A new one-stop job site for the region allows job hunters to include such options as transit and childcare facilities into their search,.
The site findyourjob.ca went live Monday. It was supposed to launch in the fall, but increased demand led to it going live now, said Charlene Hofbauer, executive director of the Workforce Planning Board of Waterloo Wellington Dufferin.
Jobs are aggregated from local, provincial and national job sites, plus industry-specific job sites, Hofbauer said.
“It’s a one-stop shop and if you’re a job seeker you can come and find resources and jobs,” she said.
The site is a partnership between local municipal, county and regional partners, including the City of Guelph, and the nonprofit Workforce Planning Board. The website pulls jobs from a variety of provincial, national and local sites and puts them all in one place.
Where it goes further than traditional job search sites is that it offers an interactive map function and that includes a variety of extra resources to support job seekers, such as childcare and school locations, Employment Ontario sites, transit routes, as well as other relevant information.
“It really does. You can just do the job board if you want, but if you get down to just what’s available in Guelph you can get down to the Guelph level then say ‘oh, this is in my neighbourhood’ and get down to what’s there or say ‘how close is that to my kids’ school?’ You can see how the job fits into your life.”
It also shows which jobs are in demand and other tools, such as links to Public Health for work safety and programs to help people out who are between jobs.
Hofbauer said the Workforce Planning Board will be working with many organizations to spread the word about the new job board and might be tinkering with it as they go along to best fit the needs of those that use it.
“Work on this started last summer. Our original plan was for a fall launch … but local demand for a one-stop site and the ability to pull off some really great job data around demand just led us to say ‘okay, let’s go a little bit faster and launch earlier.’”
Hofbauer describes the Workforce Planning Board as a non-profit that works with the different organizations to come up with solutions to labour market issues.
