The results are in for our employer survey looking at the month of April 2012. 

We'd like to thank the 38 employers who participated.

Workforce WindsorEssex Monthly Local Employer Labour Survey captures information on what sectors are doing well and what occupations are in-demand or on a downturn. 

The five main questions asked to local employers include identifying their business sector, if they have increased or decreased staff, by how many and in what occupations. 

Based on survey responses, a Labour Market Facts Sheet has been developed to help human resource professionals and anyone in business looking to recruit or retain talent. 

**Names of businesses participating in the survey are kept confidential and individual responses are not shared.**

Highlights from April's survey:

Click here for April's Labour Market Facts Sheet

• Of the employers who participated, 52.6% indicated their employment remained the same; the other 47.4%, 6 reported a decrease, while 11 employers increased staff.

The next survey covering the month of May will be available starting Monday, June 4th and closing Friday, June 8th  

Are you an employer or a business owner who wants to participate in this survey?

Remains highest in Canada 

Provinicial Look

Employment in Ontario was little changed in April, but with more people searching for work, the unemployment rate increased 0.4 percentage points to 7.8%. While employment was up compared with 12 months earlier, it was entirely the result of notable gains in March. 

National Look

Employment increased by 58,000 in April, mostly in full-time work. This was the second consecutive month of notable gains after four months of little change. With more people searching for work, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 7.3%.

Compared with 12 months earlier, employment was up 1.2% or 214,000. All of the growth over the 12 months was in full-time work, up 217,000 (+1.6%), while part-time employment was unchanged. The total number of hours worked rose 1.5% over the same period.

Top 5 Regions in Canada with the Highest Unemployment Rate

Windsor-Essex is quickly becoming a hub for renewable energy in North America. The central location combined with favourable solar potential and wind velocity, plus manufacturing expertise, makes the area a very desirable Canadian location for wind and solar development.

Major announcements in 2010 and 2011 by government officials and private investors have been followed by the opening of new operations by Unconquered Sun Solar Technologies, CS Wind Canada Inc., Schletter Canada Inc. and Siliken Canada.

The increasing demand for labour in this sector requires effective human resource planning to identify and address any knowledge and skills gaps within the existing supply of labour to better position Windsor-Essex as an attractive place for renewable energy companies. Human resource planning involves the ability of employers to find the available workers necessary to staff their business and meet business objectives.

This training plan builds on previous research conducted by Workforce WindsorEssex, and extends itself into addressing the workforce needs of the rapidly evolving renewable energy industry, using the WEskills Database developed in 2010. The hope is to better position Windsor-Essex as a region to take advantage of new jobs in the renewable energy industry.

This report contains:

1. A brief overview of the renewable energy industry including the wind and solar sectors;
2. Local wind and solar employer feedback on workforce skill and training requirements; 
3. Skill and knowledge profiles incorporated into training plans created in collaboration with local renewable energy employers and training institutions; 
4. An analysis of the gap between the skills required by renewable energy companies in Windsor-Essex and the skills of the existing labour force captured in the WEskills Database.

Read the full report in English or French. 

 This month's feature:  

Kaitlyn Metz, Workplace Development Specialists for Workforce WindsorEssex After earning her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Windsor, Kaitlyn worked with a number of Windsor-Essex companies in human resources and marketing before joining the WFWE team in 2011. Kaitlyn is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) and sits on a variety of employment related working groups in the community. Contact Kaitlyn: If you have questions about the tools You'd like one or more sets printed for yourself or your business/organization You'd like us to present on the Innovative Workforce Toolbox at your next event

Free download or to purchase one or more complete sets, contact Kaitlyn Metz at 519-255-6545 x 6945

 This month's feature:  

Kaitlyn Metz, Workplace Development Specialists for Workforce WindsorEssex After earning her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Windsor, Kaitlyn worked with a number of Windsor-Essex companies in human resources and marketing before joining the WFWE team in 2011. Kaitlyn is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) and sits on a variety of employment related working groups in the community. Contact Kaitlyn: If you have questions about the tools You'd like one or more sets printed for yourself or your business/organization You'd like us to present on the Innovative Workforce Toolbox at your next event

Free download or to purchase one or more complete sets, contact Kaitlyn Metz at 519-255-6545 x 6945

Background: 

While interviewing employers from a number of different sectors throughout Windsor-Essex regarding their knowledge and skill requirements, Workforce WindsorEssex consistently heard employers’ emphasis on the importance of “attitude.” It was clear employers were looking for an adaptable employee focused on positive involvement, problem-solving and who understood their own contribution to the company’s success.These qualities are now often referred to as the “entrepreneurial workforce.” Often workers do not understand the importance of these qualities to employers and don’t appreciate when they may have demonstrated this quality in the past.

