Toronto Global

More than a Quota: The Importance of Diverse Hiring

Toronto Global — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 18:12:22 +0000

This blog was co-authored by Toronto Global’s Senior Advisor of Talent Partnerships, Courtney Bowen, and Senior Analyst of Business Insights, Sophia Chea.

Diversity has been a hot topic in recent years, everywhere from boardrooms to public debate, but what does it really mean to uphold it in a workplace? Along with its rise in acceptance comes a fair share of skepticism – where some consider diversity as nothing more than a buzzword – we are highlighting the importance of diversity hiring an inclusive workforce.

“Diversity hiring,” involves creating and implementing a strategy to counteract bias, while attracting and retaining qualified candidates (Cooks-Campbell, 2021). A conscious effort to embrace diversity and equity through recruitment is critical for organizations and can provide significant benefits to workplace culture and productivity.

However, limited candidate pools are a challenge in industries where diversity is low. Collaborating with community organizations, professional networks, and educational institutions, posting on diversity-focused job boards and attending career fairs can broaden a company’s recruitment options. At Toronto Global we have seen this in our work with international companies in the Toronto Region.

The Importance of Diversity Hiring

Embracing diverse talent fosters innovation, creativity and leads to improved performance and profit. Diverse teams bring together individuals with unique perspectives and problem-solving skills.

Diverse workforces can increase employee satisfaction and reduce turnover rates. This can help companies save time and funds on recruitment and training. It can be challenging to measure the impact of diverse hiring on a company’s bottom line in real-time, but there are ways to measure the long-term effects of diverse hiring through employee surveys.

A diverse workforce can help companies build relationships with a diverse customer base and establish deeper connections. In addition, having access to a wider spectrum of experiences and thinking can reinforce the strength and effectiveness of teams.

For instance, a diverse sales team encourages creativity, innovation, and productivity, ultimately increasing sales and enabling a business to stay ahead of the competition. A study conducted in 2019 by McKinsey & Company showed that executive teams in the top-quartile of ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed those in the fourth quartile by 36 per cent in profitability. The same study finds that greater gender diversity equally contributes to greater profitability.

Diversity in the workplace isn’t just about hiring, but about creating an inclusive culture where all employees feel valued and can thrive.

The Toronto Region Advantage

The Toronto Region is one of the most culturally diverse metropolitan areas in the world boasting a kaleidoscope of languages, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds. Visible minorities make up nearly 55 per cent of the population with South Asians, Chinese, and Black communities being the largest minority groups – there are over 190 different languages in the Toronto Region. In addition, 50 per cent of our population is also foreign-born – a percentage higher than any other metropolitan region in North America.

With a large visible minority population comes a diverse talent pool. Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, data on the Toronto Region found the following data for visible minorities:

76% of Chemists
64% of Financial and Investment Analysts
69% of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineers
75% of Software Engineers and Designers
39% of Human Resource Managers – although lower, this percentage is still higher than any other Canadian metropolitan area.

*South Asian and Chinese make up the majority of the visible minority group share

As for gender diversity for the same five occupations the data for women:

50% of Chemists
43% of Financial and Investment Analysts
25% of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineers
21% of Software Engineers and Designers
73% of Human Resources Managers

Diversity by occupation in the Toronto Region

Gender diversity by occupation in the Toronto Region

Although the Toronto Region is one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the world, it is important to acknowledge that there is still room for improvement. Particularly augmenting gender diversity in fields traditionally dominated by men can improve the gap.

Post-secondary institutions have identified programs to diversify Canadian talent in underrepresented industries such as technology. A great example is York University and Shopify’s partnership on the Dev Degree program. This experiential learning program allows students to achieve a Bachelor of Computer Science degree while working on Shopify development teams, giving students work experience before they graduate. Women account for 51 per cent of students in this program (York University, 2018).

