Learning Together - Employers and Career Centers: Discovering "talent " expectations and needs in 2022+

Mid-November, I had the chance to attend and speak at the CACEE / ACSEE (Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers) National Conference. It was great to spend time with participants in small groups to talk about using mentorship as part of career development initiatives.? Also fun to share some client examples:? EduNova Co-operative Ltd. 's Atlantic Canada Study and Stay? program which builds community and helps international students stay in the region post-studies, Dalhousie Faculty of Computer Science 's mentorship programs to support women and African Canadians in entering the field, and Mount Saint Vincent University student to alumni mentorship. ? If you’re curious in learning more about how to use mentorship in your career development programming,? you can check out these examples and additional resources to get you inspired here.?

I also had a blast moderating a discussion on “story-telling” and #employerbranding in 2022+. Thanks to Lana Burton Patricia Eddu, MSBA Linda Hoang and Lyra Pappin for sharing so many great nuggets! (I just had to share some of them with my fellow employers!)

Whenever I’m with this group of career educators and employers, I? appreciate the level of community and authentic sharing; the feeling of building best in class programs is a tangible thing.???Thank you Trevor B. for the invitation to join an amazing conference and kudos to your team for a great job!

For my fellow employers and/or other leaders in post-secondary who couldn’t join, I wanted to share some takeaways and themes that resonated? during the conference.

Things that Stood Out

1. A willingness to continue using or experimenting with mentorship as a part of career development interventions.
2. The need for intentional design in programming and interventions that support both job seekers and employees in career growth.
3. A resounding call that we cannot afford to just “talk” about IDEA ( #inclusiveness , #diversity , #equity , and #accessibility ) anymore, and that we need intentional and consistent action to make change.? We need measurement, accountability, and transparency.?
4. There is value in learning with and from each other, across the silos, from?post secondary to employers, non-profits, and the students, learners, and employees they support.? (As a side-note, for more on that, check out the series we did with Magnet earlier this year: Building Future Ready Communities.? )
5. Desire for mentoring programs (from students to their career centers) increased by 5% in the last year (Source: https://www.cacee.com/cgi/page.cgi/Research_Reports.html )

“Mentorship was transformative for both students and mentors who participated in the Study and Stay NS program.” - Shawna Garett, CEO EduNova

1. Be wary of generational assumptions.? Gen Zs are sharing a desire for working in a shared space- challenging thoughts that remote is the only way forward.? That’s simply not true.? Some are craving be in an office and feel it's necessary to take advantage of mentoring and career development opportunities.
2. Loved hearing that CIBC is sponsoring student groups to learn directly from the student POV.? Thanks for sharing Shalise Goffe, CPDS ! ? Also great to hear that employee mentoring circles are a common practice to support a number of different employee groups in career development.?
3. Employers have a duty to provide students with a holistic experience early on in the hiring and during internships to introduce them to real-world experiences.? Smart employers begin investing in them early and consistently so that they want to stay and build long-term relationships.?

“It's not about lack of information but lack of confidence” Dr. Wendy Cukier, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy - Toronto Metropolitan University?

From the robust discussion on the use of #digitalstrategy for employers and career centers, some food for thought:?

1. Engaging in digital strategy has to be done authenticity., “It is? important to understand that these audiences (gen Z and alpha in particular) already understand media, they understand marketing, so they know that you are trying to “sell them on a career opportunity”. Whatever you do needs to be credible and done with an intention to build trust with your desired audience overtime. Go to platforms where they already are and engage authentically.
2. I loved Lana Burton’s passion for campus Recruitment and understanding generational trends, from Gen Alpha, Gen Z to Millennials and all across the continuum recognizing that everybody is unique in their own motivations.?
3. When you can use the voice of your audience themselves, do so. People like to see people like them unscripted.??

"It's about connecting heart and minds"? - Patricia Eddu, MSBA

1. You must have a plan. Period. ?
2. Eye-opener for me: It is critical in 2022+ to have both paid and non-paid channels as part of your digital strategy. For my fellow SMEs- don’t worry panelists had you covered too with some tips: use first person narratives/ the voice of the people themselves by asking them to create content. ? Blogs are still relevant!? Videos are great too.?
3. Define your goals.What do you want? What does success look like to you? It’s also important to align those goals to your resources-understand your bandwidth internally, for being able to implement a digital strategy as part of your tool kit.
4. Face-to-face is not dead and actually they're still great ways to marry digital strategy to in-person interactions in meaningful ways.?
5. The ever important reminder that it's not about you, it's about what is in it for them, meaning the talent.? It’s important for individuals to see themselves in your organization. So when you are using media and/or hosting events: how do you make sure that you show who your organization really is??
6. On average, it requires? 7 touch points to get people to? take an action of some kind. Persistent matters along with the above.?

“Don’t “tell”, engage.” - Lana Burton

Final Thoughts & Gratitude?

A huge thank you to everyone who participated, and all the incredible speakers who shared their knowledge and wisdom over those three days.??

If you’re interested in learning more about how mentorship can compliment or support your organization or department’s career development initiatives, let's connect! Better yet, if you've experimented with mentorship as part of career development and seen success (or lessons learned), share below!

#mentorshipmatters #mentorshipchangeslives #WIL #careerdevelopment #mentorshipforstudents #employeementorship #employerbranding #recruitingtalent #recruitingstudents #talentdevelopment