While it’s important to soak up the short summer season we have here in Calgary, September is just around the corner! September in Calgary is a notoriously busy season full of possibilities for new and exciting endeavours. It’s also a time often filled with high staff turnover. CAES has launched an exciting new initiative which is an excellent opportunity to address both your hiring needs and your thirst for a brand new endeavour. Calgary Alternative Employment Services (CAES), a program which assists job-seekers with disabilities and Calgary Businesses to connect and succeed, has launched a challenge to the city’s business community to employ fifty motivated job-seekers in fifty meaningful jobs within fifty weeks! The ‘Calgary Business Leadership Challenge 50-50-50’ will run for fifty consecutive weeks ending with a recognition event acknowledging the fifty employers who will have risen to the challenge.
Although Calgary had the second lowest unemployment rate and the country’s highest labour force participation rate in 2013, people with disabilities remain significantly underrepresented in the Calgary workforce (Labour Market Facts, Calgary Economic Development. 2014). Sean McEwen, program Manager at CAES states, “The labour market is changing and evolving much faster than publicly funded employment services. Our mission is to facilitate the workforce inclusion of under-represented, marginalized groups such as people with disabilities, but this task is impossible without the effective engagement of employers. The primary outcomes CAES facilitates are the same outcomes employers are looking for; engagement, job satisfaction, performance and job retention. All of our services are designed to meet that mutual goal.”
With these considerations in mind, CAES launched the Calgary Business Leadership Challenge to engage the Calgary Business Community and promote inclusion, and employment for people with disabilities. McEwen elaborates, “Calgary business owners are extremely busy people who are understandably wary of anything that could jeopardize their success. Services like ours need to communicate the ‘alignment’ of our respective goals. We know that Calgary business owners care about their community. They’ve got a lot of heart and they’re always up for a challenge. We’ve got the perfect challenge for more information about the Business Challenge.
Click here to learn more about the CBLC.
To become a Calgary Business Diversity Leader contact us today!