This resource kit is adapted from components of existing ITW recruitment and retention guides to focus specifically on the electricity sector.
Employers are most interested in hiring immigrants when they have hard-to-fill vacancies: usually highly specialized roles or highly in-demand occupations. When economic, labour market or business conditions ease these pressures, the interest wanes.
With an aging workforce, impending mass retirements, and decreased enrollment in related educational programs, internationally trained workers will play an increasingly significant role in meeting the sector’s labour force needs. It is important for employers to create long-term recruitment strategies to maintain employment equilibrium, otherwise organizations will experience marked peaks and valleys in terms of employee demand that create large cohorts in specific age groups.
Maintaining sustained levels of employment and diversifying job pools will mitigate the impact of mass retirement; internationally trained workers can support these organizational efforts.
Internationally Trained Workers (ITWs) are people who were educated and trained in other countries and who gained work experience outside Canada. They may be:
Electricity Human Resources Canada (Electricity Sector Council, at the time), with the support of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, started this project to help employers recruit and retain ITWs. The result was Plugged In: Accessing the World’s Talent—a resource kit adapted from components of existing ITW recruitment and retention guides to focus the material on the electricity and renewable energy sector. The kit also contains resources and regulations specific to provinces and territories, as well as best practices that currently exist within the industry.
Some of the resources and tools you will find in this kit include:
EHRC has developed several national occupational standards and essential skill profiles for benchmark occupations related to electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as well as renewable energy.
The Report on Succession Planning Best Practices and Tools for the Canadian Electricity and Renewable Energy Sector not only details the best practices for succession planning but also identifies challenges when putting these best practices into action.
EHRC has provided a number of strategic recommendations that will aid industry members in ensuring effective knowledge transfer planning processes are adopted within their organizations, particularly for their critical, scarce and ‘long lead-time hire’ positions.
LMI studies provide clear and up-to-date labour market information, which paints a clear picture of the industry’s current workforce while providing a valuable glimpse into future issues and challenges.
Hire Immigrants provides cultural considerations and understanding when hiring, integrating and integrating new immigrants.
Service Canada’s Job Bank is Canada’s one-stop job listing website, the Job Bank connects job seekers and employers online, at no charge.
The Government of Canada website provides a directory of immigrant serving agencies/services (including language training and assessment) for newcomers to Canada, with links to provincial, territorial and local services.
The National Occupational Classification helps workers to understand job requirements and employers to write job descriptions.
Permanent residence application forms, and information for workers nominated through the Provincial Nominee Program.