What does success look like when every company hires just one additional employee?
Hire One was an initiative designed to measure just that impact on London’s workforce landscape. The counter on the Hire One website, introduced in September 2012, recently surpassed the 3,000 mark indicating the number of self-reported hires by employers in the city. With its arrival at this significant milestone, the initiative is now wrapping up.
“Hire One was designed to provide a focal point to celebrate positive employment activity in London,” said Kapil Lakhotia, president and CEO, London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC.) “We’re happy to report on the success of the initiative and would like to thank the participants who shared their employment information with us in the past couple of years.”
Hire One was started by partner organizations including the City of London, LEDC, the Employment Sector Council of London Middlesex, Human Resource Professionals London and District, Links 2 Work, and the London Public Library. Hire One issued a challenge to small and medium sized businesses to grow. It was designed as a link to connect the right tools to employers to increase their hiring in London.
The idea was simple: Companies were asked to input information every time they hired one additional employee. It was a call to action for companies that had hired, that were looking to hire and for individuals looking for a job.
Just as Canada’s national economy was recovering from the recession, Hire One partners identified the need to encourage job creation in London. It was noticed that while many small and medium enterprises in the city were growing and hiring, this information was not being recorded. There were some organizations that were identified as having a potential to grow, but were not doing so due to a lack of knowledge and utilization of resources. As well, jobseekers could benefit from seeing active hiring underway, especially when a significant volume of jobs are filled through word of mouth and contacts rather than job postings
In addition to resources for employers, the Hire One site also provided support for job seekers connecting them with organizations that were hiring and providing access to other employment resources.
Key highlights:
- 62 per cent of the reported jobs were new jobs.
- 38 per cent of the reported jobs are replacement positions
- The most popular sectors were public service, health care, professional services and information and digital
- For more information, visit http://hireone.ca/
