New recruitment requirements for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) are effective as of August 28, 2017.
As of August 28, 2017, all employers applying for high-wage Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) will be required to use Service Canada’s new Job Match service to meet the LMIA minimum recruitment requirements.
Recruitment is the process of finding and selecting qualified employees. As part of the TFW Program requirements, the employers must conduct recruitment efforts to hire Canadians and permanent residents (PR) before offering a job to a temporary foreign worker (TFW).
According to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), before applying for an LMIA, the employers must conduct at least three different recruitment activities, which are:
- Advertise on the Government of Canada’s Job Bank or its provincial or territorial counterpart in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec;
- As mentioned above, effective August 28, 2017, all employers, irrespective of province or territory, will be required to advertise on Job Bank (if they choose to use an alternative method, they must submit a written rational and explanation of the alternative method); and
- Conduct at least two additional methods of recruitment that are consistent with the occupation (targets an audience that has the appropriate education, professional experience and or skill level required for the occupation).
Effective August 28, 2017, if the employers are from a province or territory with a provincial or territorial job board, they will be required to use Job Bank, but they will also be able to use a provincial or territorial job board as one of their additional methods of recruitment. One of the methods used must be national in scope, and easily accessed by residents of any province or territory in Canada, as people in high-wage positions are often mobile and willing to re-locate for work. To be national in scope, Canadians and PRs must have the capacity to search advertisements for work locations across Canada in a single site, as opposed to referring to individual or regional sub-sites.
Therefore, effective August 28, 2017, the employers will be required to use the Job Match service for recruitment purposes when advertising a position on Job Bank.
The Job Match Service will allow the employers to see anonymous profiles of registered job seekers which correspond to the skills and requirements outlined in their job posting. Each match will be rated using a star system of one to five stars. The more stars received by the match, the greater the compatibility between the employers’ advertised position and the anonymous job seeker. When seeking to fill a high-wage position, the employers are required to invite all job seekers matched within the first 30 days of your job advertisement to apply for the position if they are rated four stars or more.
To summarize, the employers who submitted a high-wage LMIA before August 28, 2017 will not be required to use the Job Match service. The employers who conduct recruitment activities and/or submit LMIA applications after this date will be required to provide proof that they have used the Service Canada’ Job Match service.
Source: ESDC website.
