Skills International Announces National Survey of Canadian Employers to Address Talent Gap

LONDON, Ontario, August 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Help Desperately Wanted: Qualified Professionals for Job Openings  

A new national 'Help Solve Canada's Talent Gap' survey of Canadian employers is being conducted through December to understand how challenging it is for organizations to identify and hire qualified Canadians to fill certain positions, says Rohail Khan, Chairman of Skills International.

"This isn't just a talent gap issue, it's a Canadian economic issue," Khan said. "A recent report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says that, for the fourth year in a row, solving the talent gap problem remains a priority for business."

"What's different about our survey is that it is laser-focused only on talent needs, not other business issues," Khan says. "Part of the answer to Canada's growing talent shortage," says Khan, "is hiring skilled professionals from outside Canada who can now be granted permanent residency under Canada's new revolutionary Express Entry immigration program and begin working for Canadian employers in a few months."

Employers can participate in the national survey by clicking on Talent Gap Survey. Interim results will be announced monthly with a final report published next January.

Last May, Skills International and the Surrey, B.C. Board of Trade asked the Board's member employers to participate in a test of the survey. "Nearly 69 per cent of responding employers said they have a talent gap problem," Khan says. "But the most surprising - and disturbing - finding was that 71 per cent of the respondents said they have never heard of Express Entry."

Khan has called Express Entry "one of the most innovative talent recruiting pipelines ever created". "It allows Canadian employers to interview and hire the foreign-qualified professionals they need. Their job offer practically guarantees their new hires will be on-the-job in Canada in a matter of months," he says.

Khan says thousands of highly qualified skilled professionals and their families are eager to start a new life and career in Canada. "Over the past year, my team and I have screened more than 70,000 skilled professionals covering virtually every industry segment in Asia and the Middle East. We have down-selected and pre-certified the most qualified professionals in IT, financial services, engineering, project management, health care, telecom and virtually all other industry sectors."

Khan says when employers can't find qualified Canadians to fill positions, the longer the position is unfilled, the more it hurts an employer's ability to expand as well as the Canadian economy. "Every day a job opening goes vacant is another day governments go without tax revenue and Canadian products and services are not purchased," he says. A recent article in HR Professional Magazine says every day a vacant $70,000 position goes unfilled, lost productivity costs employers up to $954 per day.

"As millions of older Canadians retire over the next few years, we must fill those vacant positions faster with a combination of qualified Canadians and skilled professionals from other countries," Khan says. "Canada has always been a nation that has welcomed immigrants. Express Entry has made it much easier for employers to hire these highly qualified professionals relatively quickly. Skills International is taking action to help Canadian employers solve the Talent Gap now."

About Skills International  

Skills International is a global talent and career management firm that seamlessly connects talent to opportunity worldwide. Registered in Singapore, SI has a presence in Canada, the United States, India and the United Arab Emirates.

For more information, contact:
Martin Kish,
+1-859-351-8420
martin.kish@skillsinternational.com