FOR RELEASE: October 1, 2019
Alysha Dominico
Eastern Ontario Manufacturing Workforce Development Project (EOMWDP)
(416) 779-7407
ad@tangiblewords.com

Announcing a LinkedIn Talent Solutions Pilot Project During Manufacturing Month
Recruitment Advice and Assistance This October - AND NOVEMBER - for Manufacturing Employers Across Eastern Ontario

The importance of manufacturing to eastern Ontario’s and Canada’s economies cannot be overstated and is best explained through the manufacturing multiplier effect: for every $1 of manufacturing output, there is a total economic impact of $3.5 across all other sectors, according to the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME).

15 million out of Canada's available workforce of 19 million have a profile on LinkedIn. The Talent Insights, Jobs and Recruitment tools provide users with direct access to real-time data on available talent pools and offer a new way for employers to reach both passive and active job seekers. Instead of having to buy the licences on their own, the EOMWDP has partnered with LinkedIn to offer manufacturers access to a regional licence. Now manufacturing employers in eastern Ontario can benefit from access to a best-in-class talent tool.

Here’s how the EOMWDP is already using LinkedIn’s Talent Insights, Jobs and Recruitment tools:

• The use of filters to help employers sift through long lists of applicants to find the best fit. Not everyone wants to read hundreds of resumes. Local employer Hannafin Automation & Industrial Controls (Hannafin) used the EOMWDP’s LinkedIn resources to make their job search process as fast and efficient as possible when they had an urgent vacancy in August.
  
  
• The capacity to see where relevant skill sets exist across the region, the province, and the world. The Skills Finder helps employers locate places where certain skills proliferate. For example, perhaps PLC Programmer is a skill predominant in a region where not many jobs require that skill. LinkedIn’s Talent Insights shows the EOMWDP on a map where those "hidden gems" of talent pools are to tap into.
  
  
• The ability to show users which schools are graduating relevant talent, or whether Canada is not producing that talent in enough quantity, allowing manufacturers and workforce development professionals to look at setting up future programs based on these “Microcredentials”.
  
  
• Access to both passive and active job seekers. Recruiters have a key ability to search out and find job seekers who identify that they are “open to new opportunities” on their profiles, which signals these recruiters that they should directly message these job seekers to see if they are interested in specific opportunities.
  
  
• The ability to find job seekers who went to school, or used to work in, eastern Ontario and reach out to them to see if they are interested in moving back to the area for a particular position they might not realize is great for them.

LinkedIn’s Talent Insights, Jobs and Recruitment tools have already proven to have real-world results in the eastern Ontario manufacturing sector with Hannafin:

"We had over 100 applicants with the skill sets we needed within the first week of posting the job on LinkedIn. This was a role we have struggled to fill in the past,” said Adam Hannafin, Director at Hannafin Automation and Industrial Controls, Inc. “Because of the LinkedIn pilot program and the partnership between EOMWDP, Tangible Words and my HR team, we worked to reduce the list to 30 best-fit applicants right away; and I decided to interview the top 3. We are presently preparing to make one of them an offer."

Eastern Ontario manufacturers will have open access to the LinkedIn pilot initiative throughout the months of October and November. To participate in the pilot please call (416) 779-7407 or email workforcedevelopment@ontarioeast.ca.

The Ontario East Economic Development Commission (OEEDC) consists of economic development offices extending from Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton in the west to Prescott-Russell in the east, and from the Ottawa River in the north to the St. Lawrence River in the south. The OEEDC is made up of the most active economic development offices in eastern Ontario. In 2018, those manufacturing-focused economic development offices in the OEEDC formed a volunteer coalition with six eastern Ontario workforce development offices to create the Eastern Ontario Manufacturing Workforce Development Project (EOMWDP). These offices pay to be members of the OEEDC to collaborate and share costs and resources on regionally beneficial projects like this. Funded by the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (TCU), the EOMWDP intends to address identified and predicted challenges of hiring, retaining, and attracting quality labour to eastern Ontario’s manufacturing sector.

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network with over 645 million members worldwide, and is continuing to grow rapidly. Its mission is to provide economic opportunity to every member of the global workforce by connecting the world's professionals - with a view to making them more productive and successful.

External links are provided as informational resources only and are not necessarily endorsed by Ontario East.