiter at one company may be working in a totally different company in a totally different industry the next year. And that's not even taking into consideration the network of people that recruiter may talk to, and with the nature of recruiting that's likely to be a very large network indeed.

The risk of damage to your reputation in your career can be very high for any severely negative employment related incident, including being dishonest on your resume. Simply it isn't a risk worth taking. That's besides the fact that again it's morally wrong and likely to make you unhappy even if you were lucky enough to "get away" with it.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Sign up for our newsletter

If you don't already know about it, we have an email newsletter. This newsletter goes out weekly (on Mondays) and each issue contains 6 or 7 of our hottest or most interesting new jobs, 4 links to diversity related news items that were worth noting from the last week and two or three other smaller "articles".

If you are looking for a job the TalentOyster newsletter is a good resource, especially during this fall as we are currently running a new series of "Quick Tips" for those looking for work from people right in the recruiting and hiring industry. These tips offer small, constructive suggestions on things you can do from your resume to an interview and everything in between to increase your chances of being hired.

You can register for the TalentOyster Newsletter on our website at http://www.talentoyster.com/servlets/en/Newsletter. You can also find past, archived issues of our newsletter on that page, usually 4 to 6 weeks after initial publication.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Celebrating the Best of our Local Communities

Small businesses remain the backbone of our economy and both employ and are owned by many diverse people. But while driven by dedicated entrepreneurs they often lack the resources to brand and promote their business.

To help celebrate and recognize the importance of small local businesses Multimedia Nova, our parent company, as part of its belief in community has launched a program in conjunction with its Vaughan Today community paper called Best in Vaughan.

The 1st Annual Best of Vaughan is where you help us select the best in your neighbourhood. Caterer, restaurant, spa, butcher, flower shop, dry cleaner, come select your favourite local business and help us to celebrate the offers that shopping local offers.

From now through September 12th, you can participate by nominating your favourite businesses in Vaughan on the Vaughan Today website at www.vaughantoday.ca/bestofvaughan. Just by participating, you have the chance to win Dinner for Two at one of these restaurants: That’s Italian Ristorante, Villaggio, or Vicentina.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Job tips for summer

Well here we are in the middle of what has been, for most of Canada, a pretty hot summer and it's not a very good time to find a new job right?

Well not always.

Traditionally summer is usually seen as the slow season for finding hiring and recruiting. Between kids being out of school, multiple long weekends and a popular time for vacations it's true that it can be slow outside of seasonal hiring. But at the same time the summer can be a great time for the proactive candidate to find their next job. Why? There are a few reasons.
  • Less competition. Due to the perception of summer time as a slow time for looking for work there is often a drop-off in the number of candidates looking. Less candidates looking means less competition for the jobs that are open and that increases the chances of the proactive candidate to be hired.

  • Opportunities are more urgent. While it's true that companies might not wish to fill roles during the summer it doesn't mean that they don't have roles that need to be filled. Jobs posted during the summer months tend to be for positions in which a hire is needed and the sooner the better.

  • Get a head start for the fall. While you might not conclude your job search in the summer the proactive candidate has a head start on other seekers who only g in September. You'll know what positions are out there, who is hiring and what they are looking for. You'll have already made some contacts that can get you top of mind for interviews.


So if you're looking for a job right now don't give up because it's the summer. If nothing else you'll position yourself well for the fall and remember, even in the heat, companies are still hiring right now.