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Building Stronger Workforces: The Importance of Partnerships with Tamim Hamidi · Behind the Business

• 0:00
  Ian McLean: Welcome to another episode of Behind the Business, presented by Gore Mutual.
• 0:04
  Ian McLean: I'm your host, Ian McLean, president and CEO of the Greater Kitchen Waterdoo Chamber of Commerce.
• 0:09
  Ian McLean: This podcast is recorded on the traditional territory of the neutral Anishinabe and Hoden Ashone peoples.
• 0:15
  Ian McLean: Each week I sit down for candid conversations where we go beyond the boardroom and behind the business to uncover the real stories of Waterdoo Region's business community.
• 0:25
  Ian McLean: Today's guest is Tamim Hamidi, manager of community outreach with Circle Canada and a leader of the Employee Next delivery in Kitchener, Waterdoo, and Barrie Catchment areas.
• 0:44
  Ian McLean: Tamim's team helps connect job seekers to sustainable work, supports employers with hiring and onboarding solutions, and builds partnerships across municipalities, training providers, and community organizations.
• 0:57
  Ian McLean: In today's conversation, Tamim will share how Employee Next works on the ground, the partnerships that make it possible, practical strategies for employers that they can use to hire and retain talent, and what success looks like for workforce development in our region.
• 1:12
  Ian McLean: Let's go behind the business with Tamim Amidi.
• 1:15
  Ian McLean: Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Tamim.
• 1:18
  Ian McLean: It's uh I know it's busy, uh busy time of year.
• 1:21
  Ian McLean: You're always busy, you've got a big territory to cover.
• 1:23
  Ian McLean: Appreciate you for spending some time with us today.
• 1:25
  Ian McLean: Thank you, and thank you for having me.
• 1:26
  Ian McLean: So let's start at the beginning.
• 1:28
  Ian McLean: I mean, we want to get to know you and what what you're doing.
• 1:31
  Ian McLean: And so share maybe a little bit about your career path um and how you came into this kind of community outreach and uh workforce development uh role, um and then weave that into circle and and the employee next program.
• 1:48
  Ian McLean: Because I think those things are all all connected.
• 1:50
  Ian McLean: But started how you got in the in the field in the first place.
• 1:52
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:53
  Tamim Hamidi: So I've been in employment services for over 13 years, and I studied social services.
• 1:58
  Tamim Hamidi: And I was fortunate enough that uh when I graduated, I was working for one of the largest uh non-for-profits uh in in Scarborough.
• 2:07
  Tamim Hamidi: And um I was fortunate enough to have many different roles.
• 2:10
  Tamim Hamidi: I started off in frontline, went into job development.
• 2:14
  Ian McLean: So when you say frontline, what what are the types of things you would have would have done in the in the in the social service in the services sector there?
• 2:20
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, so I started off as a summer job uh service recruiter where I was helping summer students uh obtain employment for the summer.
• 2:26
  Tamim Hamidi: And then eventually that led to becoming a full-time job developer within the organization.
• 2:31
  Tamim Hamidi: So this is where I was working with employers, where I was working with um community partners, I was working with clients who were looking for full-time employment or part-time employment, and I was supporting them uh with their journey.
• 2:44
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, also very involved with employers at that time because I was connecting with a lot of employers on a regular basis, kind of trying to find out what were their needs, what were their hiring needs, and how we could support them uh with their with their workforce development uh and all of that.
• 3:00
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh then I moved on to a leadership role where I became the director of employment uh and community services.
• 3:06
  Tamim Hamidi: So there I was connecting with a lot of uh MPs, MPPs, politicians, uh deputy mayors.
• 3:12
  Tamim Hamidi: So basically, my my outreach landscape became a little bit wider, where I went from employers to politicians and you know, community organizations.
• 3:21
  Tamim Hamidi: We're all involved, all the folks involved.
• 3:23
  Tamim Hamidi: Exactly.
• 3:23
  Tamim Hamidi: So that's what happened.
• 3:25
  Tamim Hamidi: And then um I saw this opportunity with um with Circo, which was community outreach, and I was like, hey, this really aligns with uh what I want to do with my goals in the future.
• 3:35
  Tamim Hamidi: And then I just simply just changed ships and came to Circle.
• 3:39
  Ian McLean: And i i i I I was it was funny every time we because we meet on a monthly basis with the immigration partnership working group that I chair, and you're at those meetings, and you and it always gets me.
• 3:50
  Ian McLean: Uh so maybe talk a little bit about Circle because it's a Circle has Kitchener, Waterloo, and Barry.
• 3:58
  Ian McLean: I'm never quite certain why, and and it's just it's different territories, but you the circle has has both of those.
• 4:06
  Ian McLean: You do you do you travel between the the the communities between Barrie and Kitchener Waterloo?
• 4:12
  Ian McLean: That's a big that's a big big territory.
• 4:14
  Tamim Hamidi: It is, it is a big catchment.
• 4:15
  Tamim Hamidi: So actually, Circle is a service delivery organization, um, and we are very involved with the federal, provincial, and municipal governments at all levels.
• 4:24
  Tamim Hamidi: Um we have we manage over 700 different contracts, right?
• 4:28
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh we fall into three different main sectors, which is citizen services, defense, and marine services.
• 4:33
  Tamim Hamidi: So, under our uh basically citizen services, we are the service system managers for um the Ministry of Labor, and we are the service system manager for three catchment areas of Ontario.
• 4:46
  Tamim Hamidi: And we manage uh the a large portfolio of service providers.
