Now that the developed world is gradually emerging from the Covid-19 lockdowns, we can catch our collective breath and take stock of where we’ve been and what we can expect over the coming months.
First to take stock of where we’ve been – an estimated 10 million lives were lost and hundreds of millions of people lost all or substantial part of their livelihoods. The devastation this has left can only be compared to our most recent experiences of events of such cataclysmic magnitude - the Spanish flu and the end of the 2nd world war. The Spanish flu took between 20 million and 50 million lives and the 2nd world war between 70 and 85 million. Unimaginable tolls on lives and suffering. Though both were on a much bigger scale than this pandemic, there are lessons we can learn from them. The most important lesson is what emerged from both these calamities - a world far more resilient, bolder, innovative and optimistic about the future.
While so far only the developed world is overcoming this pandemic, there are signs that we are tackling global problems with renewed urgency and imagination. Starting with advances in pharmacology and medicine to technology that dampens global warming and Artificial Intelligence that holds promise to overcome the demographic challenges of the later half of this century.
“ There is a deeper understanding of the value of care givers, front line workers and service sector employees.”
But these are macro level concepts. How will the lives of people who have lost their jobs or working men and women struggling from pay cheque to pay cheque change? There is a deeper understanding of the value of care givers, front line workers and service sector employees. Already we are seeing wages rising to recognize this value. The pandemic has also given people who were laid off the opportunity to upgrade their skills or make career changes. This will lead to the narrowing of the mismatch in the job market as these newly skilled workers fill vacancies in the digital economy.
Employment Agencies have played a vital role in preparing job seekers for the post pandemic period. While some were shut down for most of the past 15 months, others continued to work with clients. Typically, it’s the small, privately owned Agencies in towns far from cities that become the backbone of their communities in these times.
INEO Employment Services in Port Alberni, British Columbia – a small town of 20,000 on Vancouver Island is an example of this resolve. It managed to stay open for most of this period to provide services to its clients. It has been a stalwart supporter of its community and the results presented in the article by Terry Deakin its owner and CEO speak for themselves. We salute the staff of INEO’s resolve and dedication to prepare their clients for the future - post pandemic.
Moving forward during the global pandemic in a rural British Columbia community was challenging for most of us! For people who experience barriers to employment it was especially difficult. A CTV news article published in May 2021, a full year after the Covid-19 pandemic was declared, noted that BC lost 43,000 jobs! How was anyone supposed to find employment amidst the chaos of the pandemic and impact of the public health orders? It was especially tough on marginalized job seekers, such as, low-income earners, women, young people, people who live with diverse abilities, and our Indigenous population.
"… BC lost 43,000 jobs! How was anyone supposed to find employment amidst the chaos of the pandemic and impact of the public health orders?"
INEO Employment Services, a small community-minded agency facilitating Skills Training for Employment programs, funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training found a way to continue to support those who were experiencing barriers created by Covid-19 in addition to their existing barriers to employment. After a short closure beginning in March 2020, INEO opened the its doors for face-to-face services in June 2020, while adapting to WorkBC and Public Health guidelines.
Job Coaches/Developers and Group Facilitators worked together to support individuals and small groups to increase employability skills, soft skills, job specific skills, and personal development, while providing tips and tools for managing environmental and systemic challenges. One group of Young Adults at Risk whose program was interrupted by the Covid shutdown, returned at 60% capacity in June 2020. Those who did return worked to increase job readiness with the hope of securing employment and INEO recorded a 100% success rate. All participants secured and maintained employment for at least 3 months during late summer through to fall of 2020. Additionally, a small group of women who had experienced trauma joined a Skills Training for Employment program with INEO in September 2020 and by January 2021, 100% of these women were successfully employed in career jobs – during a pandemic!
" ... a small group of women who had experienced trauma joined a Skills Training for Employment program with INEO in September 2020 and by January 2021, 100% of these women were successfully employed in career jobs – during a pandemic! "
These are just some of the success stories experienced by INEO during the height of the pandemic. It was not solely the work of the facilitators, the job developers, the admin staff, or the participants. A team approach with wrap around services and access to a variety of strategies and tools are important when working with marginalized populations. INEO employs a variety of strategies, works closely with community resources, and connects with employers to find the right fit for each person.
