Ernst & 
Young banking on alumni
According to Ernst & Young, staying in touch with alumni is a given, for both the employer image and networking purposes. In April, the company therefore upgraded its alumni website with a corporate networking tool. Since its launch, 1,000 visitors have visited the new version, and 10% have extended a personal networking invitation to former colleagues. In addition, Ernst & Young uses social networking for recruiting—more than 13,000 potential recruits have joined the company's Facepage page.
Logo behind cancellation of recruiting campaign
Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser has cancelled a national advertising campaign for recruiting new employees because of a disagreement over a logo.
Wishing to respect the independence of the Office of the Auditor General vs Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ms. Fraser did not want the logo of Canada to be displayed—as recommended by Treasury Board policy for all government ads—but only that of the armouries of Parliament. The Office of the Auditor General recruits some 70 people a year, and wanted to promote its ranking as one of the top 100 employers in Canada in this campaign to attract new employees.
Monster Worldwide renews its partnership with WANTED Technologies
Monster Worldwide continues its collaboration, begun in 2003, with . The technology provider provides Monster with real-time monitoring solutions, allowing it to monitor online job postings on a daily basis. The processed information feeds directly into Monster Worldwide's customer relationship management (CRM) tool, and helps sales representatives identify sales prospects based on market trends.
Besides, Wanted Technologies announced that it has signed a nationwide agreement with onTargetjobs Inc., the American niche job boards network, also for the use of Wanted's suite of business intelligence and sales lead solutions.
Acquisition of Jobs.ca for $600,000
First it was the French-language version's turn, and now the English one. Jobwings Careers recently acquired domain name Emplois.ca (April 24, 2008) and CV.ca (May 30, for $53,300), and in early May, Jobs.ca was purchased by Ogopogo Media Inc. for a "mere" $600,000—the largest ".ca" domain name purchase ever. For the record, the French name cost Jobwings Careers $56,200, or ten times less than its English equivalent.
Jobs.ca will be the core of a vast job network that will include JobSearch.ca and Resumes.ca, and which will meet the needs of both job hunters and employers. According to Ogopogo CEO Robert Montgomery, "Jobs.ca is unquestionably the most intuitive, typed-in domain name for Canadian job seekers."
Plan for the integration of immigrants in Nova Scotia
The Minister of Human Resources and Social Development plans to invest $560,000 in the "Work in Nova Scotia (WINS): Workplace Skills Enhancement" project administered by the Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association. It is estimated that some 350 individuals and 250 small- and medium-sized enterprises will benefit from the project. The objective is two-pronged: to help newcomers find a job and solve the labour shortages in small- and medium-sized businesses.
eFairJob: Ironing out the kinks!
The first eFairJob virtual job fair, held March 17 and 18, 2008, had a few glitches. Place RH, the human resources specialist Illico Hodes newsletter, devoted a whole article to it. The main issues noted were technical problems and the excessive complexity of the platform*. The fair received mixed reviews from various people we spoke to, including a candidate who registered for the fair, an exhibitor, and Hakim Chikh, VoiceJob president and eFairJob organizer.
While the innovative concept proved very popular, with the possibility of direct contact with hiring employers in particular, problems were reported with data organization and platform use. More serious still, neither the candidate nor the exhibitor interviewed reached their objectives: the former deplored "the lack of interactivity," while the latter had not succeeded in hiring anyone. Hakim Chikh was reassuring, however: "Our motto for the second edition: simplify and facilitate." The second virtual job fair, to be held from September 29 to October 10, 2008, will feature a lighter, refined version, an overhauled, fixed posting process, and a more stable platform.
Note: All participants are invited to give their opinion by completing a Customer Satisfaction survey.
JobMire.com partners with Domepac
Quebec job board JobMire.com wanted to improve the visibility of its offers. From now on, its jobs will also be posted in the job section on Domepac, without any additional charges or steps involved. Domepac is a free Quebec classified ads site, with 20,000 daily visits.
Quebec: $142 million to hire handicapped people
Over $142 million will be invested over the next five years as part of Quebec's strategy to integrate and maintain handicapped people in the workforce, including $102.6 million from the Quebec government. The plan's objective is to reduce the employment gap between handicapped and non-handicapped people by 50% by 2018, which represents some 54,000 additional people employed. The plan is intended to support companies in hiring and developing the skills of handicapped people.