Canadian HR Reporter

December 12, 2016

Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.

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CANADIAN HR REPORTER December 12, 2016 NEWS 3 When it comes to practicing human resources, Certified Human Resources Professional, Leader, and Executive designations: the new global standard for HR excellence and professionalism. These quality designations command respect and reflect the people-driven strategies HR professionals contribute to organizational success. The CHRP, Canada's best-known and only national HR designation, is now available exclusively from HRPA. P U T Y O U R C A R E E R I N F O C U S hrpa.ca/infocus career in focus " A career in Human of opportunity to make HR is a fantastic career choice for students because it gives them an opportunity to work with so many parts of an organization and impact the actual business results." Heather Briant, CHRE Senior Vice President, Human Resources Cineplex Entertainment a massive advantage, said Clarke. "e higher-skilled workers will do better through the new system by reducing the number of points that are given for a job offer — that will help even out the playing field a little bit," she said. "We're looking at it as a positive piece. We are seeing a lot of ben- efits because it will make it easier to attract those who are going to be successful here in Canada." The changes should provide more of an influx of certain oc- cupations such as information and communications technology (ICT) workers, said Clarke. "ese new rules will make it a little easier for them to come in and fill some gaps we have," she said. "For folks who were highly skilled but weren't able to get that job offer, this makes it easier for them to get in." As well, the new rules will place more emphasis on those who have better "human factors" such as skills and education instead of only a job offer, which will allow immigrants to better succeed in the future, even if they are not able to hold onto their current jobs permanently, said Clarke. "What it does, by placing less emphasis on the job, it means we will be attracting more (people) that will have those factors that mean they are going to be suc- cessful not just this year, but next year and five years down the road." For large companies that had plenty of staff to perform the LMIA, it was routine to accom- plish, but "it was a lot of paper- work for small and medium-sized companies," said Clarke. As part of the LMIA process, companies were required to ad- vertise a job opening for three months to prove they'd done their due diligence in looking for that role in Canada. But in today's gig economy, "projects come up over- night and they have to be deliv- ered upon immediately," she said. "For a lot of employers, that's just not realistic in terms of their ability to hire outside talent." By removing the permanent re- quirements, the government has made it better for those who work project-to-project, said Dhar- mendra Ramrakhiani, director of Career Abroad, an immigration consultancy in Toronto. "ey have revised that, which is especially good for those who work on a contractual basis," she said. "ese workers were the real assets and previously they were competing with everyone else, even those who had less skills and knowledge." Just because people scored higher in one particular factor, they were getting invitations to apply for permanent residence, said Ramrakhiani. "Students lacked in so many things: ey do not have experi- ence and they cannot compete with the other professionals. ey were not getting the opportunity to apply for permanent residency," she said. "Now, it is balanced because the overall (number of ) points for having a Labour Market Impact Assessment has been reduced from 600 to 50." e implementation of the Ex- press Entry program was not as successful as the Conservatives had hoped, said Chi-Young Lee, associate lawyer at Bellissimo Law Group in Toronto. Before, the system was based on first-in, first-out; then, with Express Entry, it became a "government selection model" that hoped to attract high- tech workers. "e concept was quite a good idea, but some of the implemen- tation and some of the points al- locations ended up not actually resulting in what they wanted," said Lee. "e (recent) change was necessary." "e composition of the type of people they traditionally would have tried to select through differ- ent category caps on certain NOC codes or occupations weren't re- ally being reflected by Express Entry." Education changes On the education side, the old system only awarded points for education overall, as long as it had been assessed as equivalent to a Canadian standard. No ad- ditional benefit was awarded spe- cifically to former international students who received an educa- tion in Canada. Now, points are awarded for education obtained in Canada in the following way: e CRS will award 15 points for a one- or two-year diploma or certificate; 30 points for a degree, diploma or certificate of three years or longer, or for a master's, professional or doctoral degree of at least one aca- demic year. Some students in the previous system felt they were being left be- hind, said Lee. When they came into the country and invested tens of thousands of dollars via the education system, suddenly they found themselves at a loss. "International graduates were putting up a bit of a stink," he said. "International students were sitting in the pool and not being selected... When Express Entry came into play, then it became a bit of a lottery in their minds." The new rules better reflect education over experience, ac- cording to Clarke. "For folks who were highly skilled but weren't able to get that job offer, this makes it easier for them to get in," she said. "Because the job offer was so heavily weighted, somebody who would have scored lower in those personal characteristics, those factors such as their age, their education and experience (were penalized)." e minister really has focused more on those students, said Ramrakhiani. "He believes that those are the real assets: ey have the skills, they understand the work ethics of Canada really well, and they should be given more prefer- ence compared to other foreign nationals." Points awarded for education in Canada EXPRESS < pg. 2

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