Staffing Solutions

Would you like to Recruit & Retain the Right Employees?

INTRODUCTION

Did you know that approximately 130,000 workers will be leaving the New Brunswick workforce in the next 7 to 10 years.  With an aging population, the interprovincial migration of young workers to other parts of our country to find better-paying employment, and the low rate of immigration relative to other Canadian provinces, New Brunswick employers are faced with very challenging domestic recruitment and retention prospects.

This is also a larger problem for employers in the smaller communities of the province as many of the new Canadians that are immigrating to the province are settling in the three larger communities – Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton.  For these reasons, many sectors of the New Brunswick economy are now faced with recruitment and retention challenges.

TARA Specialists have carefully studied this problem and we have come up with a solution that is both efficient and effective.  Our recruitment and retention program is designed in a way to first source local talent, while at the same time positioning you to quickly pivot to international recruitment should you be unable to hire a sufficient number of employees locally.

Our key to success rests with our E-Staffing system.  This state-of-the-art system provides an electronic platform that enables you to recruit and select candidates whether they are applying locally or applying from abroad quickly and efficiently.  And if this isn’t enough, we have partnered with organizations that specialize in integration and retention of foreign workers in New Brunswick communities where they will become a permanent part of your work force and become loyal employees upon which you can maintain or expand your company’s activities.

THE TARA ADVANTAGE

Our E-Staffing System:

Our ability to be efficient and minimize the amount of time you will need to invest in the recruitment and selection of employees rests largely with our E-Staffing system.  Our E-Staffing System is a virtual recruitment tool that:

– Helps you recruit domestic employees

– Helps you recruit students with an open post-graduate work permit; and,

– Helps you manage the recruitment and retention of international employees.

Our E-Staffing System features:  

    1. Automatically screens candidates applying for your positions based on your screening criteria – our system does the initial screening, not you!
    2. Instructs screened-in candidates through up to two interview sessions.
    3. Provides you with a link to each candidate where you will be able to see a candidate’s entire profile – screening question answers, resumé (uploaded), and videos of candidate responses to interview questions.
    4. Enables you to select candidates for which you may desire a second interview and
      E-staffing will automatically instruct candidates through the second interview process.
    5. Enables you to activate an automated reference check feature.
    6. Enables you to offer a position to a candidate and automatically schedule a virtual onboarding/orientation process prior to your new employee reporting for work.

Just imagine the amount of time you or your staff need to spend examining resumés (during the initial screening stage), then scheduling and conducting interviews, checking references, and onboarding your new employees.  Not only does E-Staffing save you time and money, but it allows to spend the time where it should be spent – selecting the right candidate for the job!

Now imagine that all of this is done for you, and you get the results of all recruitment and selection activities electronically, on your office computer, or on your phone or tablet while sipping on a coffee at home.

THE PROCESS

As mentioned in our introduction, while our focus is on first recruiting local talent, our experience has been that for many employers, this will be challenging.  There is the odd chance that you will be able to recruit some local talent and our E-Staffing system will help you navigate that process efficiently.  But the harsh reality is that for many employers, recruitment needs will require bringing in international workers.

We realize that you have many options available to you when it comes to foreign employees, but our goal at Tara Specialists is not just to get the paperwork done and coordinate the travel, we are focused on taking care of everything around it so that you don’t have to.  We have partners that take care of paperwork.  We take care of the transportation.  We take care of acclimatizing our new friends with an innovative retention program.  We have solutions for housing.  We take care of these things so that you can focus on what you do best.  Here is a quick explanation of a few of these advantages  

Notwithstanding our commitment that using our E-Staffing system will save you a lot of time, there are still important time investments that you must make to ensure that our HR Team and E-Staffing system will leave you impressed and satisfied with your recruitment and retention results.  

  1. Your commitment as a client requires you to sign an E-Staffing contract and a service contract regarding the management of HR services related to the recruitment of international workers.  Our process only begins after you have signed the contracts.
  2. The first phase of our process is the most important phase that requires a time investment from you.  During this phase, we will gather information concerning your organization and help you create your job postings on three different portals, set up your landing page on our E-Staffing system, and make sure that screening and interview questions meet your requirements.  You may have already met or partially met the job posting requirements, but it is critical that these requirements be met at the front end of the recruitment process.  The job postings are what will allow you to pivot to international recruitment if you are unable to draw sufficient numbers of local applicants.  Our HR Team will schedule a Zoom session with you to make sure that all important, time-critical, requirements are met. 
  3. Then, we will train up to two of your staff on how E-Staffing works, how candidate profiles will be sent to you, the importance of reviewing candidates in a timely manner, and the types and frequency of reports we will provide you, so you are always kept informed of progress regarding the recruitment process.
  4. Once we have jointly made sure that all job posting requirements are met, your time investment will be required to review candidates that will be sent to you electronically and identify the candidates for which you wish to make job offers.  You will need to sign a job offer contract for each candidate you select.  It is also important that you review candidate profiles quickly as many applicants are applying for positions at different places and the turnaround time for reviewing candidate profiles can affect the availability of a candidate.
  5. After you have selected enough candidates to fill your positions and job offers have been signed by both parties – you and the candidates; the appointment or nomination process begins.  For international candidates, you will need to create an account as a registered employer with Immigration Canada.  We will help you with this process as well.  For domestic candidates, an automated reference check process can be triggered, which would be followed by an agreed-upon start date.  You will then have the option of triggering an electronic employee orientation process.
  6. For international candidates, once nomination has occurred, you will need to pay the work permit.  We will immediately begin our retention program training with nominated candidates and any vocational training (if applicable).  We will begin the logistical process for their arrival in Canada, housing, health insurance, bank account, etc.

