Employer SPO Engagement Index

The Canadian labour market is undergoing a significant shift due to a myriad of reasons, and this is impacting organization’s recruitment, hiring and retention efforts. Your organizations may be finding it difficult to recruit and retain talent because of an increasingly competitive market, shrinking candidate pool, and/or not knowing where to find the right recruitment partner.

To help solve recruitment and retention challenges, some organizations have been partnering with employment service provider organizations (SPOs) serving newcomers. What is an SPO serving newcomers? In part, these are organizations that work with newcomers to build their skills and opportunities to find and retain employment in Canada. SPOs provide newcomers with in-demand job training, including occupations-specific skills and soft skills, so that they are job ready. They can also help employers foster inclusive workplaces and become newcomer ready.

Answer the below questions to determine how your organization’s level of engagement with newcomer-serving SPOs ranks relative to other organizations. After taking the assessment, your organization may want to review the available resources, including

• The Effective Employer Engagement in Newcomer Skills Development Programs – Employer Guidebook. This is an easy-to-follow guidebook that provides employers with practical steps on how to increase engagement with SPOs
• Effective Employer Engagement in Newcomer Skills Development: Research Findings Report. This report documents current employer engagement approaches, benefits, and challenges, as well as emerging practices for effective employer engagement.
• Mapping of SPOs. An interactive mapping of immigrant-serving employment-related SPOs to help employers better navigate the settlement ecosystem to meet their talent needs.

Please answer the six questions below to gauge your organization’s level of engagement with SPOs.