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Nayelli Perez – Dynamic Career Approaches to the Changing Workforce

April 1, 2022 / Irene Chan / 0 Comments

It is common for students to not have it all figured out. Choosing and committing to a career path can take the form of many shapes, and it is no easy feat to determine it by yourself. As a Co-op Coordinator for the Applied Science Co-op program at the University of British Columbia, Nayelli Perez understands the struggle that students face. That’s why as a career educator, Nayelli is passionate about helping students find and be successful in their co-op roles. Additionally, Nayelli also does 1-on-1 appointments with students to go over their applications for co-op roles and to provide coaching on how they could navigate the workplace!

We recently interviewed Nayelli to learn more about her work with students and soon-to-be-grads!

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself!

A. After graduating with a Master’s degree in Counseling, I landed in the dynamic world of higher education. I have an extensive background of over 10 years in career counselling.

Over the years working in higher education, my positions have ranged from being predominantly career coaching to becoming more involved with employer relations. I also have wide ranging interests that I incorporate into my work – such as economic development, urban planning and entrepreneurship. What my interests have in common is that they go along with my passion of helping people and societies reach their highest (and most authentic) potential and work together to push society further.

I also enjoy using my interests of connecting ideas and creating relationships to assist employers with their campus recruitment strategies – coming up with new programming and events that employers could take part in to meet students, recruit for their positions, and develop a talent pipeline!

Q. Why did you decide to go into Career Education?

A. I got into this field by happenstance, really. I feel like my purpose in life is to help people find their path and learn more about themselves. Originally, I thought I would be a guidance counselor for high school students, but ended up working for a university (Hofstra University) right out of graduate school.

Through working at Hofstra, I ended up working at a career centre and haven’t looked back. As a young person, I didn’t know about careers in higher education and career services. But once I entered that type of career I really enjoyed it. There’s a sense of gratification when I can help a student reach their career goals.

Q. What do you think employers can be doing to best support students and new grads in hatching their careers in the age of digital recruitment and hybrid work?

A. I think employers need to recognize the hybrid, digital world we are living in. Especially in 2022, more and more employers are beginning to fully embrace a hybrid or permanent remote working model.

Additionally, I think that type of work environment makes more sense from a sustainability and economic point of view. Cost of living in Canada is high and public transportation infrastructure isn’t the greatest, which means that it costs more money and time for people to get to work or live close to work. If employees are spread thin with commuting time and/or financial strain, they are not going to be able to perform as well and/or will ultimately move on to companies that will provide them the opportunity to perform at their optimal level. Because of that, hybrid and remote working environments really make sense in the Canadian context.

If employers are going to have a remote or hybrid work environment, they’ll need to think of what supports their employees will need for that – what home office equipment can they provide, how can they ensure that team building will still occur and how can they continue to motivate staff when they are not all working in the same office. I think many employers have shown that it is possible to do, and more will continue to do so.

Q. What do you think students and employers need to understand when it comes to DEI?

A. I think DEI should really be the foundation of everything we do in career services. For students, I think it’s important for them to understand what are their rights in the workplace (in regards to being treated with equity and respect in the workplace) and how to identify whether a company has a commitment to DEI.

Moreover, I think employers need to understand how their workplace culture and practices may not always be equitable and/or inclusive, even if that’s how it’s initially perceived by those reviewing them.

Advice and Insights

Q. What do you think is the best way for employers to connect with and attract top students right now?

A. I think employers should keep in mind the benefits that the current generation wants in the workplace. For instance, some of these benefits include freedom of where to work, support in professional and career development, and encouragement of mental health, health in general and work life balance. These benefits have evolved significantly due to the changes that the pandemic has brought about.

Employees don’t just want to have a job, they want to be in a work environment that supports their authentic selves in a way that is holistic.

Q. What’s your best advice for fellow Career Educators?

A. If I had to narrow down my best advice, I would tell Career Educators:

Continue to learn how the world of work is changing
Reflect on the lessons you have learned in your career; those lessons will be ones you can impart to your students and/or employers
Continue to learn who you really are. By being true to who you are, you are best able to help others do the same with the career advice you give

Q. What is your best advice for students who are looking to start their careers in this current environment?

A. My best advice for students in this current environment:

Be agile. The career landscape is always changing. Jobs become obsolete; new ones emerge.
Work for organizations that share your values. It can be draining to work at a place that doesn’t know how you best work and the lifestyle you want to have. There are plenty of choices in careers and places to work and employers are adapting to the desires of the workforce. You don’t have to sell yourself short.

