Search Engine To Help Canadian Companies Diversify

Candidates from employment equity groups looking for work in Canada and employers looking to diversify their workforce now have an online search engine all of their own.

DiversityCanada.com is a search engine similar to Google, with the difference that it is dedicated strictly to searches on equal opportunity employment within Canada.

“DiversityCanada.com provides a whole new approach to finding jobs in Canada,” said Celia Sankar, executive director of the DiversityCanada Foundation, an Ontario non-profit organisation which recently launched the site.

DiversityCanada.com is a pioneer in using search engine technology for online recruitment.

“Search engines are popular because they organise the Internet in a logical way, making it easier and faster to find information,” Sankar said. “We’ve refined this concept further to provide a search engine specifically to allow users to search for jobs in Canada with employers who value diversity.”

When visitors to DiversityCanada.com type in their search term, such as “secretary” or “engineer”, the search engine scans the websites of employers across Canada who state they are equal opportunity employers. The search results then take users to the relevant webpages at the employers’ websites where the jobs are available.

“The site allows employers to have control of two of the most significant factors in recruitment today,” Sankar said. “One is that if Canada’s demographic trends continue, attracting a diversified workforce will be crucial for business success. The other is that the Internet is increasingly becoming a major source for recruits.”

Census figures show that three quarters of the immigrants who landed in Canada during the 1990s belonged to visible minority groups. Those immigrants who were in the labour force in 2001 represented almost 70 per cent of the total growth of the labour force over the decade. According to Statistics Canada, if current immigration rates continue, it is possible that immigration could account for virtually all labour force growth by 2011.

Additionally, the Aboriginal community is the fastest growing population group in Canada and will contribute close to a quarter million workers to the labourforce by 2017, according to Statistics Canada.

Recent research on hiring trends in North American and internationally shows that companies sourced one third of their recruits through the Internet, according to the New Jersey-based recruitment tracking service CareerXroads. Close to one fifth of those hired through the Internet were sourced from niche sites such as DiversityCanada.com.

The website DiversityCanada.com is a joint project of the DiversityCanada Foundation, a non-profit which promotes diversity and harmony, and Maplejobs Inc., a private online recruitment company.

In addition to the website, the DiversityCanada Foundation will release a career handbook entitled "Employers Want YOU". Due out in January 2006, it is targeted to highly qualified candidates in equity groups (Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities, women and people with disabilities).

The handbook will be distributed free of charge to university and college students across Canada and aims to help them make the transition to the world of work. It will provide readers with advice on finding the job that's right for them, on landing the job, and on shining on the job.

"Employers Want YOU" will include advice gathered from over 100 employers and hiring managers across Canada on how job candidates can best prepare for success. A preview of some of the tips is available at the Career Center on the website DiversityCanada.com.


For information: http://DiversityCanada.com
Contact: Celia Sankar
Phone: (416) 853-5510 (ext 1)
Email: celia.sankar@diversitycanada.org


About the DiversityCanada Foundation:
The DiversityCanada Foundation is a federally incorporated non-profit organization based in Elliot Lake, Ontario. With a focus on youth, we aim to create, facilitate and promote opportunities for members of diverse groups, (in particular young women, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities and visible minorities), to participate fully in the economic life of their community. Its aim is to help empower these groups to make a success of their lives. Within its home base of Northern Ontario, it has the further aim to retain youth so they can contribute to the growth of the regional economy.

About Maplejobs Inc.:
Maplejobs Inc, a privately-held company, is dedicated to providing online and offline products and services to bring together exceptional and motivated jobseekers and employers and to contribute to the success of the individuals and organisations we serve.


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