You will be notified of international candidate arrival dates and we will ask you to be ready to greet your new employees on a certain date. 

Retention Program:

We have partnered up with an industry-leading soft skill/leadership company that designed a specific program to new immigrants that will help them understand the new culture that they will now live in.  We can’t expect new Canadians to know what it is to live in Canada, and we must equip them with the proper skills and knowledge for them to have success in their new lives.  If they have success in New Brunswick, the odds of them staying in New Brunswick increases exponentially.  Skills such as: Time Management, Conflict Resolution, Effective Communication, How to buy your first car, your first house.  The Acadian culture, our Canadian Health system, our education system our transportation system and so forth.

Housing Solution:

Tara Specialists has been very involved in different aspects of the housing industry for many years.  We have studied the housing dilemma within the specific immigration environment in New Brunswick.  We have temporary, flexible, and mobile housing solutions for short term situations as well as strategic partnerships with different builders in the different regions of the province to build permanent solutions for new permanent citizens.

PARTNERS

At Tara Specialists we realize that bringing in foreign workers can a new and sometime confusing situation.  The process, the timelines, the financials, the housing, the documentation, the government programs among others can easily make your head spin.  But take a deep breath and let us walk you through it.  Remember: ‘’Everything is difficult before it becomes easy’’. 

We thought it to be a good idea to provide you with a little explanation of the E-Staffing System and our process prior to talking about the partners involved to make your recruitment and retention journey efficient.  Now we want to focus on the different partners and their roles in your client experience. 

It’s important to understand that there are three distinct companies involved in this process: Tara Specialists, International Canada Express, and CreatiVitae.

Tara Specialists is charged with:

  • Recruitment of employers for domestic or foreign employees
  • Establishment and execution of all retention programs and services
  • Specific online trainings required for employment or retention
  • Temporary or permanent housing options for permanent immigrants

International Canada Express is charged with:

  • All immigration recruitment
  • All immigration processes and paperwork
  • Coordinating travel and processes

CreatiVitae is charged with:

  • Retention program training
  • Wrap-around services and coaching after arrival of international workers
  • Ensuring a successful integration in the different NB communities
IMMIGRATION PROGRAMS

First of all, it’s important to know that there are a few programs available to you.  The first one, and what seems to be the most common one on the market, is the LMIA program (Labor Market Impact Assessment).  This is a federal program, and it is used to bring in a temporary worker rather than a permanent one. 

The immigrants on this program usually come in to work with you for a few months but then return to their country thereafter.  The cost of this program is roughly $1000-$1500 per candidate for the government fees and then the immigration consultant will also charge their professional fees.  You as the employer are also responsible for the flights of the selected candidates.  If you want workers again the following year you will have to go through the same process and the same costing over and over.   

The other program is the provincial program NBPNP (New Brunswick Provincial Nomination Program) and is obviously through the provincial government.  The aim of this program is to bring in immigrants on a permanent residency basis.  The program is less costly as per government fees (under $500) and takes about the same processing time as the LMIA program.  The immigration consultant will of course still add their professional fees however with this program, the candidate will be immigrating with their entire immediate family and are responsible for the flights themselves. 

With this program, once they are here, they are your full-time employee so no need to have recurring charges every year.  You can build with them and immerse them in your company culture and hopefully develop a career employee. 

Tara Specialists and its partners, try to maximize on this program (if you have can offer a full-time contract or at least a guaranteed hours contract (1560 hours over the year)) because it is beneficial to you in the long term.  So, if your need is 20 employees (and can commit to a minimum of 1560 hours of work within the year) we will apply for 20 NBPNPs and if (for whatever reason) the provincial government only accepts 15 of them, then we will apply for the remaining 5 through the LMIA program.  We are always trying to maximize the NBPNP program to maximize retention within the immigrants. 

COST

LMIA Program: 

  • Government fees: $1000-$1500/candidate
  • Professional fees: $500-$5000+/candidate (depends on the consultant and immigration consultant/lawyer)
  • Flights for each selected candidate
  • Must go through same process every year, even to bring back the same employees

 

NBPNP Program: 

  • Government fees: $480/candidate
  • Professional fees: $500-$5000+/candidate (depends on the consultant and immigration consultant/lawyer)
  • No recurring process, these are permanent full-time employees
TIMELINE

We want to be clear and realistic regarding how much time it will take to get international employees to your doorstep.  Our goal is to recruit and deliver international employees within 4-6 months. 

There are a few things that can impact any timelines, some of them that we can control, and some that we can’t as we’ve probably all experienced over the past few years working through this pandemic. One of the first things that can impact the timeline is have you tried to attract the local available workforce.  You must be to prove to the government that you have advertised these positions on Indeed or Job Bank for at least 28 days prior to your foreign worker request.  Any advertising proof that you can send our office will help shave up to 28 days from the entire process.   If you haven’t its ok, we’re here to help.  We will help you setup these accounts and post them for the required 28 days.  Other than that, the process could be impacted by a few other things: 

The amount of time between contract signature and the first phase of our process – e.g. the Zoom session with you, will influence our ability to meet that goal. 

The amount of time taken to review candidate profiles and select those candidates for which you wish to make a job offer will influence our ability to meet that goal. 

The amount of time government officials take to review nominated candidates will influence our ability to meet that goal. 

Our new covid landscape (for example: flights, vaccinations, quarantine, etc.) 

INTERESTED?  Our goal is to offer you a customized solution for your organization.  Please fill out this information sheet and someone from our team will be in touch to discuss.

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