About Nayelli

Nayelli is a Co-op Coordinator at The University of British Columbia who has over 10 years of experience in career coaching. She is passionate about providing students and working professionals with the tools they need for determining, establishing and succeeding in their careers, as well using her wide range of interests to help find dynamic approaches to campus recruitment strategies!

Connect with Nayelli on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nayelliperez/ and visit https://coop.apsc.ubc.ca/ to learn more about the University of British Columbia and how their Applied Science Co-op program remains one of the most successful programs in the country.

Let’s Talk Talent! April Edition

March 31, 2022 / Trevor Buttrum / 0 Comments

Keeping your employer’s brand and opportunities top of mind for students, new grads, and early career talent is paramount in today’s recruitment landscape. In our work with our clients at TalentEgg, we have found employers experience the greatest success in this regard when they:

Give candidates a real look at “what’s behind the curtain” in your industry and organization
Commit to Investing in skill-building, early career development, and well-being of your workforce
Target and show up often in the digital sphere of Gen Z talent
Help candidates stand out and demonstrate their skills
Share compelling stories that candidates can see themselves reflected in
Take a multi-faceted and high touch approach during peak recruitment periods

Last month, we explored approach # 2 – Commit to investing in your workforce’s skill-building, early career development, and well-being and marked the launch of the TalentEgg e-Learning Academy!

In this edition, we will take a deeper dive into approach # 3 – Target and often show up in Gen Z Talent’s digital sphere.

Before the pandemic in March 2020, thought leaders in campus recruitment often talked about “boots on ground” approaches and a need to “show up” often in students, new grads, and early career talent’s environments as parts of an effective campus strategy. To some extent, this also involved having a strong social media presence.

In the age of virtual recruitment and hybrid learning, frequent engagement and “showing up” where the talent you need is already spending time is an even more vital ingredient to campus recruitment and employer branding success. An established social media presence has proven essential but is rarely enough on its own. So, what are some of the other effective ways you can engage students and new grads digitally?

One of the most powerful tools you can have in today’s recruitment toolkit is the ability to tailor your messaging and target your engagement to the audiences you most want to reach. Whether it is those in a specific program or area of study, particular geography or demographic, or those with a certain set of interests, or even speak an additional language, digital engagement enables you to be as targeted in your outreach as you like.

Many of our clients have successfully promoted their brand and opportunities using targeted e-mail blasts and mobile marketing campaigns. This blend provides vehicles for telling their career story, driving traffic to their digital content (e.g. videos, blog posts/editorials) and building awareness of their events and opportunities on a large scale but also a curated audience based on their recruitment needs.

Mobile marketing ads appear where your target audience is already spending time online. And students and new grads have been shown to click these ads at twice the average industry rate. This tells us they are paying attention and engaging with content that appeals to their career interests.

Here are some examples of these marketing tools in action:

Evolution Mining is newer to the Canadian campus recruitment space. They have effectively used e-mail blasts to introduce themselves to students and new graduates with backgrounds in science, mining, geology, environmental science, technology, and engineering, promote their virtual information sessions, and encourage candidates to apply to their new graduate programs.

They have also leveraged mobile marketing to ensure they reach potential candidates from communities close to their mine site, studying at their target schools, or actively interested in a career in mining.

EF Tours needed to find talent for their bilingual sales team based in communities around Montreal. Mobile marketing enabled them to engage a broader pool of candidates with the skills, language profile, interests, and experience they were looking for.

In addition to targeting, consistency in your digital engagement and keeping your brand front and centre with candidates during key recruitment periods are also highly effective. Several of our clients have found leaderboard and pop-up ads to be excellent vehicles for this type of engagement.

Rogers utilizes pop-up ads on TalentEgg’s main pages to drive students and new grads to their open opportunities and to discover more about what it is like to work at Rogers via their employer profile.

Chick-fil-A invites top student and new grad talent to explore their leadership development program and learn more about their distinct workplace culture.

Leaderboard ad

Pop-up ad

Finally, think about ways you can take a few chances and engage Gen Z on other platforms that are a big part of their digital sphere. Recently, TalentEgg has been experimenting with content creation and engagement on TikTok. Over the last few months, we have been steadily increasing our followers and have seen some solid engagement with the career content our team has been sharing on the platform.