With tools such as the Employment Readiness Scale (ERS), INEO can measure where individuals are on the employment readiness continuum when they enter our programs, halfway through the programs, and upon completion of the programs. The ERS measures the employment readiness of participants in a variety of areas and provides our team with reports and tools to develop action plans that serve the unique needs of each participant.
“Especially during Covid-19 the ERS was essential in discovering the challenges people were facing and how we could best support our marginalized populations to compete in an extremely challenging labour market.”
For 20 years, INEO management team has been utilizing the ERS reports to write proposals, develop stronger programming, and adjust our programs to address the specific needs and strengths of each person and group that comes through our doors. The ERS provides several valuable reports, from indicating which interventions are having the biggest impact to comparing the challenges that people are reporting today versus the challenges that people were reporting during the same timeframe 10 years ago. The individual and group reports help our team to adjust the supports that we are providing, tailor the interventions to soft and employability skills while overcoming challenges, and to access the resources that support our participants to be most successful.
Especially during Covid-19 the ERS was essential in discovering the challenges people were facing and how we could best support our marginalized populations to compete in an extremely challenging labour market. As we move forward into the BC Restart Plan the ERS will play a role in supporting our job seekers to succeed in this everchanging labour market.
We are pleased advise that the ERS (Re)take module is now available to all agencies. The pilot project has been a resounding success. The ERS Retake module allows you to assign a (Re)take date. This will be set as a reminder in the clients' action plan and provides notifications on upcoming as well as overdue assessments. Client reports can also be exported into excel to plan for upcoming and overdue (Re)takes by clients.
The (Re)take module is available for a nominal annual fee. Please contact your service affiliate or email us at admin@ersscale.com to add the feature to your agency site.
Upgrades:
Over the last year and half we have taken the opportunity while we were in a lockdown to upgrade our systems, functions and processes to better serve you and your clients. The following are some of the upgrades that we have undertaken in the last quarter. Some of which you may have already seen. We appreciate your feedback as we continually strive to improve the delivery of the ERS.
Migration to a new phone system. Our number remains the same 1-877-600-7737
Changes to the client screen including ability to add notes
Please contact your service affiliate to get training on any of the above features or to obtain additional information
Upcoming Webinars:
The response and the attendance to our webinars series for the first half of the year has surpassed our expectations. The topics and schedules of the webinars for the second half of the year are on our website under Webinars. These webinars are to provide refresher training as well as to introduce and highlight some of the more important and sometimes less known features of the ERS.
All webinars are presented by one of our seasoned and very knowledgeable Service Affiliates.
To register for webinars, please visit our website at Webinars. scroll down to the bottom select the webinar and you will be redirected to the registration page.
The webinar will discuss the importance of coding variables, why it is important to maintain the integrity of the data as well as how to complete the coding variables for clients to ensure maximum benefits from ERS Reports.
The Webinar will look at how to run and analyze the "starting from", changes report as well as the challenges report once your agency has more than 30 clients who have taken the ERS more than once.
The Webinar looks at how to set up local programs in the ERS. It includes a discussion on when to set up local programs as once the programs are "setup" they cannot be removed. The decision to add a program should take into account the number of participants.
For more information on any of the above, please contact your ERSI Service Affiliate or send us a note at admin@ersscale.com
Special Speaker Series:
We are excited to announce a new feature at ERS: A special speaker series. These seminars will be held once a quarter and will feature a prominent speaker to provide insights and trends of interest to career development professionals.
If you would like to present or have a recommendation for a speaker please contact us at admin@ersscale.com
Our third speaker is Karim Virjee who will share anecdotes, insights and experiences from the world of technology blended into utility and entertainment answering the question:
HOW WILL: Internet of Things (IoT), 5th gen. Cellular Network (5G), Cloud Computing, Distributed Ledger (Block Chain), Big Data, Machine Learning and AI impact "Jobs of the 21st Century" and How to Prepare for it.
Karim Virjee is a senior executive with 25+ years of extensive experience in leading companies in digital transformation and managing their IT technology and teams. He has been a technical advisor to start-ups and large corporations on digital transformation. Karim has engaged hundreds of audiences in North America and Europe to demystify complex technologies in simple to understand language.
His field of expertise covers cloud computing, streaming systems, software as a service, Internet of Things, data security, block chain technology, big data and other technologies that have ushered in data driven decision making at scale era.
Karim volunteers his time at elementary schools teaching robotics and computational thinking to students. Karim is a Computer Science graduate from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.