"To innovate, we need two things: entrepreneurial thinking and a company culture that encourages it." - Peter Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century

Just as there are entrepreneurial companies, there are entrepreneurial people. They are creative, innovative, risk taking, adventurous, and passionate. At the same time as successful employers are changing their mindset and corporate culture to meet the changing needs of the emerging economy, workers must also change their views. Acquiring and developing the capacity to innovate will assist workers in generating career stability and progression within their company and also in understanding, self-responsibility and enthusiasm for their own career development. Workers seeking new employment are more likely to be able to demonstrate to a potential new employer the type of skills and attitude that will contribute to expedited re-employment.

 

 

 

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Create your own summer job, get hands-on business training, and up to $3,000 in awards!

Summer Company is a great opportunity for enterprising young people who want to start and run their own small business. The program provides full time students ages 15-29 with an exciting opportunity to explore entrepreneurship hands on.

If your application is accepted, you'll be eligible to receive up to $1,500 and 12-hours of business training and mentoring to get you started. Upon successful completion of the program, you'll receive up to $1,500 to return to school.

The possibilities for starting a company are endless. Summer Company helps you take your ideas and make them a reality. Student jobs don't have to be boring: be your own boss and gain valuable business experience that will last you a lifetime.

Summer Company offers:

• Limited number of awards of up to $3,000 to start up and operate a business

• Hands on business coaching/mentoring

• Business training on subjects relevant to small business entrepreneurs

Applying for Summer Company is a competitive process. Space is limited and the program reaches capacity quickly – apply early! Summer Company is administered by the WindsorEssex Small Business Centre in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation.

Apply now!  Deadline for submissions is Monday, May 7, 2012.

Useful Links:

Learn more about the Summer Company program.

Check your eligibility and apply online.

Summer Company Program Guidelines.

Summer Company success stories.

Summer Company yearbooks.

If you have any questions, please contact the WindsorEssex Small Business Centre:

Windsor Office: 519-253-6900

Kingsville Office: 519-733-3137

With over 500+ LinkedIn connections listed on his profile, the president of AlphaKOR Group Inc. knows how to network. Frank Abbruzzese knows building his connections will not only help him improve his sales but also his business. 

As a founding member of the Windsor-Essex Technology Alliance, a non-profit organization created to help technology-centric companies grow their business, Abbruzzese is involved with the Sales & Marketing Peer to Peer Networking Group, a members-only initiative designed to promote professional development, knowledge sharing, and relationship building. The group meets once a month to bring together members from various organizations with similar job roles to share ideas and discuss industry challenges and practices. 

At the time, Brandy Vaillancourt was jumping from job to job for what she says was 10 years of mixed roles, heavy on sales duties and underutilizing her talents in marketing.  WEtech's P2P events gave Vaillancourt a forum to share her expertise with local industry representatives and when Abbruzzese presented a marketing challenge during last October's meeting, Vaillancourt had a solution.

Abbruzzese was a regular attendee when he first met Vaillancourt, a marketing professional working in sales, who would later be hired after impressing Abbruzzese.

"Frank was impressed with my ideas and passion and messaged me a few days later on LinkedIn, suggesting I pass on my details to their HR department," said Vaillancourt.

"It was for a sales position but I spent an hour and a half convincing the head of HR that I could benefit the company with my marketing expertise."

Vaillancourt left that interview with homework, assigned to the task of creating her own job description. She was hired a few weeks later.

LinkedIn is becoming a hot commodity for finding talent and job postings.  The kinds of opportunities, including finding this story, are vast with the amount of new connections being created, locally consisting of everything from students to the retired.

"Networking is about three main pillars; telling your story, connecting like-minded people to create opportunities and building relationships, because you never know where these relationships will lead to," said Abbruzzese.