If you’re feeling brave and want to pilot sharing some of your own branded content via our TikTok account, reach out to us! We’d love to collaborate with you!!

In summary, target your audience, be consistent with staying top of mind, and don’t be afraid to take a few chances and experiment. These are three tactics TalentEgg has found to be very useful in engaging with and recruiting top students, new graduates, and early career talent in a virtual world.

Until next time…

CIBC’s Strategies to Create Inclusive Career Paths

Having received diversity and inclusion awards for over a decade, CIBC is internationally recognized as a global leader for its initiatives. To get an understanding of how CIBC’s strategies create meaningful and inclusive career paths for students and new grads we spoke with Shalise Goffe, a Senior Manager of Campus Strategy and Recruitment at CIBC.

Shalise joined CIBC because of the great things she heard about the culture and people. After seven months with CIBC, she can say that it is all true!

“The people are open, inviting and supportive. The culture is one of transparency, empowerment, and growth and it really does feel like a family because everyone wants to see you win!”

Student and New Graduate Initiatives

As one of Canada’s largest banks, CIBC knows the importance of bridging the gap between post-secondary education and the workforce. That is why they have set up dedicated initiatives for students and new grads to successfully hatch their careers

We asked Shalise how CIBC’s Student Leadership Academy (SLA) enables students to succeed in the workplace. “It allows students the chance to grow both professionally and personally by pursuing their interests and passions in addition to their work term. Our students have access to workshops that help them gain new skills or simply refine their existing set. Through our workshops, leadership connections, and other SLA activities our students get to explore life at CIBC and their future careers. Providing them with a supportive environment, learning opportunities and the ability to showcase their leadership skills enable them to succeed in the workplace.”

CIBC also runs a co-op program for students and new grads. This program “encourages our co-op students to bring new, creative, and innovative ideas to CIBC. Selected summer students are challenged to work on a real CIBC business problem in a team with other students, along with the support of an Executive Sponsor and Project Lead. It’s an opportunity for them to push themselves by thinking outside the box and collaborating with others to come up with solutions.”

“It’s important to be a student of life and that means the learning doesn’t stop once you’ve left school.”

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategies at CIBC

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have come to the forefront of recruitment and internal dialogue over the last few years as their necessity has risen to attention. With 10 groups throughout CIBC focussing on like-minded individuals coming together with shared interests or backgrounds, there is a place for everyone at CIBC.

We wanted to dive deeper into CIBC’s initiatives, so we asked Shalise to describe why diversity, equity, and inclusion are important at CIBC. “At CIBC we want you to feel a sense of belonging. We want you to come into work each and every day truly believing that you can be your authentic self without hiding or covering who you truly are and that you will be accepted for it. Only then will you feel like it’s a safe space that’s open for you to bring your whole self to work.”

When it comes to the CIBC’s internal strategies and the future of recruitment, Shalise had this to say: “Candidates are interested in a company’s diversity and inclusion strategy and how they fit into it. Going back to the belonging piece, people want to join a company that they feel safe in, that they feel cares about them and that are making commitments to be inclusive and equitable. It’s important that we are hiring diverse candidates so we can be reflective of the communities we serve.”

Final Thoughts

CIBC has built an array of initiatives to foster an inclusive and diverse workplace for students, new grads, and experienced professionals alike. It is a workplace where everyone is welcome and CIBC is constantly evolving to stay at the forefront of critical initiatives.

“We want you to grow both personally and professionally and there are a number of ways to do that at CIBC.”

To learn more about CIBC’s student and new graduate programs check out their employer profile on TalentEgg!

Let’s Talk Talent! March Edition

February 28, 2022 / Trevor Buttrum / 0 Comments

One constant throughout the Winter-Spring campus recruitment season has been that the competition to attract and retain top students, new graduates, and early career talent is intensifying!

In our work at TalentEgg, we recognize that to attract the talent you are looking for as an employer in the current climate, you need to:

Give candidates a real look at “what’s behind the curtain” in your industry and organization
Commit to Investing in skill building, early career development, and well-being of your workforce
Target and show up often in the digital sphere of Gen Z talent
Help candidates to stand out and demonstrate their skills
Share compelling stories that candidates can see themselves reflected in
Take a multi-faceted and high touch approach during peak recruitment periods

Last time, we kicked off this six-part series focused on successful virtual recruitment and employer branding approaches by taking a deeper dive into approach #1 – Give candidates a real look at “what’s behind the curtain” in your industry and organization.