• 4:51
  Tamim Hamidi: We're very involved in the community and we work with them to deliver employment services within the local communities.
• 4:57
  Tamim Hamidi: The catchment, as you mentioned, Ian, it is very big.
• 4:59
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh and yes, sometimes when there is a need, I do travel and I do go out and I meet partners, I meet service providers, community partners to just talk about workforce development.
• 5:08
  Tamim Hamidi: How can how can we better support clients?
• 5:11
  Tamim Hamidi: How can we better support employers?
• 5:12
  Tamim Hamidi: And it's on both sides.
• 5:14
  Ian McLean: It's it's it's those looking for jobs, newcomers that are looking for jobs, but also the employers and what what their what their need is, what they're what they're trying to fill.
• 5:22
  Ian McLean: And it's really trying to bring those those pieces together.
• 5:25
  Tamim Hamidi: 100%, 100%.
• 5:26
  Tamim Hamidi: And we really work to uh try to understand the needs of the community, whether it's clients, employers, or community partners, we really work with them to understand what the needs are and how we can uh support the need.
• 5:39
  Ian McLean: So and it's just kind of um as we try to f figure it out what what circle and employee next, uh, if they're hearing it for the first time.
• 5:49
  Ian McLean: Describe who you are as an organization.
• 5:52
  Ian McLean: You started that, um, and the and the mission of the work that you're doing.
• 5:56
  Ian McLean: So you've got a contract to to to bridge bridge some of those gaps in communities.
• 6:00
  Ian McLean: Um what like how does how does the work that you're doing um you know it must motivate the staff is that you know you're helping a newcomer that is looking for a job, you know you're helping us for the most part small and medium-sized businesses that are as much as possible trying to find the work um uh or fill the jobs that they have.
• 6:21
  Ian McLean: How do you kind of pull all those pieces together?
• 6:24
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, so we are involved with a lot of contracts and like as I mentioned, over 700, right?
• 6:29
  Tamim Hamidi: And we have different sectors, as I mentioned, defense and marine and citizen services.
• 6:34
  Tamim Hamidi: And basically how we come together is that we're very locally involved, right?
• 6:38
  Tamim Hamidi: Especially within our local communities, right?
• 6:40
  Tamim Hamidi: So we have a large team, for example, within just Kitchener, Barrie, and Waterloo.
• 6:45
  Tamim Hamidi: And um we have designated staff who work with service providers.
• 6:49
  Tamim Hamidi: We have employer engagement specialists who work with, you know, employers within the community.
• 6:54
  Tamim Hamidi: Then you have myself as manager for community outreach, where my role is to connect with uh strateg and make strategic partnerships within the community.
• 7:02
  Tamim Hamidi: And how this all happens is through great uh community uh relationships and great community partners.
• 7:08
  Tamim Hamidi: I can say that you know, just last year um I was able to coordinate a job fair with two of our community partners, which resulted in uh bringing in over uh over a thousand job seekers and over 45 to 50 employers and community partners, right?
• 7:22
  Tamim Hamidi: So collaboration is key for our business, and we definitely uh take pride in doing that, and that's something that we always strive for, and we want to build stronger relationships within the community, um, within the chambers, of course, with yourself and other chambers.
• 7:37
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh so that's something we always strive for.
• 7:40
  Ian McLean: So and and so Circo operates and delivers those services to the Ministry of Labor in the in lots of different areas.
• 7:48
  Ian McLean: Um talk about a little bit about so you you know, you talked about the areas.
• 7:52
  Ian McLean: Explain when you say defense and marine, as well as um uh uh you know for for for the sectors that you're doing for employment services.
• 8:03
  Ian McLean: Talk about uh about those aspects of it.
• 8:07
  Ian McLean: Um just so people have an idea of circles, the breadth of the types of roles that you're doing.
• 8:14
  Tamim Hamidi: Yes.
• 8:14
  Tamim Hamidi: So to break it down, I usually like to break it down into three different sectors.
• 8:18
  Tamim Hamidi: So Circo is basically um our parent organization, and we have three uh sectors that I I usually like to call it.
• 8:27
  Tamim Hamidi: So we have the citizen services side, uh, we have the defense, and then we have the Marine, right?
• 8:32
  Tamim Hamidi: So under the Citizen Services, we have Employee Next, which is my program, which is the Employment Services.
• 8:38
  Tamim Hamidi: As I mentioned, we are funded through the uh Ministry of Labor and we manage a large portfolio of service providers.
• 8:44
  Tamim Hamidi: Again, under citizen services, we have uh driving examination services.
• 8:49
  Tamim Hamidi: So we manage the drive examination services within Ontario.
• 8:53
  Tamim Hamidi: We administer over 1.1 million um uh road tests a year and over two million counter transactions.
• 9:00
  Tamim Hamidi: Under this this comes under our citizen services.
• 9:03
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, under defense, which is the second category, we provide facilities management.
• 9:08
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh we manage the uh Goose Bay, uh the Royal Canadian Navy.
• 9:12
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh we manage and we we deliver services uh and we manage the services there.
• 9:17
  Tamim Hamidi: Um we also have a great space program under our defense contract.
• 9:21
  Tamim Hamidi: We have logistics support.
• 9:23
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, and overall we're really involved with defense.
• 9:26
  Tamim Hamidi: Um we're very big in defense, actually, uh especially within the US and other countries.
• 9:31
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh we're very involved.
• 9:33
  Tamim Hamidi: Now, when it comes to marine services, uh we provide like vessel ship support, right?
