Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CANADIAN HR REPORTER WEEKLY In a competitive labour market, Canadian employers are working harder and spending more to recruit and retain recent post-secondary graduates. at means greater col- laboration with educational institutions and boosting in- vestments in training, according to a report from the Busi- ness Council of Canada and Morneau Shepell. "ings are happening so fast right now… in terms of the competition, in terms of products that are being developed — things are happening at a pitch we've never seen before, so that requires everybody to get up to speed and move quickly," said Joe Blomeley, vice-president, public sector, at Morneau Shepell in Toronto. "Expectations are high for the entire workforce." Partnering with post-secondary More than four-fifths (83 per cent) of employers are par- ticipating in co-op programs and other forms of work-in- tegrated learning initiatives that help them identify poten- tial new employees — up from 76 per cent two years ago — found the survey of 95 large private sector employers. "e challenges large firms are facing right now when it comes to disruption and new technologies, there's just not a lot of time for a young person to get integrated and up to speed in terms of how a company works and how a particular industry works," said Blomeley. "It really drives home the importance of programs like co-op programs and other work-integrated learning platforms because those programs give young people that are about to leave post-secondary the opportunity to get their feet wet, and also gives employers the opportunity to test them out." It's important to bring people early in their career to work with more experienced professionals, said Madeleine Barker, senior director of strategic workforce initiatives at RBC in Toronto. "If you can get to that place, you will find the challenge of the status quo, everything from 'Hey, why do we do this process this way?' to 'What if we completely reimagine the way we're doing something?'" she said. "It's not to say every idea is a great idea, and not to say experienced professionals don't have great ideas, but there is a kind of magic that can happen when you meld early-in-career, work-integrated learning talent with your more experienced team. And that is fundamentally the reason why employers are excited about this, is they see very clearly the benefits today, with ideas and innovation, (and) benefits to diversity in your workforce." In addition to work the Business Council is doing with its Business/Higher Education Roundtable, it's nice to see the federal and provincial governments putting money and programming behind work-integrated learning (WIL), said Val Walker, vice-president of talent and skills at the Business Council of Canada in Ottawa. "We this year are doing a project to make an actual business case to employers about why WIL is more than just your corporate social responsibility, why it's more than just a summer job for students, that there's an actual financial return on that investment both from a talent perspective but also from a business line perspective." e most popular programs are co-ops (72 per cent) and internships (60 per cent), followed by student mentorships (36 per cent), apprenticeships (32 per cent), curriculum or program development (28 per cent), applied research projects (25 per cent), classroom instruction (19 per cent) and hackathons (17 per cent). "ere's an opportunity to infuse more work-based learning and experiential learning into post-secondary programs, so not just sending people out to co-op Employers working harder, spending more to recruit new grads Means greater collaboration with educational institutions, newer skills and increased investment in training: Report BY SARAH DOBSON Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. HR News at Your Fingertips THE LATEST NEWS THE BEST COMMENTARY DELIVERED WEEKLY FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Visit www.hrreporter.com/ canadian-hr-newswire

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