Corporate Talent Attraction & Retention

With the realities of the global economy combined with the tightening labour market, leading Canadian corporations are recognizing that talent attraction and retention are having a growing impact on their bottom lines. Developing and maintaining a corporate culture of belonging and understanding by engaging management and human resources professionals in a career mentorship program is a strategic approach to addressing this challenge.

The no-cost, government-funded Career Mentorship Program, offered by the Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council (ERIEC), facilitates mentoring relationships between local professionals and the best of our city’s foreign trained professionals in a wide range of disciplines including engineering, finance, information technology, marketing, science, environmental technology and numerous others.

Spring has definitely sprung in ERIEC’s Career Mentorship Program! As 22 mentorships are wrapping up, 14 new ones launched in mid-May and another 15 are set to get started in early June! Immigrant professionals (mentees) from several professional backgrounds including engineering, accounting, education, science, information technology and business are meeting for one hour per week with established professionals in their field for 16 weeks to work through ERIEC’s prescribed career mentorship program.

While actively searching for employment in their field, mentees receive coaching and guidance from their mentors as they:
• Finesse their resumes to meet occupation-specific standards;
• Practice interview skills; and,
• Expand their professional networks.

One of ERIEC’s recent graduate mentees said, “The best result of this program is the increase in my self-confidence. My mentor has helped me to be prepared for interviews and for working in Canada. Now I know I can be successful.”

Mentors gain:

• Improved cross-cultural leadership, coaching and communication skills;
• International insights into their own profession; and,
• Expanded professional networks.

Mentors and mentees also attend formal intercultural competencies training on these topics:

• “Effective Communication in a Diverse Work Place”
• “Teambuilding”
• “Demonstrating Performance”
• “Managing Conflict in a Diverse Work Team”

“ Mentoring…helped me to understand my own multi-cultural staff team. My modest investment of time has returned professional rewards for my mentee, myself and for my company,” was feedback received from an ERIEC mentor

Want more information for yourself and/or your organization? Check out ERIEC’s website and apply now to be a mentor or schedule a presentation for your organization.