• 9:38
  Tamim Hamidi: We make, create, and provide it to the uh to the partner.
• 9:41
  Tamim Hamidi: Um we provide you know complex project management support, right?
• 9:45
  Tamim Hamidi: Um so it's it's a lot of stuff that we are very involved in.
• 9:49
  Tamim Hamidi: So I just usually like to break it down into three different categories.
• 9:52
  Tamim Hamidi: That um, for example, when I'm speaking with our community partners, I get this question a lot.
• 9:57
  Tamim Hamidi: How is Circo involved with defense?
• 9:59
  Tamim Hamidi: How are they involved with Marine?
• 10:00
  Tamim Hamidi: And it's just kind of confusing.
• 10:01
  Tamim Hamidi: So I'm like, okay, because we're a very big organization, yeah, and we're involved with a lot of projects, right?
• 10:07
  Tamim Hamidi: Um earlier I mentioned it's over 700 projects we're involved in, and Employee Next is one of them, right?
• 10:12
  Tamim Hamidi: So within this community within Ontario, we are involved um with employment services, and this is where uh my specialty or comes in, right?
• 10:21
  Ian McLean: So uh with So like the mentoring program with the Y with the YMCA and then you've got you know Conestoga College has some services.
• 10:28
  Ian McLean: So you work with with uh with with uh with those that are doing the hands-on, you're you're you're kind of coordinating a lot of a lot of those types of services as well.
• 10:38
  Tamim Hamidi: Coordinating in the sense I would say um working together, right?
• 10:41
  Tamim Hamidi: But when it comes to working directly with them, it's the employment services piece of it, right?
• 10:45
  Tamim Hamidi: But with the mentorship program that you mentioned and other programs too, we're very involved with that as well, yes.
• 10:51
  Ian McLean: Um so you you manage the services that that are you know businesses in Waterloo Region rely on.
• 10:58
  Ian McLean: Like I, you know, and I think this is something that I wanted to have you on.
• 11:03
  Ian McLean: Is there's lots of concern with immigration and some of the things that have gone wrong, but the pure reality is that for any business that's looking to fill a job of virtually every category in Waterloo Region, it you're almost assuredly gonna need to fill those every passing day with newcomers to get it.
• 11:24
  Ian McLean: We that that's where the talent source is coming from.
• 11:28
  Ian McLean: And the job that the immigration partnership does and the work that ESERC is doing with service providers is to make sure that those folks are job ready, that they can be step right in to any business, whether it's services, whether it's engineering, whether it's you know, tech, trades, and make sure that they're that they're ready to to jump in and and be a productive part of a workforce because that's that's where the jobs are gonna be filled, is from newcomers of the country.
• 11:56
  Ian McLean: So talk about you know, as you as you you know, walk us through what how Circo supports job seekers, but also the employers that are gonna do the hiring and what makes the approach that you take unique.
• 12:11
  Ian McLean: Because it's not the same everywhere.
• 12:12
  Ian McLean: And it would be different, different in different provinces, different different communities will have different approaches.
• 12:18
  Ian McLean: Talk about your the approach that you take.
• 12:20
  Tamim Hamidi: For sure.
• 12:21
  Tamim Hamidi: So I'll start off with the job seekers.
• 12:24
  Tamim Hamidi: So we support job seekers through our service providers, right?
• 12:27
  Tamim Hamidi: Now we do have a remote job coach as well who works with clients who want only virtual support, but it's mostly through then our service providers, right?
• 12:36
  Tamim Hamidi: Now, at the service provider level, we support job seekers, I can say a holistic approach, right?
• 12:42
  Tamim Hamidi: So we uh do the assessment, kind of determine what their employment needs are, right?
• 12:47
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, how long they've been out of job, what kind of job are they looking for, education, background, age, and all the assessment, we do it.
• 12:54
  Tamim Hamidi: And then we kind of see where is a good fit for this for this client.
• 12:58
  Tamim Hamidi: We kind of see um their top three choices of what kind of job they want to do or what they want.
• 13:04
  Tamim Hamidi: So we do all that assessment and then determine, okay, this client is a good fit at this sector.
• 13:09
  Tamim Hamidi: And then we have job coaches or job developers who's gonna work with them to get the job for them, right?
• 13:15
  Tamim Hamidi: So they're gonna provide, uh, I guess I can say from A to Z, they're gonna provide all the support to the client, right?
• 13:21
  Tamim Hamidi: So it's a holistic approach, right?
• 13:23
  Tamim Hamidi: Like once a client walks in, we will do resume, cover letter, workshops, and get them fully employment ready and then put them into a job.
• 13:30
  Tamim Hamidi: And then once they're in the job, we do follow-up uh during and after and after uh post-employment, we say, right?
• 13:37
  Tamim Hamidi: So we're always in touch with them, we're always in in regular and constant communication with the client to ensure they're doing well because sometimes people have challenges that you know they don't feel comfortable sharing with everybody, right?
• 13:47
  Tamim Hamidi: So once we assign a job coach, they're there, they're kind of there as a mentor to walk them through uh the employment process, put them in the job, and also follow up regularly after the job.
• 13:58
  Tamim Hamidi: So that's for clients.
• 13:59
  Tamim Hamidi: But when it comes to employers, I usually like to call it a partnership we do, right?
• 14:04
  Tamim Hamidi: Because with employers, we really want to understand what the needs of the business are, the culture, the environment, um how like what kind of positions are they looking to fill in, right?
