TalentEgg Trends

Page 12 of 106

How Career Educator Ken Lee Continues to Support Student Lives, Personally and Professionally

October 13, 2021 / Irene Chan / 0 Comments

Every student has different backgrounds, experiences and displays different traits that make their own stories unique. As a Career Educator, it can be challenging to truly support someone when we fail to understand them as a person and their life circumstances. That’s why Ken Lee, a Career Educator at Ryerson University, always ensures he goes the extra mile when supporting the professional development of his students.

As a Career Education Specialist with the Career & Co-op Centre at Ryerson University, Ken designs and delivers high-impact programming to equip students for successful careers in a rapidly evolving world. This can range from organizing conversations where students can learn the power of their degrees to creating responsive courses in which our community can build on their job search-related skills.

We had the chance to speak with Ken to learn more about how he approaches supporting the career development of students!

Why Pursue Career Coaching?

“It was a well-planned accident, to say the least,” shares Ken. “In my final year of graduation, I had the privilege to take on a work-study position where I was providing feedback to students on their resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles. I soon came across an opportunity with a non-profit organization to support community members in finding employment. I jokingly applied, thinking that there was no way I would ever get a callback. A few weeks later, they gave me a job offer!” Now, Ken has found himself on the road to a successful journey as a Career Coach. After all, he won the award in 2021 for the Best Career Coach/Educator at the 2021 TalentEgg Recruitment Excellence Awards and Conference back in June.

Meaningful Interactions

Students go through a variety of emotions when it comes to developing their careers. While some are at the top of their game with a polished resume and cover letter, others don’t even know where to begin. Regardless of students’ progress, anyone and everyone can benefit from receiving support from their campus’s career coach.

That’s why we asked Ken how he went about helping students in making their school-to-work transition during the pandemic.

“In helping students build careers for life, it is important to make sure they have all the necessary skills, knowledge and expertise to flourish by the time they graduate. This can manifest in many ways, from engaging in one-to-one conversations with students as well as facilitating webinars on different topics, such as job searching.”

Student Pain Points

Job searching is a challenging process, even under normal circumstances. From the perspective of a career coach, Ken explains that a significant pain point for students is the variety of prospective job industries being significantly affected by the pandemic.

When Ken supports his students, he emphasizes the importance of showing students how to explore spaces where their skills, interests, and values intersect and reminding them of how resilient they are–all while displaying a sense of optimism.

Until now, companies have recruited students and alumni by physically visiting campuses. With the pandemic accelerating the move to virtual environments, organizations have been more creative about developing and recruiting early talent.

For fellow employers, Ken comments on the importance of preparing students for the workforce and what initiatives companies can take to showcase each candidate’s strengths.

“I would love to see them continue to help students understand and develop the skills they need for their workplace and the current world of work. For example, beyond the case competitions and hackathons, consider hosting a regular monthly challenge or exercise where students can practice and flex their data visualization, storytelling, and post-production skills and receive feedback from current employees on their work. This would help build their brand and diversify their talent since they would reach students beyond the academic disciplines they may hire from regularly.

Now, when it comes to connecting with students during the pandemic, I would communicate and work with a school’s Career & Co-op Centre as someone who works in higher education. They know their students best and can educate you on nuances that would make your campus recruitment strategy more comprehensive.”

Advice for Other Career Coaches

So, what can we take away from Ken’s words? More importantly, how can other aspiring career coaches follow in the supportive footsteps of Ken?

“As Career Educators, it is often challenging to truly support someone when we fail to understand them as a person along with their life circumstances,” explains Ken. “Case in point, perhaps you are working with a student who’s the first person from their family enrolling in higher education. They may have never received guidance on the importance of networking or even how to do it. This can be a stressful process, so being more patient and understanding may be key in making sure the student feels well supported.”

And so, while we are the experts in career education, we are not the experts of the lives of those we work with, nor are we the experts of what they need. For all students out there, be sure to continue staying curious and enjoying all the future adventures you have. As for career coaches, continue to be patient and understand your students, as that’s the support they’re looking for most!

The Modern Workplace and Hiring in the Pandemic World with SNC-Lavalin

SNC-Lavalin is a Montreal-based company focused on engineering, procurement, and construction services. Boasting over 50,000 employees worldwide, SNC-Lavalin is one of Canada’s biggest companies. Their teams are agile, collaborative, and driven by possibilities. By employing anti-discrimination hiring practices, SNC-Lavalin has built itself a diverse employee roster. They believe diverse groups make better decisions – which in turn, leads to better business. They put resources into each and every one of their employees, creating a structure of support and training. This helps them develop their employees, giving each one the power to enhance their performance in positive, impactful ways. The digital, modern workplace has been accelerated due to the pandemic. However, SNC-Lavalin had already adopted many of these practices well before Covid-19 began, allowing them to lead the transition for Canadian companies.

