Internships and… Fellowships… and Residencies – oh my!

Education to Career Transition.

Equipped with a portfolio of theoretical and practical knowledge: new grads take control of their ‘post-secondary-to-workforce‘ career transition.

If you haven’t connected with the header, chances are you’ve never seen the 1939 classic American film, The Wizard of Oz. The sense of impending doom and uncertainty that confronts the characters is often paralleled to the experiences new grads face when entering the work force after graduation. Read more

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Open Office Plans: How they can be made to work better

Open offices are far from new, but they remain controversial. Most will agree that open office plans can allow for greater collaboration and interaction among employees. But the open workspace can also have an adverse effect on a person’s concentration, ability to think creatively, stress levels and feeling of control. Lack of privacy, noise, inability to regulate lighting, and interruptions from colleagues are some of the negative factors which may be more prevalent in open offices.

Despite the critical way in which they are often viewed, open offices in some form are likely here to stay, and since they are a reality for so many employees, one might consider how it may be possible to make them more effective, productive and comfortable work environments. Here are some ideas that may be worth considering in your workplace. Read more

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Blended Outplacement Support Buoyed by Human Touch

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Verity is known for our high-touch, face-to-face approach to career transition, and today’s technological advancements allow for useful supplemental support as well. We invite you to read “Blended Outplacement Support Buoyed by Human Touch” which is written by our fellow VF Career management member, Peter Saulnier. Originally published on HRVOICE.org on May 25, 2016 this article demonstrates VF Career Management’s shared philosophy in all our offices across Canada. It shows the importance of embracing technology, but understanding that to get maximum effect, it is a supplemental tool to face-to-face support – a blended approach!

While technological change has a lengthy history of disrupting the workforce, the scope of our current technologies is facilitating the career transition phase as never before. Read more

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What’s a parent to do? Let your child go it alone in the workplace

With graduation season now in full swing and twentysomethings entering the workforce, and on the heels of our recent Student Job Search Workshop, we thought we’d share a very timely article written by our fellow VF Career Management member, Eileen Dooley. Originally published in the Globe & Mail on May 2, 2016.

Realistic expectations. This seems to be a focal point of many discussions today involving Generation Y and millennials, specifically those entering the life of independent adulthood. These are twentysomethings who want a good paying job, and a great place to live – and all at once.

Today, many parents are involved in their adult child’s life more than ever. They don’t just help them pick a post-secondary school, but do the research for them, and even talk with academic advisers and individual instructors. Some take that to the next step, engaging career coaches to work with their adult child, or talking with friends who may be potential employers. They even scour job boards to find roles for their adult child to apply for. Read more

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Failure is the Flipside of Innovation

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True ingenuity and innovation require organizations and their people to have the courage to fail.  Albert Einstein once said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new”.  To continually fear making mistakes is detrimental to success and progress.

Most of us are comfortable with the notion of experimentation under controlled conditions, “in the lab” where the archetypal great inventor works amongst his or her test tubes, the contents of which sometimes must blow up on the road to producing the perfect formula.  Yet, outside of the science lab or classroom setting, where not every experiment is expected to succeed, people tend to want to avoid the potential for failure. Read more

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Middle Managers – Feeling Stuck With No Place To Go

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Why do many middle managers feel so disconnected and unhappy?  This is an important question for companies to address because middle managers, who may already suffer some prejudice regarding the importance of their role, play an essential part in the success of any organization.

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Have Your Say on Closing the Gender Wage Gap

Nearly 30 years after the introduction of pay equity legislation, it is apparent that Ontario still has a significant gender wage gap.  The gap in question is more complex than the original 1980s-era proposition of equal pay for work of equal value, and it will be more difficult to address.

But the Ontario Minister of Labour is on record as saying that there is a need to “close the gender wage gap and eliminate inequality for women in the workforce”.  New policies affecting private sector organizations as well as government departments and agencies are likely to be developed as a result of this initiative, and your organization should be prepared to offer its input. Read more

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