For this installment, we will take a closer look at approach #2 – Commit to investing in skill-building, early career development, and the well-being of your employees.

Let’s begin by considering “the why” – Here are the top reasons to incorporate this approach as a part of your organization’s recruitment and retention strategy:

1. Professional development is what top early career talent wants most in an employer.

In TalentEgg’s annual survey of students and new grads, professional development is consistently rated at the top of what they are looking for in a potential employer and as a key influencer in their career decision-making. This point has only been driven home since the onset of the pandemic; Gen Y and Z talent are looking for (and are far more likely to stay with) employers who enable them to develop the critical skills they need to succeed on the job and advance in their careers.

2. It’s a win–win!

In study after study conducted recently around the globe, “soft” skills have emerged as the “critical” skills required for employees to meaningfully contribute to their organization’s goals and objectives. By building the capacity of your workforce with the in-demand skills needed for success in your lines of business, you are not only benefiting your talent but also your customers, your managers and leaders, and ultimately, your organization’s bottom line.

3. Improve engagement and retention by fostering a workplace culture that is safe, healthy, inclusive, and committed to excellence.

Investing in the skill-building of your workforce contributes to employees feeling that they are valued, that continuous learning is embedded into your culture, that your organization is a partner in their success, and there is the potential for career advancement. In addition, development focus in areas like mental health and diversity and inclusion can create a greater sense of psychological safety and belonging within your organization. These are all well-established drivers of employee engagement and, particularly as the “Great Resignation” continues to play out, are among the major factors contributing to an employee’s decision to stay or move on.

4. Burnish your employer brand

With a commitment to your talent’s growth, resilience, and career success, comes the reward of strengthening your employer brand. It is incredibly compelling for students, new graduates, and early career talent to see and hear firsthand how your employees’ career success has stemmed from investment in their development at career events on your recruiting calendar like alumni coffee chats, TalentEgg Talks events, career fairs and speed networking. You will also experience the benefit of employees becoming brand ambassadors as they share their career and learning successes on platforms like LinkedIn and are more likely to refer friends and colleagues to open opportunities.

Now that we have explored “the why”… let’s talk about “the how”.

We like to think we have made this piece as easy as possible with the launch of the TalentEgg e-Learning Academy.

Our specially curated offerings enable you to set-up new hires for career success with soft skills training, meaningfully address today’s workplace challenges, and foster a climate of engagement across your organization.

TalentEgg has worked with leading and trusted subject matter experts in soft skills development, mental health, and diversity, equity, and inclusion to produce the e-Learning Academy’s 26-course library and 3 full certificate programs. Current offerings, with even more being added over the coming months, include:

Backpack to Briefcase – Introduction to Workplace Soft Skills

A 5-course certificate program to support your new hire’s school to work transition with soft skills training for their first co-op, internship, or entry level job.

Briefcase to Boardroom – Intermediate Soft Skills to Advance Careers

A 10-course certificate program to take your employees’ soft skills to the next level and set them up for career success.

Mental Health and Psychological Safety in the Workplace Master Certificate Program

This 10-course Master Certificate Program, developed by leading psychologists and mental health professionals, explores the many facets of workplace mental health and provides clear guidance to employee wellness professionals, managers, leaders, and HR on strategies for fostering psychological safety and well-being at work.

Diversity, Sensitivity, and Inclusion Training: Promoting Anti-Discrimination and Equity in the Workplace

This course offers your employees insight into the individual rights and responsibilities we all have when it comes to anti-discrimination, diversity, sensitivity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. It is designed to set the foundation for creating an inclusive and respectful work culture where every person can rise to their potential.

Volume-based discounts and your own fully branded versions to easily integrate into your on-boarding and training programs are also available. To explore and learn more about TalentEgg’s e-Learning offerings, click here.

And, If you are from a post-secondary institution or campus career centre, these courses and programs make a great addition to your career education offerings for students and recent alumni, as well add value to and build engagement within your institution’s own workplace. Click here to find out more.

As always, TalentEgg is here to support you in achieving your campus recruitment goals. Please do not hesitate to reach out to discuss your needs or to set-up a full walk through of all that TalentEgg and our e-Learning Academy have to offer.