Career Opportunities

SNC-Lavalin provides many career paths for students and graduates within their organization. The most obvious example is the vast opportunities available in a wide and international company like SNC-Lavalin. Their vast resources allow employees to work on a diverse range of projects across industries. In many large companies, a person can become lost in the sea of employees. SNC-Lavalin avoids this by providing mentorships throughout their company and a graduate development program that allows its employees to further their knowledge and refine their skills.

Being such a large and important company, SNC-Lavalin had to adjust quickly when the pandemic hit. Luckily, they already had the necessary online and virtual tools in place to continue business as usual. They were able to continue focusing their priorities on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of their people and candidates. The new workplace model the pandemic has brought requires employers to help students and new grads transition. When asked about this, Ariane Lamy, a Campus & Diversity Recruitment Manager, replied, “We’re a company that drives innovation, so we’re committed to the next generation of original thinkers, wherever you are in Canada. You’ll work on our major projects in Canada, where we will provide you with excellent mentoring and learning support. Great team spirit and collaboration define our culture. And guided by our transformative leadership, we’re always improving our workplace for all, with the necessary online and virtual tools in place.”

Anti-Discriminatory Hiring

At any organization, it is essential to keep hiring processes fair and anti-discriminatory. SNC-Lavalin approaches this topic seriously. Each job description is reviewed with a gender decoder tool to reduce subtle biases in job postings. This increases the chances of candidates from less common gender demographics, particularly in industries dominated by one. Their next two approaches focus on blind hiring. Resumes are often stripped of names and headshots to ensure personal prejudices are not factored into the hiring process. Secondly, they employ skill scorecards to examine each employee based on their practical knowledge rather than aspects of their personality or appearance. By engaging in these practices, SNC-Lavalin reduces the chances of any discriminatory hiring practices occurring, keeping the hiring process fair and leading to a much more diverse workplace.

Hiring and the Modern Workplace

As this new workplace model continues to develop, recruitment and hiring trends will continue to be impacted. Unlike many organizations, SNC-Lavalin’s recruitment process wasn’t affected during the pandemic as they were able to adapt rapidly and implement the necessary tools to develop a virtual recruitment process. However, they do believe they will see changes in major hiring trends in the future.

For a company like SNC-Lavalin that predominantly hires employees with professional designations, campus programs will continue to be a significant source of potential candidates. Next, the team at SNC-Lavalin believes that worldwide team collaboration will also increase. As the pandemic has accelerated remote work, the ability to work internationally and collaborate with teams across the globe will undoubtedly rise. Their final few thoughts all focus on an increasingly digital workplace. As documents become digitalized, SNC-Lavalin believes they will see a rise in no-resume hiring and video introductions for their candidates. The team here at TalentEgg thinks the same thing, which is why we have developed our Candidate Video Showcase, which allows candidates and employers to facilitate video applications and interviews. The modern workplace and hiring processes are undoubtedly becoming much more digital. Being aware and staying at the forefront of this transition period allows companies like SNC-Lavalin to succeed.

Exclusive Insights Live from our 2021 #TEAwards Surveys

June 17, 2021 / Irene Chan / 0 Comments

At our 2021 TalentEgg Awards and Conference, over 80 recruiters and industry professionals attended to join us in celebrating the best in student and new grad recruitment. Throughout the conference, we conducted some surveys to uncover some exclusive insights for the future of recruitment and the workplace in our ever-changing world.

Virtual Recruitment is Here to Stay

One of the questions we asked recruiters and industry professionals was, “Will your organization continue to incorporate virtual campus events as part of their overall campus recruitment strategy?” Out of 35 respondents, 77% answered “yes,” while 23% answered, “I’m not sure yet.” Thus, it is clear that an overwhelming majority of participants are going to continue incorporating virtual initiatives to engage and provide students with opportunities, while the minority are, at the very least, open to the idea.

Employees Want to Return to a Hybrid Workplace

Regarding the future of the workplace, an overwhelming 79% of respondents answered “hybrid (a combo of remote & in-person) when we asked them, “What type of workplace would you like your employer to adopt?” Meanwhile, the remaining 21% of respondents answered “completely remote/virtual.” Regarding the ever-changing workplace, results are indicating that the future of the workplace is going to change. For the most part, say goodbye to long commutes and face-to-face interactions in the office. The pandemic has allowed companies to adapt and overcome obstacles to remote work, and as a result, hybrid workplaces are the newest trend that is here to stay.

Soft Skills are Critical for Career Development

As highlighted in our Guide to Recruitment 2021, soft skills are crucial to students’ and new grads’ development and career success. But, what kind of soft skills, in particular, are recruiters and industry professionals looking for in the workplace? We asked our awards and conference attendees to tell us, “What soft skill do you think is the most important for young professionals to develop?” The most common answers were communication, curiosity, adaptability, leadership and resilience. Other responses included time management, flexibility, empathy and critical thinking.

