5. Drumroll please…
Special speaker announcement! Remarks by Laura Hammond, national
HR manager at H&M Canada – and a SUPERSTAR when it comes to
youth-based hiring initiatives!
12. 12
Understand the Landscape
• Know the Size of Prize: Toronto is rich with technology skills. Of the
1.9 million LinkedIn members in the Toronto CMA, 11% or 214,000
report having technology skills
• Know your Rank: Toronto ranks in the top five city-regions around
the world in terms of the proportion of technology-skilled members
represented on LinkedIn.
• Know your Audience: Individuals with technology skills work across
sectors. While individuals with technology skills are concentrated in
the financial services and insurance and technology sectors, they
are represented broadly across sectors.
13. 13
Skills by the Numbers
Toronto is a great place to start a career in technology, based on the high
percentage of LinkedIn members with technology skills employed in early
career roles
• Nearly 47,000 LinkedIn members in the Toronto CMA were hired into an
early career role in the past 12 months - 28% of these members have
technology skills.
• Among those in this group with technology skills, 73% found work outside of
the Technology sector in a wide variety of industries.
.
• Mobile and game development skills are some of the technology skills most
likely to be found amongst members recently hired into early career roles, a
possible indicator of demand for these skills in early career
positions. Only 3% of members (59,000) in the Toronto CMA have the top
technology skills.
• These skills prepare professionals for a variety of early career roles, such as
software developer, IT support specialist and IT systems administrator.
14. The cost of inaction is enormous.
Unemployed or underemployed youth
lose financially, but society loses big
too. A US study found that youth
facing barriers to work have the
lifetime impact of $1 million per
youth.
14
16. 16
What are the benefits of hiring young
people?
Youth represent a tremendous opportunity as a pool of talent for your
organization, particularly those young people who face barriers. Assets
of this group include:
o Reduced Difficulty in Filling Roles
Many employers face challenges in filling roles and there is a significant
cost associated with these vacancies. A talent shortfall presents a risk
to your organization’s ability to innovate and stay competitive. Youth
represent a talent pool that can help to reduce the time it takes to fill
these vacancies. Opening up your recruitment efforts to include this
population can increase the supply of candidates for available
positions.
o Improved Retention
High turnover is a problem in many entry level positions. By giving
young people who may face barriers to employment a chance at these
roles, your organization will create a loyal group of employees who are
more likely to choose to grow with your organization – thus improving
retention.
17. 17
What are the benefits of hiring young
people?
o Reduced Cost of Labour
Hiring youth can reduce the cost to your organization in a number of
ways. From a sourcing perspective, a direct relationship with agencies
and other organizations that support youth can often provide a steady
stream of candidates, reducing your recruitment costs. In some cases,
young people may be open to lower compensation than a typical
candidate, reducing your salary costs.
o Improved Workforce Diversity
By employing youth, your organization will benefit from new and diverse
perspectives, ideas, and skills sets.
18. 18
The Plan
To provide real-world tools, checklists, knowledge and resources so we
can start tackling youth underemployment in the GTA
Get ready to learn, reflect, and implement!
21. Three key ways for Employers to provide
youth facing barriers with opportunity
22. Youth Recruitment Pilot
If this is a new effort, start with a modest pilot. Complete this checklist with
other stakeholders, or consider holding a working session to gather input
from people who are invested in the program…
23. Youth Recruitment Pilot Checklist
How many youth do you want to impact? For the pilot? On an annual
ongoing basis?
Are you aiming to help a large number of youth through a small (one-time)
intervention or a small number of youth in a deeper, more significant way?
What kind of financial resources do you have to support this program?
Will employee volunteers be working with youth?
27. Getting Started
Ask yourselves the basics:
Programs that I can use as foundation for my program are:
____________________
Partnerships that I could leverage for this program include:
_________________________
Key stakeholders and potential partner organizations are:
_________________
My partner organization will support this program by:
___________________________
28. As much about the staff member as it is the
supervisor
Elements:
Skill/knowledge development focus
Goal-oriented
Flexible, adaptable program structure
Reflective/feedback elements built in
Easy to use tools for the supervisor
Elements of an effective career
development program
32. Your program goals
Youth goals
Number of youth impacted
Skills gained
Legacy of your program
Employee goals
Number of employees involved
Their roles
Skills gained
Business goals
Internal/external publicity
Commitment to community
Talent pipeline
Employee engagement and loyalty
34. Measuring Success
Continue to track employees involved in the program
Use an outside evaluator to conduct pre- and post-assessments
Conduct assessment with long time lag after the program concludes
to capture longer-term change
Assign current employees a unique ID in HR system for tracking of
career progression (and compare to non-participating employees)
35. Track internal publicity surrounding the pilot program (i.e. number of
articles published on office intranet/newsletters)
Track external press mentions, awards, and use in company
marketing/outreach
If large enough in scale, launch customer satisfaction surveys with
targeted questions on reputational and community impact
Measuring Success
41. Are you ready? Here’s your checklist!
Understand the youth underemployment problem
Is this an issue your organization can address?
Leverage your LinkedIn network
Promote your company’s youth-focued hiring practices
What youth hire program is right for you?
Implement and measure your success!