• 14:15
  Tamim Hamidi: So I'll give you an example that last week I was in Guelph and I met with a manufacturing employer, and basically I was having a conversation about what kind of jobs he's looking, uh looking to hire for, what kind of candidates he's looking for, what skill sets he needs.
• 14:30
  Tamim Hamidi: And despite having all this conversation, I was like, can you give me a tour of your facility, right?
• 14:34
  Tamim Hamidi: So I had a tour of the facility, I met his staff, had a good conversation with them.
• 14:39
  Tamim Hamidi: It's kind of understanding the environment and understanding the employer needs.
• 14:43
  Tamim Hamidi: So, what I guess I can say is that we go above and beyond to really understand the needs of the employer, because at the end of the day, I'm not gonna send them somebody who's not gonna be a good fit, kind of thing, right?
• 14:53
  Tamim Hamidi: Or I'm not gonna connect them with the service provider that I know we don't have the clients for.
• 14:58
  Tamim Hamidi: So having that, you know, understanding and and building this partnership with them and this relationship with them, I think it's very important.
• 15:05
  Tamim Hamidi: And that's how we really support employers in the sense that we really try to understand them and we really try to uh look for the best candidate for them.
• 15:14
  Tamim Hamidi: Then again, we support with recruitment, we support with candidate search, we we advertise, we post jobs for them, and most importantly, we have a subsidy program that they can uh take advantage of too uh once they hire.
• 15:26
  Ian McLean: Once they hire for for a period of time, they can't do that.
• 15:27
  Ian McLean: Correct.
• 15:28
  Ian McLean: Correct.
• 15:28
  Ian McLean: So I mean all of that is it it's uh to some degree not revolutionary.
• 15:34
  Ian McLean: Those are the things that I think every, you know, uh we've been doing for a lot of years, but uh the way you put it all together, I think is is uh unique for uh or or new.
• 15:46
  Ian McLean: Um how do you you know leadership in that?
• 15:51
  Ian McLean: And you've got some great folks on the ground here.
• 15:53
  Ian McLean: You're you're kind of leading a team and trying to make sure you're getting all that information from employers, from the job seekers, you know, all the service providers to make sure you can you know make it all fit.
• 16:04
  Ian McLean: Um leadership in that environment when you've got so many multiple audiences and stakeholders involved is is uh must be complex.
• 16:16
  Ian McLean: Um so what are some of the things that principles I guess that guide you know how you're how you try and um bring all those voices together, hear all the the messages you're getting and still deliver something that ultimately is if you boil it right down to saying, how do I help employers and how do I help newcomers who are looking for a job?
• 16:37
  Ian McLean: That that ultimately is is is what you're what you're doing.
• 16:40
  Ian McLean: How do you kind of put all those you know what type of leadership approach do you look to make sure that you're able to accomplish that?
• 16:47
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, that's a very good question, Ian.
• 16:49
  Tamim Hamidi: And one thing I've always said is that the best way to uh work with somebody or work with an organization is is is uh empathy, care, collaboration.
• 17:00
  Tamim Hamidi: These are key for me, right?
• 17:01
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh when we meet with our team, we mention this on a regular basis.
• 17:05
  Tamim Hamidi: Um as I mentioned, I gave an example earlier about uh the employer.
• 17:09
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, you know, uh I went to tour their facility, for example, right?
• 17:12
  Tamim Hamidi: As taking the step and going above and beyond to kind of uh support the the community partner or the job seeker uh or the service provider, right?
• 17:21
  Tamim Hamidi: So caring for the partner uh and really understanding what they need, right?
• 17:27
  Tamim Hamidi: And I think that's very important because oftentimes that you know um sometimes people have unrealistic expectations, right?
• 17:35
  Tamim Hamidi: So for example, some employers might have uh might want a person who can do 10 different roles, right?
• 17:40
  Tamim Hamidi: Which is not really realistic, but it's like having that conversation, right?
• 17:43
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, you know, explain explaining the pros and cons and kind of okay, these are this is the situation and this is how it's gonna look like and that's how it's gonna look like, and kind of putting all the facts on the table with them, right?
• 17:54
  Tamim Hamidi: So it's uh really about understanding and caring for somebody.
• 17:58
  Tamim Hamidi: I personally am the kind of person where I genuinely care for people and I want to see businesses, people, communities doing very well.
• 18:07
  Tamim Hamidi: So anything I can do to support, um I'm always willing to go above and beyond.
• 18:11
  Tamim Hamidi: And that's the uh approach I take, even when I'm talking with my team or my colleagues.
• 18:16
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh, this is something I always bring forward that you know what, you gotta do it from the heart, right?
• 18:20
  Tamim Hamidi: You gotta really care and you you really gotta want to make a difference in the community, right?
• 18:25
  Tamim Hamidi: So that's something I really focus on.
• 18:27
  Tamim Hamidi: It's it's uh, you know, try to go above and beyond, really try to understand and and and try to really make a difference in the community.
• 18:40
  Ian McLean: The Behind the Business Podcast is made possible through the support of our title sponsor, Gore Mutual.
• 18:45
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• 18:52
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• 18:54
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• 18:59
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• 19:05
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• 19:08
  Ian McLean: So you're you're you do, you know, you talked about Goose Base, so you're all over the country in some of the work that you do, but but Ontario is a unique region, depending on where you are.
• 19:25
  Ian McLean: Kitchener Waterloo will look different than other parts of the province, obviously.
