RBC Royal Bank has further enhanced its partnership with Career Edge Organization by developing the RBC Career Bridge Associate Host Program. This unique program is designed to support RBC’s small and medium-sized GTA-based business clients in connecting with high-potential, internationally qualified candidates to fit their employment needs.
The primary benefit to RBC’s business clients is that the cost of hiring a candidate under this program is covered for the first four months entirely by RBC Royal Bank. This significant subsidy allows for small and medium-sized organizations to grow their business while realizing the benefits of hiring highly skilled, internationally qualified professionals.
Many of RBC’s business clients have already successfully leveraged this program to connect with talent. We had the chance to sit down with Aneela Zaib of emergiTEL Inc. to learn about her experience with the RBC Career Bridge Associate Host Program.
What is the story behind starting emergiTEL?
“Coming from a telecommunications and IT background, we saw a gap in technical hiring. The gap was detailed and accurate screening of candidates based on job requirements. What we saw was the “keyword-based search” on resumes, and not a lot of effort was being made by traditional recruitment companies to qualify whether the resume is a true reflection of the candidate or not.
EmergiTEL was formed based on a solid qualification process to find the right candidate fit for the job as well as the client’s job environment. The model is called Technology Strategy Productivity (TSP).”
How has the RBC-sponsored internship helped your business?
“RBC is clearly aligned with the commitment and the initiative to support newcomers. RBC provided the sponsorship for the first four months to support financially the hiring of these individuals, and EmergiTel eventually decided to offer a regular, full-time position instead of a short-term internship role, which is a great demonstration of our commitment to the longer term retention of good talent.
The subsidy that was provided by RBC has mitigated the inherent risk of a new hire as they move through the probationary period, and on top of that we had those funds that we saved that we can spend on other initiatives, for example maybe the hiring of a few more resources. For a small business like emergiTEL, this subsidy helped with some of the costs for the period when these individuals were being trained for the technical recruiter job, which otherwise would have to be absorbed by emergiTEL.”
What are some of the ways that newcomers contribute to growing Canadian businesses?
“Every year, tens of thousands of newcomers create new economic opportunities for themselves and for Canada by joining the country’s labour force. They not only bring the skills and experience, which might not otherwise be available right away, and they make themselves useful by applying their experience immediately for Canadian businesses, as well as training the rest of the workforce so that – maybe in a few years or maybe in a few months – that workforce again becomes useful for Canadian businesses. This is just one aspect.
The other aspect is [that] newcomers are a major, major portion of the technology upgrade of Canadian businesses. We all know the IT and telecommunications field is evolving constantly; it’s growing, the technology is becoming more and more complex. I cannot emphasize more than this, that this is a great, great channel that we have available in our country to get ourselves an upgrade in technology and knowledge transfer through the immigrant workforce.”
What kind of support does RBC and Career Edge offer small and medium businesses, like emergiTEL, through the Associate Host program? What is really the most valuable to you?
First and foremost, I would really like to thank RBC and Career Edge for being there for us, not only in terms supporting our growth, but also aligning their company’s values and initiatives to businesses like emergiTEL and mobileLIVE. Most of the small to medium-sized businesses have tight budgets, and programs like RBC Career Bridge Associate Host program provide the initial push needed to go through the ramp-up period until the new employee becomes well assimilated with the workforce. This is a very important point; this is the risk mitigation that this program has provided us, for us to be able to hire new immigrants with the peace of mind that this is not going to cost, or put a huge impact on our financial situation. This is a double-fold advantage; these newcomers that we hire prove themselves throughout that probationary period of time and become useful ultimately for the long-term retention of the company.
What value do you see in the relationship between Career Edge and emergiTEL?
As far as Career Edge is concerned, I believe that Career Edge has provided a very strong channel and platform for businesses like emergiTEL and mobileLIVE to get the talent and further place them with our clients. We see Career Edge as one of the important sources of talented newcomers and will continue to work with Career Edge and RBC to find the right place for the new talent.
Do you represent a small or medium-sized business in the GTA? Talk with your RBC Royal Bank account manager to find out how you can participate in the RBC Career Bridge Associate Host program.