Exclusive Ways to Connect Virtually with Students

Whether you’re a career educator or a campus recruiter looking for the most effective ways to engage with or hire students and grads or you’re a job seeker wanting to network with employers, we’ve got you covered. We asked attendees, “what has been the most effective VIRTUAL way you engaged with students this past year?” and the answers varied across all respondents. For instance, 26% of respondents stated: “coffee chats” as their top pick, while 22% of respondents stated, “social media” and “networking sessions,” both tied as the second most popular answer.

Something worth noting is that none of the options were left unanswered! Although coffee chats, networking sessions, and social media were the most popular answers, there is still value in investing time and effort into other initiatives such as information sessions and case competitions.

The Demand for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Recruitment and Employee Engagement

Finally, attendees acknowledged the heightened need for employers to commit to and embrace DEI initiatives in their recruitment and employee engagement strategies. When we asked attendees “What do you see as the most transformative changes in recruitment and employer engagement around diversity, equity and inclusion in the future?” Among the answers were “top-down approach to attracting, finding and hiring diverse talent,” “partnering with EDI students clubs,” “open-mindedness,” and “providing scholarships and support to the community.” As a recruiter or HR professional, take the time to sit down with your company leaders and carefully discuss meaningful and impactful ways to embed diversity and inclusion initiatives into the workplace effectively.

For more trends on recruitment, the trends in demand from students and new grads, and a glimpse of the future of the ever-changing workplace, check out our Guide to Recruitment 2021 package, brought to you by our team at TalentEgg.

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2021 TalentEgg National Recruitment Excellence Awards and Conference!

June 17, 2021 / Gavin Krohman / 0 Comments

This is our 10th year hosting the annual TalentEgg National Recruitment Excellence Awards and Conference, and we gotta say — it might have been our best one yet!

On June 16th, several top campus recruitment professionals from across Canada joined us on our virtual journey to discuss, share and reveal how COVID-19 has impacted the recruitment sector temporarily and in some cases, for good. Attendees got the chance to hear about new virtual on-boarding methods, and new virtual strategies to attract the next generation of the workforce.

We also shared some incredible findings from the TalentEgg COVID-19 survey and our annual student and new grad recruitment guide.

Finally after weeks of anticipation, we also revealed the winners of the 2021 TalentEgg National Recruitment Excellence Awards at the event. It was a tight competition with so many egg-cellent applications by leading Canadian employers, educational institutions, and career centres to look at. However, a select few stood out to our Student Judges for their egg-ceptional work and creativity.

Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the TalentEgg Awards and a sincere thank you to all the professionals who participated in this event!

2021 TalentEgg National Recruitment Excellence Awards Winners

EMPLOYER AWARDS:

BEST CAREER WEBSITE

Bell

BEST EMPLOYER BRANDING AND OUTREACH

TJX Canada

BEST RECRUITMENT BRANDING STRATEGY BY A PROFESSIONAL OR INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

Insurance Institute – Career Connections

CAMPUS RECRUITER OF THE YEAR (INDIVIDUAL)

Andrea Royce – (Rogers)

BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

TJX Canada

CAREER COACH OF THE YEAR (INDIVIDUAL)

Ken Lee – Ryerson University

BEST CONTRIBUTION TO STUDENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT (EMPLOYERS)

American Express

BEST CONTRIBUTION TO STUDENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT (SCHOOLS)

Red River College

BEST USE OF STUDENT COMPETITIONS FOR RECRUITMENT

Insurance Institute – Career Connections

SPECIAL AWARD FOR INNOVATION BY A CAREER CENTRE

Cambrian College

SPECIAL AWARD FOR DIVERSITY & INCLUSION IN RECRUITING

Rogers

SPECIAL AWARD FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN RECRUITING

Bell

BEST INTERNSHIP/CO-OP PROGRAM

CIBC

BEST GRAD PROGRAM

FDM Group

RECRUITING PROGRAM OF THE YEAR FOR A NON-PROFIT

CPA Ontario

CAMPUS RECRUITING PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

Bell

Congratulations once more to the winners and thank you to all the applicants and finalists! A quick reminder: the 2021 TalentEgg Recruitment Guide is available to download here.

We want to thank our sponsors and exhibitors: American Express, University of Toronto Scarborough, and Chick-Fil-A . We also wanted to thank our panellists and everyone who attended the event. Thank you for supporting us, the conference would not be possible without you!

We hope to welcome you next year in person for the 11th Annual TalentEgg Recruitment Awards and Conference. Have a safe summer and fall recruitment season!