• 19:29
  Ian McLean: Um when it comes to talent and employers and workforce challenges, um and and maybe less so, Barry, but certainly for Kitchener Waterloo, what makes KW and this region of Waterloo unique in terms of the talent and employers and workforce and the challenges that brings you?
• 19:51
  Ian McLean: Because I look at this and say, you know, what I think one of the benefits of Waterloo Region has been we have we're much more like a Toronto or a Montreal.
• 19:59
  Ian McLean: Where we have we have five or six different sectors, all of which are relatively equal.
• 20:05
  Ian McLean: Agriculture is still a really big employer, advanced manufacturing, technology, financial services, insurance, um, you know, you know, uh small business and retail.
• 20:17
  Ian McLean: I mean, they're all that you've got you're trying to place uh newcomers with the jobs, but it's it's not one or two segments.
• 20:25
  Ian McLean: It's all of those are looking for that.
• 20:28
  Ian McLean: That must be unique for this area because it's it is um it it really does feel like it's uh when you put some of those pieces in place, feels like it's a bigger, bigger community.
• 20:40
  Ian McLean: Like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, you're gonna find everything.
• 20:43
  Ian McLean: All business sectors are there.
• 20:45
  Ian McLean: Absolutely.
• 20:47
  Ian McLean: Water is kind of more like that, Waterdoo region's kind of more like that.
• 20:51
  Ian McLean: Um, does that present challenges in in how you how you work with your service providers and the the work that you're doing?
• 20:58
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, if you remember, Ian, a couple of months ago when we were actually hit with the tariffs, yeah.
• 21:03
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh KW was the fourth city that was hit the hardest, right?
• 21:07
  Tamim Hamidi: And the reason being for that is that this region that we are in, it has uh, as you mentioned, manufacturing.
• 21:12
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, right.
• 21:14
  Tamim Hamidi: The majority of the manufacturing happens within KW region, right?
• 21:17
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah.
• 21:18
  Tamim Hamidi: So that is um one challenge that we we we had faced because um, yes, the tariffs really impacted, right?
• 21:26
  Tamim Hamidi: Um and I know there was a lot of employers letting go of people.
• 21:28
  Tamim Hamidi: Um however, when I look at, for example, Barry, it's more of the uh service type employers, right?
• 21:34
  Tamim Hamidi: Um healthcare and stuff like that, right?
• 21:36
  Tamim Hamidi: The challenge that I see with both regions is that um employers are there are employers and they're looking for talent.
• 21:48
  Tamim Hamidi: At the same time, we have talent, we have uh people looking for employment uh within those sectors, but they're not able to connect.
• 21:56
  Tamim Hamidi: So somewhere in between, I feel there's a disconnect with both regions, and this is where we're trying to come in now.
• 22:02
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh where Circle's trying to come in and be like, okay, we need to connect with these employers and we need to let them know that you know we have these many clients who are interested in manufacturing.
• 22:12
  Tamim Hamidi: So, for example, within our database uh for employee next, um, we have over 25,000 job seekers, right?
• 22:18
  Tamim Hamidi: And when I look at when I break this down to KW region, majority of the clients are looking for manufacturing.
• 22:25
  Tamim Hamidi: At the same time, we have manufacturing uh companies who are not aware of you know uh talent that we have, right?
• 22:31
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh the example I gave when I went to golf, um he didn't know that we had so many uh clients looking for manufacturing, right?
• 22:38
  Tamim Hamidi: So somewhere there's a disconnect where I just think that clients are not finding the jobs and the employers are not finding the talent kind of thing.
• 22:46
  Tamim Hamidi: So we're trying to come in between now and say, okay, what can we do uh to bridge the gap kind of thing.
• 22:53
  Ian McLean: Right.
• 22:53
  Ian McLean: And that's that's where we're working with the partnership and folks like Charlene at the planning board and you know the chambers that we all need to be on the same page.
• 23:00
  Ian McLean: Listen, hiring, if we come to the to the hiring part, because for a business that's watching this kind of going, okay, I'm service providers, it's fine, you're talking about this stuff.
• 23:10
  Ian McLean: Ultimately, I'm just I'm in this because I need to hire, you know, an engineer here, yeah, you know, uh a skilled trade there, you know, to take your pick of whatever they're looking for.
• 23:22
  Ian McLean: That's what they're the hiring is the thing they're doing.
• 23:26
  Ian McLean: Okay.
• 23:26
  Ian McLean: That's a ch that can be a challenge in any time, whether it's good economic times or bad.
• 23:32
  Ian McLean: Like you there's challenges with with hiring, especially onboarding and training of new staff.
• 23:39
  Ian McLean: And I wouldn't put this just for immigrant, although there are some specific things there.
• 23:44
  Ian McLean: I mean, getting young people who may not have had job experience before, whether it's newcomers coming to town and may not understand all the sort of the cultural pieces.
• 23:53
  Ian McLean: How does your team, so how does Circle help and work with employers to make this process easier and faster and and maybe more cost effective, like where the hiring actually sticks, like you say, oh, I hired him, he's a great guy, and it's really helping my business.
• 24:13
  Ian McLean: Like I've I've I know I've had a success.
• 24:15
  Ian McLean: How do you how do you kind of um pull those pieces together?
• 24:19
  Tamim Hamidi: For sure.
• 24:19
  Tamim Hamidi: Well, first of all, I just want to say, Ian, I definitely agree with you because there's a lot of challenges.
• 24:24
  Tamim Hamidi: Like in my career, I've worked with small to medium to large scale employers, right?
• 24:29
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, and hiring has been a very big challenge.
• 24:32
  Tamim Hamidi: Turnover retention has been a big challenge.
