By Kathy Johnson
Recently I met a young woman who joined a communications training program. When asked why she said, “Well, my boss told me that if I was ever to have a chance to apply for his job I would need better communication skills.” It seems she had picked one skill and one job and had narrowed her focus to that.
By Shawn Bakker
Employee engagement is best described by its results. Engaged employees demonstrate higher levels of performance, commitment and loyalty. Disengaged employees do not. Given most organizations strong focus on performance, employee engagement has become a popular topic.
By Maija Wiik
“Book your accommodations now and make them for the conference hotel” was the advice from Jaz to a Cannexus novice from Vancouver in August 2010 while discussing details on the phone. “It will be freezing cold in Ottawa and you will not want to be outside much.”
Arriving at the Westin Hotel, next to the winter wonderland of Rideau Canal and kitty-corner to Parliament Hill peeking from behind snow banks, in a salt covered taxi on the eve of the conference, I was grateful for the guidance!
By Sonny K. H. Wong
The Canadian labour market has become more complex over the last few decades. The unemployment rate is an indicator of economic recovery. However, it does not address the effects job loss has on individuals in society.
By Juanita Hennessey
What if you worked your whole life at a job you disliked? What if you never figured out what you wanted to do with your life? What if you knew, but circumstances prevented you from realizing your dream? Are there opportunities in later life to undo the regrets of your past?
By Marlene Pomrenke and Heather Morris
Results of a recent study completed by the authors indicate that social workers have congruent values and skills that fit for many non-traditional employment opportunities in social work (Pomrenke & Morris, 2010). To complement and expand on these findings we examined the challenges for social work students in their career journey.
By Basak Yanar
Each year Canada welcomes some 200,000 immigrants – over half of which are “skilled” – eager to develop successful careers in their new country.1 Government initiatives and settlement agencies provide a wide array of programs designed to facilitate their entrance into the Canadian labour market. Although 80% of Canada’s immigrants succeed in finding full-time employment after two years of arrival2, this career transition is often defined by underemployment, casual and part-time positions, forced occupational change, and/or lower levels of income.
By Darlene Foster
People often wonder why they get passed over for promotions. What they fail to realize is that getting promoted doesn’t just happen; you have to work at it. Here are a few tips to help propel your career within the organization.
By Cheri Butler
The Career Practitioner Supervision curriculum was developed by the National Career Development Association (NCDA) with Sandy Manoogian as the lead author and Judy Hoppin serving as consulting editor at the request of the Japan Career Development Association (JCDA). The intent of this professional supervision training, to be released in the fall of 2011, is to introduce the practice of clinical supervision to career practitioners.
The Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC) has released findings of a survey conducted by Environics Research Group asking Canadians about their job satisfaction, their perceptions about their workplaces and performance management, and the tools and resources they turn to when looking for a job or building a career. This project is a follow-up to a benchmark initiative completed in 2007 that asked similar questions. This article is an excerpt from the 2011 survey report. For methodological information, please see below.
Canadian workers are not entirely clear on what they need to do to advance in their organizations. With the exception of two in ten who strongly agree (19%) that they know what they need to do, most Canadians either have only some idea (49% somewhat agree they know what to do) or little at all (19% disagree somewhat/6% disagree strongly). Quebec workers are disproportionately more likely to better understand what they need to do to advance in their organization (86% versus 68% of Canadians overall).
Notably, those satisfied with their jobs are much more likely than those who are not to feel they know what they need to do to advance (75% versus 38%). Indeed, knowledge of how to advance produces a larger gap between canadians satisfied with their job and those who are not than remuneration or recognition received on the job.
Notwithstanding that slightly more non-visible than visible minority workers strongly agree they know what to do to advance (20% versus 10%), both groups of Canadians generally display a similar sense, or lack thereof, of what they need to do to advance in their organization. As well, men and women express a similar level of understanding.
Q.5p Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements
Subsample: Those who are employed full-time or part-time
Canadians diverge more when asked if they feel others have better opportunities for advancement. Overall, Canadians are less likely to agree (35%) than disagree (60%) with the statement “I feel others have better opportunities for advancement” (4% are unable or unwilling to offer a response).
Demographically, a similar minority of Canadians across age, gender and household and education levels feel others have better opportunities. Regionally, consistent with their greater knowledge of how to advance in their organizations, Quebecers (21%) are least likely to feel others have better opportunities for advancement.
However, visible minority Canadians and those born outside Canada are more likely to agree others have better opportunities for advancement. Half of visible minority Canadians agree others have better opportunities for advancement (16% agree strongly, 37% agree somewhat), compared to one-third of non-visible minority Canadians. As well, those born outside Canada, albeit a minority, are three times as likely as those born in Canada to strongly agree others have better opportunities for advancement (23% versus 8%).
In short, visible minority Canadians and immigrants share a similar level of understanding as the Canadian population-at-large of what they need to do to advance, but they are much less convinced there’s a level playing field to do so.
Furthermore, when posed directly with the statement “I feel my ethnic or cultural background has hindered my career advancement,” visible minority Canadians are five times as likely as non-visible minority Canadians to agree (37% versus 7%). Among those who disagree, visible minority Canadians are far less certain than others (28% strongly disagree their ethnic or cultural background has hindered their advancement, compared to 69% of non-visible minority Canadians).
Findings from the Environics Research Group survey were released in January 2011. A total of 1,202 Canadians aged 18 years or older provided their input to the on-line survey conducted between November 3 and 11, 2010. Age, gender, and regional quotas were placed to ensure that this sample reflects the Canadian population. Data gathered can therefore be extrapolated to the full population with a reasonable degree of confidence, and permitting analysis by important subgroups. Furthermore, this sample size was chosen as it can provide meaningful and statistically reliable results for important segments of the population, whether this is by region, community size, household type or relevant demographic characteristics such as education level and family size.