Companies operating in the Toronto Region have a unique opportunity as the multicultural fabric of the region offers businesses the chance to engage with a wide range of talents and perspectives. As a global business hub, the Toronto Region attracts professionals from around the world, contributing to its diverse talent pool. With leading universities, research institutions, and a thriving tech industry, the Toronto Region offers a rich landscape of highly skilled graduates and professionals from various disciplines.

Partnering With Toronto Global

Diverse hiring goes far beyond ensuring the representation of different races, genders, and backgrounds. It is about recognizing and respecting the unique perspectives, experiences, and contributions of every individual, regardless of their background. Diverse hiring is most successful when it is a constant consideration throughout the entire recruitment process, presenting the opportunity to reinvigorate teams.

For international businesses and/or site selectors seeking detailed information on the availability and diversity of talent in the Toronto Region, Toronto Global is your partner to assist you with your expansion efforts.

Connect with the Toronto Global Talent Team for more information at https://torontoglobal.ca/talent/.

Sources:

Cooks-Campbell, A. (2021, December 3). The difference between diversity hiring and a “diversity hire.” BetterUp. https://www.betterup.com/blog/diversity-hiring

Dixon-Fyle, S. et al. (2020, May 19). Diversity wins: How inclusion matters. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters

York University (2018, September 24) Shopify, York University partner to offer innovative computer science degree program. https://news.yorku.ca/2018/09/24/shopify-york-university-partner-to-offer-innovative-computer-science-degree-program/

Analyzing Toronto’s Rank in CBRE’s 2023 Scoring Tech Talent Report

Sophia Chea — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 06:55:00 +0000

Every year, CBRE releases its highly anticipated Scoring Tech Talent Report, ranking the top 50 tech markets in North America based on a range of metrics, from tech talent availability to real estate costs. This comprehensive report provides insights into the tech scene across the continent, serving as a valuable resource for business leaders to make strategic decisions.

In this blog, we turn our spotlight to Toronto and dive deep into the city’s 2023 ranking. Toronto ranks fifth among the top 50 markets in North America, behind San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York Metro, and Washington, D.C. This ranking underscores the city’s significance as a global tech hub. Despite dropping two spots from last year’s ranking, Toronto’s consistent standing among the top five markets highlights the city’s strength and resilience in attracting and retaining top tech talent.

A Large Talent Pool

Toronto boasts the third-largest tech talent pool in North America, ranking just behind the San Francisco Bay Area and New York Metro. The city has become a magnet for skilled, high-quality tech workers. Particularly, the occupation ‘Software Developers and Programmers’ experienced remarkable growth, rising by 58.3 percent from 2017 to 2022. This surge in talent showcases Toronto’s appeal as a tech hub, attracting developers and programmers from all over the world.

It is important to note that Toronto’s tech talent pool dipped slightly in 2022 to 285,700 tech workers, compared to 289,700 workers in 2021. The dip in employment is partially due to the economic uncertainty faced in 2022, coupled with tech layoffs and flexible work structures that allow tech professionals to work from anywhere. Although there was a decrease in tech employment in 2022, the city maintains its position as the third-largest tech workforce in North America. With Canada’s friendly immigration programs, Toronto’s tech workforce will continue to remain strong.

A notable characteristic to analyze within tech talent is the diverse, young population. Compared to other large tech markets* in North America, Toronto experienced a significant population growth in the 20s and 30s age groups between 2016 and 2021. Individuals in their 20s grew by 11.1 percent, while those in their 30s grew by 14.7 percent. This growth is among the highest across large tech markets*, serving as evidence of the city’s growing tech workforce and innovative potential.

As for diversity, Toronto’s tech smart workforce across all industries is made of 68 percent visible minorities, where Asians make up the majority. Women in tech amounted to 27 percent of the workforce, a steadily growing percentage.

*Large tech talent markets: >50,000 workforce

Strong Tech Talent Growth

Toronto experienced the second-largest tech growth in North America between 2017 and 2022, just behind San Francisco Bay Area. During this period, Toronto added 63,800 tech jobs, a growth of 29 percent over the last five years. In fact, Toronto was recognized as the fastest-growing tech talent market in last year’s edition, showcasing the city’s promise in the industry.