• 24:34
  Tamim Hamidi: In fact, I I I remember very clearly as if it happened like yesterday, I was working with the small business and they actually had to close down because of all the turnover.
• 24:42
  Tamim Hamidi: So I know the challenges, I know the struggles that small business and medium size, because especially they don't have an HR department, uh, they have it's like a one-man kind of show, one person runs everything.
• 24:53
  Tamim Hamidi: So there's a lot of challenges that they face, right?
• 24:55
  Tamim Hamidi: So when it comes to small to medium sized employers, um, we have um, like I mentioned earlier, candidate search.
• 25:03
  Tamim Hamidi: We we will provide them with candidates.
• 25:06
  Tamim Hamidi: We will basically streamline um their job posting, like kind of see what exactly are you looking for and when when do you need it, right?
• 25:15
  Tamim Hamidi: So we will basically take on the whole recruitment uh process for them, right?
• 25:21
  Tamim Hamidi: And this is all free of charge.
• 25:22
  Tamim Hamidi: We don't charge anything because we are funded by the Ministry of Labor.
• 25:25
  Tamim Hamidi: So we'll do everything from A to Z to ensure this employer gets a candidate for their work.
• 25:32
  Tamim Hamidi: On top of that, we have an incentive program that we can offer that if you hire this client for this many uh maybe a month, two months, you'll get incentive for, right?
• 25:42
  Tamim Hamidi: So this helps uh offset some of the training costs, right?
• 25:45
  Tamim Hamidi: So when you're an employer, especially a small to medium-sized employer, and you're really looking for some kind of support, um, this support is really beneficial.
• 25:53
  Tamim Hamidi: So, you know, Ian, I just want to mention that I also host an employer advisory table and on a on a quarterly basis, and I bring together employers.
• 26:02
  Tamim Hamidi: And I know when the tariffs first came around, I brought in some resources and information from the community to support employers.
• 26:09
  Tamim Hamidi: And believe it or not, Ian, a lot of employers didn't know what supports are available to them in their community.
• 26:16
  Tamim Hamidi: And I was like, okay, wow, this is very surprising.
• 26:19
  Tamim Hamidi: So it's about what I find with business owners mainly um because they're so involved with the you know operations, they're operating.
• 26:27
  Tamim Hamidi: They're doing operations, you know, somebody calls in sick or doesn't show up.
• 26:31
  Tamim Hamidi: They're managing the crisis of the day.
• 26:33
  Tamim Hamidi: Exactly.
• 26:34
  Tamim Hamidi: So then they don't have a lot of time looking outside, okay, what support is available to me, right?
• 26:39
  Tamim Hamidi: Kind of like that.
• 26:40
  Tamim Hamidi: So I have these working tables where uh I host them on a quarterly basis and I bring employers together.
• 26:46
  Tamim Hamidi: And we talk about the pressing issues, the challenges, and I even open up open it up to them.
• 26:50
  Tamim Hamidi: What do you want to know?
• 26:51
  Tamim Hamidi: What do you want to learn?
• 26:53
  Tamim Hamidi: I can, you know, we we can work on that.
• 26:55
  Tamim Hamidi: We have community partners that are offering training programs for employers, like for example, soft skills solutions, for example, right?
• 27:02
  Tamim Hamidi: So I could connect them with that, right?
• 27:05
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, there's a lot of supports that is available to employers that we can provide.
• 27:09
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh all they gotta do is just, for example, just reach out and we're there to support them.
• 27:14
  Ian McLean: So a collaboration is it seems is a is a central sort of central or cent uh you know critical component to the work that that you do.
• 27:23
  Ian McLean: Um so how do those partnerships like you know, we we we're getting to know each other uh between the chamber and what you're doing, but there's tables like the immigration partnership, you've got uh um you know, uh other organizations and maybe other levels of government that are sort of involved in this.
• 27:44
  Ian McLean: How do you kind of pull that that together so that people are you're not duplicating efforts and then that everyone is aware and to your point, even making sure other levels of government, other organizations know what you do and and so that you're you're not duplicating and not not stepping in each other.
• 28:01
  Ian McLean: That that that's an that must be important to making sure that you get the most benefit to the to the end user.
• 28:08
  Tamim Hamidi: 100% collaboration is part of what we do um here at Circo.
• 28:13
  Tamim Hamidi: We connect, as you mentioned earlier too.
• 28:16
  Tamim Hamidi: We I am personally involved with a lot of working groups, committees, right?
• 28:20
  Tamim Hamidi: I regularly uh attend events, right?
• 28:22
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh when I get invites from MPs or MPPs um and they have events coming up, I regularly attend.
• 28:28
  Tamim Hamidi: And what we're trying to do is build an ecosystem kind of with our community partners and uh the employers that we work with, right?
• 28:36
  Tamim Hamidi: And we don't want to make it a transactional kind of deal where when I need you, I'll contact you, but rather we want to make it something very consistent that we're meeting on a regular basis, talking and exploring some of the issues or the challenges that that's there in the community and how we can work together.
• 28:52
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh, a good example would be that uh just last week I had a uh youth with higher support needs working group um that I was chairing, and um I brought this issue up that um after Christmas and New Year, there's gonna be a lot of uh people who are gonna be unemployed because seasonal jobs are gonna be over.
• 29:09
  Tamim Hamidi: Right?
• 29:10
  Tamim Hamidi: So I said, what can we do to come together to support these people, right?
