Would you dare to recruit a qualified immigrant? Are you a newcomer and you want a first experience in your field? This is what Interconnexion Laval offers. And it’s a win-win bet.

Since 2019, Interconnexion Laval has been connecting skilled immigrants who have been in Canada for less than five years and businesses, free of charge, offering matching sessions and coaching sessions. Laval is a multicultural city with 30 percent immigrants, a population significantly affected by unemployment: the unemployment rate among recent immigrants is 17, 7 percent, and 6.3 percent among non-immigrants (Statistical portrait of the immigrant population of the Laval region, October 2019).  

Nearly 300 companies are currently enrolled in the program, in construction, manufacturing or services. Since mid-August, Martine Lafrance, director of employment and diversity at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Laval, has noticed a resumption on the recruiters’ side. “After the relative deconfinement, 95 percent of those who lost their jobs took it back from the same employer,” she says. But since the beginning of the second wave, “there has been a difficulty in projecting oneself into the future, and people who leave are not necessarily replaced,” tempers Jocelyne Chartrand, Interconnexion Laval’s business liaison officer.

Raising professional fear
Indeed, the current uncertainty does not facilitate risk taking. “With equal skills, there is a professional fear of the unknown,” explains Mohammed Cheramti, who helps people looking for work for Interconnexion Laval. “The program helps to give job seekers confidence and reassure employers to help them take the first step.”

Lafrance notes that employers are surprised at the applications’ quality, which sometimes destabilizes them. “The idea is to make sure that the employment relationship is sustainable, in the interests of the company and the immigrant,” she says.

Julie Marquis, a partner at SFL Wealth Management, North West, recently recruited via Interconnexion Laval. “It’s like having an HR department without having it,” she says enthusiastically. The company’s new receptionist is from Tunisia and arrived in Canada last year. Would she have hired her without the program? “No, probably not, because her profile didn’t appear on the sites where I posted my ad,” she admits.

Find the job seekers
“The most complex thing is to get candidates. With fewer newcomers, we need to reach out to people already in their community,” says Lafrance. How do we do that? The communication plan includes public transport poster campaigns, advertisements on community radio, and a targeted social media presence. Interconnexion Laval also participates in virtual job fairs and establishes partnerships with French-speaking colleges. On the ground, its multi-sector and multicultural team does essential work to meet communities in shops, community centres, or places of worship. Of course, all of this is currently being slowed down by the pandemic.

But the most effective lever is still there: word of mouth. Syrine Meziane, a former air hostess with a degree in tourism from Tunisia, is the new administrative officer at SFL. Adel Smina, a former journalist in Algeria, is now an administrative assistant in a community centre. Both highly recommend Interconnexion Laval. Do you know someone it could help?