SASKATOON – Computer and phone technology are serving as matchmakers for would-be employees and potential bosses.
JobsCanada is the name of a private employment registry that is beginning a national campaign to sign up employers and people looking for work. Company president Geoffrey Edmunds said the concept is simple and a win-win situation.
People who want to list their resumŽs pay $25 for six months. The company breaks their resume down into job skills, geographic location wanted, type of work whether full or part time, and personal attributes (self-starter, knows another language, employment equity candidate).
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Employers can call JobsCanada’s toll-free number (1-800-564-1010) and get an access code allowing them into the files for the particular job and location they want. The computer will pull the resumŽs that apply and the employer can get a fax copy of the ones they want for $7 each.
Edmunds said his company “allows the employer to get right to a short list in minutes instead of two or three weeks.”
It took three years and $2 million to compile the list of 4,000 jobs and cross-reference them using computer software, he said. The skills data base will be updated every six months and is larger than the government’s listing of 500 occupations.
Faster than newspaper
For rural people the system works just as well as it does in urban areas, he said. Farming and horticulture get about 10 of the job codes, but the main advantage is having local people to match up without going through the cost and time of a newspaper advertisement, Edmunds said, as long as enough employers and employees sign up to build a “critical mass.”
Edmunds said federal government officials have expressed interest in the speed of his private system and in the savings on retraining dollars. He is meeting in Ottawa to talk about a pilot project with the federal human resources department.
The New Brunswick and British Columbia governments are already working jointly with his company.