• 29:14
  Tamim Hamidi: Because now they've worked consistently for like, you know, two, three months uh getting good paychecks and now back to zero.
• 29:20
  Tamim Hamidi: So what can we do?
• 29:21
  Tamim Hamidi: So I proposed the idea of doing a community job fair.
• 29:24
  Tamim Hamidi: Um and right now I'm just working on a survey to kind of put it out to see what people think.
• 29:28
  Tamim Hamidi: But it's it's it's it's through these community partners that uh we work with uh that brings a lot of success, right?
• 29:36
  Ian McLean: Uh sometimes people misunderstand what employment you know specific employment programs do.
• 29:42
  Ian McLean: So talk about maybe employing next and what it can offer.
• 29:46
  Ian McLean: I mean, you know, there there must be misconceptions about you know what what you're what you can provide, what you can't provide.
• 29:53
  Ian McLean: Um but the important part is like what do you provide and what's the what's the real value to businesses?
• 30:00
  Ian McLean: What what what does that look like?
• 30:02
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah.
• 30:02
  Tamim Hamidi: So misconceptions, um, I hear that a lot.
• 30:05
  Tamim Hamidi: Oftentimes people think that um when working with the employment provider, um their workload basically doubles.
• 30:13
  Tamim Hamidi: But actually it's the exact opposite.
• 30:15
  Tamim Hamidi: It reduces the workload.
• 30:17
  Tamim Hamidi: Only because, you know, we're coming in there, we're taking over basically your recruitment process, for example.
• 30:22
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, we're finding candidates for you, we're basically prepping them up for you, we're s you we're just sending them to you for the last stage to do the interviews.
• 30:30
  Tamim Hamidi: So workload actually decreases when you're working uh with the employment service provider, right?
• 30:36
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh the other thing that I've been hearing uh from employers is that if there's a catch to our program, right?
• 30:42
  Tamim Hamidi: So I'm like, there honestly, there is there's really no catch, but um you can definitely go to your closest um MPP and talk about you know what's happening with employment services, and I'm sure they can give you uh directions, but there's honestly no catch because oftentimes employers feel that if I hire somebody from your program and I keep them for you know four, five or six months, are you gonna charge me a certain kind of fee?
• 31:04
  Tamim Hamidi: Because you supported me during this process, right?
• 31:07
  Tamim Hamidi: And I'm like, no, no, no, nothing like that.
• 31:10
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh all services are 100% free, and we're there to support the community.
• 31:15
  Ian McLean: So for a business owner or a hiring manager that's listening today, what why should they consider partnering with Circo and Employee Next?
• 31:22
  Ian McLean: I mean, and is it the team the team-based uh approach uh that stands out?
• 31:28
  Ian McLean: And and I guess to finalize that, how do they get in in touch with the right folks?
• 31:34
  Ian McLean: Because it it it may be you, it may be one of the service providers.
• 31:37
  Ian McLean: Talk a little bit about how people get connected.
• 31:39
  Tamim Hamidi: Sure.
• 31:40
  Tamim Hamidi: So one thing I always say to the employers is that um tell me something you think I cannot help you with, kind of thing, right?
• 31:47
  Tamim Hamidi: So because we take uh we go from anything from you know recruiting, hiring, you know, job support, subsidy, we take care of all of that for you, right?
• 31:59
  Tamim Hamidi: So the support is there 100%, right?
• 32:02
  Tamim Hamidi: So um if any employers have any questions or they want to inquire a little bit more, uh for sure.
• 32:07
  Tamim Hamidi: I'm very active on social media such as LinkedIn.
• 32:10
  Tamim Hamidi: Um search Tamim Hamidi and you will find it there.
• 32:14
  Tamim Hamidi: I um I attend a lot of chamber events.
• 32:17
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh they can they could connect with you, you can give them my contact.
• 32:20
  Tamim Hamidi: Happy to do that.
• 32:21
  Ian McLean: That's what we do, networking.
• 32:23
  Ian McLean: Listen, as we before we wrap up, we're almost out of time, and I always this this you know it's great to hear about what you're doing with Circle and the connection with with businesses, but this podcast is also a little bit about leadership and leadership styles from from leaders in the community, of which you're one.
• 32:39
  Ian McLean: So this is the rapid fire, you know.
• 32:42
  Ian McLean: I ask short questions, you give short answers just before we wrap up.
• 32:46
  Ian McLean: Um so let's start.
• 32:47
  Ian McLean: If I if you could go back and tell your younger self something, what would it be?
• 32:52
  Tamim Hamidi: If I could go back and tell something to my younger self, it would be um take more risk.
• 32:56
  Tamim Hamidi: Go into a lion's cage.
• 32:58
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah.
• 32:59
  Tamim Hamidi: Well, you know what?
• 33:00
  Tamim Hamidi: I'm joking, I don't think I would do that, but it definitely takes some more risk.
• 33:04
  Ian McLean: You know what?
• 33:05
  Ian McLean: The older you get, your you're you're you kind of say, I wish I had done that more.
• 33:10
  Ian McLean: Exactly.
• 33:11
  Ian McLean: Who or what inspires you in your in your journey?
• 33:16
  Tamim Hamidi: Um, good people.
• 33:17
  Tamim Hamidi: I'm always a big fan of um just Monday, I was at an event and I met an employer, and I was like, and she was telling me about the work that she's doing.
• 33:25
  Tamim Hamidi: It's so much involved with the community, with uh, with uh, you know, with their staff, and I was like, wow, you're actually an inspirational.
• 33:32
  Tamim Hamidi: Like that's fantastic.