With the increasing prevalence of social networking services being used in business (2,167 LinkedIn profiles resulted from a search of Windsor-Essex contacts), Abbruzzese isn't the only one using his network to find contacts.  In a survey Workforce WindsorEssex recently conducted, top five methods used for recruiting qualified people were: word-of-mouth (69.7%), online job bank (56.1%), newspaper ad (50%), and 33 per cent of employers are using LinkedIn to post jobs and find employees with "the right fit." 

With more of our local employers getting connected online, job seekers should take note of the increasing amount of job ads being posted locally and the benefits of a LinkedIn search. According to LinkedIn blogger Manu Sharma and based on sampled data, "the average LinkedIn member has access to over 9,000 people via their 2nd degree network. That represents, on average, access to opportunities and connections in over 6,000 companies and organizations in 130 industries via 2nd degree connections that can be reached by an introduction."

Local businesses and organizations are also signing-up with "Company Profiles" and industry leaders are using "Groups" and discussion boards to locate qualified people.  Abbruzzese is the founding member of the "WindsorEssex Circle" a LinkedIn group currently holding 440 members.  It's one of the largest networking hubs in Windsor-Essex for working people to connect both on and offline. 

To learn more about how to use LinkedIn for job searching, recruitment or to learn the basics of networking, check out the resources below:

• LinkedIn Success Stories 
• 10 Smart Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search
• Job Networking Tips: How to Find a Job by Building Relationships 

More about AlphaKOR Group Inc.:

The AlphaKOR Group is located at 1670 Mercer St. in Windsor and is the only full-service technology firm in Southwestern Ontario. With 24 employees and 17 years in business, they provide the highest quality systems infrastructure and support, data security, efficient software solutions and innovative online marketing tools. 

AlphaKOR won the WindsorEssex Regional Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year for Service award in 2009 and Abbruzzese won Entrepreneur of the Year this year at the Business Excellence Awards.

Follow AlphaKOR Group on LinkedIn

This update looks at statistical data, newspaper articles, local reports, surveys and key informant interviews to highlight the challenges and opportunities presented to both those in the workforce and those looking ahead to their future.

Three themes are indicative of the Windsor-Essex economy and workforce:

1. The net out-migration of workers still continues to be a challenge for the Windsor-Essex economy and workforce. 

2. There is continued diversification of the Windsor-Essex economy. 

3. Technology and innovation are essential to the growth of the region.

The Action Plan at the conclusion of the report identifies measures that have been taken since 2010 to address the priorities of Workforce WindsorEssex and activities that are planned for 2012-2013.

These projects are coordinated each year to achieve WFWE’s six priorities through key partnerships and coordinating projects that promote community collaboration.

“We rely heavily on the support and involvement of our many community partners to accomplish our goals each year,” said Donna Marentette, WFWE’s executive director.

“The door is always open for new organizations and businesses to work with us on new projects.  Even simply providing feedback in our key informant interviews will help us in developing tools and information to make our workforce stronger, more knowledgeable and better aligned to the future success of our region.”

Click to view the full report in English or French.

To partner with us on an upcoming project, contact us.

Workforce WindsorEssex would like to acknowledge the ongoing dedication of our partners throughout the community to building a strong local economy and robust future.

The results are in for our employer survey looking at the month of March 2012. 

We'd like to thank the 40 employers who participated.

Workforce WindsorEssex Monthly Local Employer Labour Survey captures information on what sectors are doing well and what occupations are in-demand or on a downturn. 

The five main questions asked to local employers include identifying their business sector, if they have increased or decreased staff, by how many and in what occupations. 

Based on survey responses, a Labour Market Facts Sheet has been developed to help human resource professionals and anyone in business looking to recruit or retain talent. 

**Names of businesses participating in the survey are kept confidential and individual responses are not shared.**

Highlights from March's survey:

Click here for March's Labour Market Facts Sheet

• Of the employers who participated, 57.9% indicated their employment remained the same; the other 42.1%, 6 reported a decrease, while 8 employers increased staff.

The next survey covering the month of April will be available starting Monday, May 7th and closing Friday, May 11th  

Are you an employer or a business owner who wants to participate in this survey?