• 33:34
  Tamim Hamidi: So good people, good-hearted people, that's what really inspires me.
• 33:38
  Tamim Hamidi: Positive is a good thing.
• 33:39
  Tamim Hamidi: Positive energy.
• 33:40
  Tamim Hamidi: Yes.
• 33:41
  Ian McLean: If you weren't in your current career, because you've had some different things along the way, what would you be doing?
• 33:46
  Tamim Hamidi: Probably with the Canadian Armed Forces.
• 33:49
  Tamim Hamidi: Police, I had this passion when I was in school and I wanted to be a police officer or something like that.
• 33:54
  Tamim Hamidi: So probably police officer or a member of the Peter.
• 33:57
  Ian McLean: Well, if you want to make a change, I am I do chair the police board.
• 33:59
  Ian McLean: I can uh put you in touch with the police chief, because we need we need good people there too.
• 34:04
  Ian McLean: So if you're if you're not that I'm trying to poach from circle, but if you do, uh would love to know.
• 34:10
  Ian McLean: Thank you.
• 34:10
  Ian McLean: Uh are you reading a book or do you watch a podcast?
• 34:13
  Ian McLean: What do you do to kind of either let it let go or keep yourself current?
• 34:19
  Tamim Hamidi: So since I'm here at your podcast, I started watching yours.
• 34:23
  Ian McLean: Well, it's such an obvious answer right there, but behind the business podcast.
• 34:28
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah, so started watching this and it's great.
• 34:30
  Tamim Hamidi: So and I and I'm and I'm enjoying it, and it's really awesome.
• 34:33
  Tamim Hamidi: Especially the people, the guests that you bring.
• 34:35
  Tamim Hamidi: Yeah uh definitely like especially they're very uh very connected to the KW community.
• 34:40
  Tamim Hamidi: And I was like, wow, just from your podcast, you can learn so much.
• 34:43
  Tamim Hamidi: So so this is what I've been really uh recently I've been watching.
• 34:46
  Ian McLean: That's the first good answer anyone's given.
• 34:48
  Ian McLean: We've been doing this for like a year and a half.
• 34:50
  Ian McLean: You're the first person that said that.
• 34:51
  Ian McLean: That's awesome.
• 34:52
  Ian McLean: Um is there a is there a favorite business or a restaurant or coffee shop in Waterdoo region that you that you're go to when you're in town?
• 35:01
  Tamim Hamidi: All of the above.
• 35:02
  Tamim Hamidi: I like all of them, honestly.
• 35:04
  Tamim Hamidi: They're all great.
• 35:05
  Tamim Hamidi: It is a great community.
• 35:06
  Tamim Hamidi: It's a great community.
• 35:07
  Tamim Hamidi: Uptown, Waterdoo, downtown kit.
• 35:08
  Tamim Hamidi: There's something 100%.
• 35:10
  Tamim Hamidi: Like I go to the coffee shops, the restaurants, and honestly, fantastic people.
• 35:14
  Tamim Hamidi: Uh they don't even let you um uh clean up.
• 35:16
  Tamim Hamidi: They just come, oh, don't worry, sir, you can just leave and we'll take care of it.
• 35:19
  Tamim Hamidi: So it's amazing.
• 35:20
  Tamim Hamidi: So love everything here.
• 35:22
  Ian McLean: Okay, now uh maybe take it today, take a bit of time, where the listeners go to connect with you and Circo.
• 35:29
  Ian McLean: So what so do you want to is it LinkedIn, you said?
• 35:32
  Tamim Hamidi: So LinkedIn, or they can go to our website, um employnext.ca.
• 35:36
  Tamim Hamidi: Employnext.ca.ca, that's right.
• 35:39
  Tamim Hamidi: Um and they all the information will be there.
• 35:42
  Tamim Hamidi: We have a form that you could fill out, and then they could especially with employers.
• 35:45
  Ian McLean: And what's your what's your LinkedIn?
• 35:46
  Ian McLean: Is it uh Tam?
• 35:47
  Ian McLean: Tamim.
• 35:48
  Ian McLean: Um just search Tamim Hamidi.
• 35:49
  Ian McLean: Oh, okay.
• 35:50
  Ian McLean: Tamim Hamidi.
• 35:52
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 35:52
  Ian McLean: And and that'll that'll pop up.
• 35:54
  Ian McLean: That's a good way to do that.
• 35:54
  Ian McLean: That will pop up, yeah.
• 35:55
  Ian McLean: And I've I've looked at that and getting ready for this too.
• 35:58
  Ian McLean: So it is there.
• 35:59
  Ian McLean: I know that it's there.
• 36:00
  Ian McLean: Thank you.
• 36:00
  Ian McLean: Listen, um, we know how busy you are, and uh and leaders are always busy, but we really appreciate you spending some time with us and and sharing the the circle story and and how you're working with uh with businesses right here in Water Division.
• 36:14
  Ian McLean: Thanks for joining us today.
• 36:15
  Tamim Hamidi: And thank you so much for having me.
• 36:16
  Tamim Hamidi: Really appreciate it.
• 36:17
  Ian McLean: Thank you for joining us for another episode of Behind the Business, proudly presented by Gore Mutual, insurance that does good.
• 36:24
  Ian McLean: New episodes drop every Thursday, so be sure to tune in next week.
• 36:28
  Ian McLean: You can also visit greater kw chamber.com to catch up on past episodes anytime.
• 36:33
  Ian McLean: We'll see you next time as we continue to go behind the business.