To sustain the city’s tech talent growth, Toronto is growing its tech talent pipeline. Toronto ranks in the top 10 among its U.S. counterparts for tech degree completions, which grew by 41.7 percent between 2017-2021 – a higher growth than the national average.

Tech Industry Dominance

Toronto’s tech talent is primarily concentrated in the tech industry itself, followed closely by the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) industry. Around 43 percent of the tech talent in Toronto works within the tech industry, while 20 percent is employed within the FIRE industry. The concentrated workforce in the tech industry has fostered a robust innovation ecosystem, supporting Toronto’s rise as a global hub for AI.

Moreover, the large share of tech workers within the FIRE industry complements Toronto’s reputation as the nation’s leader in financial services innovation and a top destination for fintech investments. Toronto is the second-largest financial centre in North America, and the largest in Canada. All five of Canada’s largest banks are headquartered in Toronto, as well as many notable fintech companies such as Wealthsimple and Borrowell.

Tech ‘Jobs’ Market

Toronto has firmly established itself as a thriving tech job market. The city’s strong growth in tech talent, coupled with the presence of leading tech companies and a wide range of job opportunities, has created an ideal environment for tech professionals. Toronto was ranked as the top job market, creating 31,405 more tech jobs than graduates.

On top of supporting the growth in the city’s tech talent pipeline, Toronto-based companies hire large amounts of tech professionals. Recognizing the potential in Toronto, tech leaders such as Snowflake and Oxbotica have invested in the city’s tech ecosystem by establishing a presence here.

To complement Toronto’s tech ecosystem, the Government of Canada has launched a ‘Tech Talent Strategy’, introducing additional immigration programs to support Canada’s status as a leader in global tech talent recruitment and attraction. Among these programs includes a streamlined work permit for H1-B visa holders in the U.S. The program was so successful that it reached its target of 10,000 applicants within just two days – a testament to how attractive Toronto is for jobseekers.

Conclusion

CBRE’s 2023 Scoring Tech Talent Report highlights Toronto’s continued prominence as a leading tech market in North America. Despite dropping two ranks from the previous year’s report, Toronto has sustained its position as a global tech hub through its tech talent growth (second only to San Francisco Bay Area), its large and diverse tech talent pool, and thriving tech ecosystem. Looking forward, Toronto’s position as one of North America’s largest tech hub remains strong and continues to thrive.

Want to tap into the Toronto Region’s tech talent market? Let’s chat!

Career Fair: Diving into the Toronto Region’s Deep Talent Pool

Ellen Mitchell — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:39:00 +0000

It is almost that time of year again when concourses fill with excited students looking for their next opportunity. A career fair is a fantastic way to engage with early talent, whether in a four-month co-op position or a full-time job. After all, hiring post-secondary talent is a great way to build and nurture the leaders of tomorrow and grow a successful business.

Why Are Career Fairs Important?

As new companies enter the Toronto Region market, it’s often important to make their mark on the ecosystem by attending events, networking with the local community, and ensuring their brand becomes well-known locally. Attending a university or college career opportunity is a great way to get in front of young talent, but it’s also a great branding opportunity. Showing the talent of tomorrow who you are as a company today will ultimately benefit your business’s future.

Which Career Fairs Near Me are Coming Up?

We are putting together a full calendar of winter 2023 and sharing it with our clients. One such event is the University of Toronto YNCN Engineering Career Opportunity, sometimes known as the YNCN Career Fair. Your Next Career Network (YNCN) is a student group focused on career development within the engineering faculty. With a membership of over 5,000 engaged students, YNCN helps to provide opportunities to students by running career development events and connections to employers.

How Can a Career Fair Benefit Your Business?

In the fall of 2022, YNCN welcomed 2,500 students and 70 top companies and successfully created an environment where both parties could engage in meaningful conversations. UofT is responsible for producing some of the country’s top STEM candidates, so there is no better opportunity to meet potential candidates, talk about the exciting work that they could be doing, and showcase your company’s brand.

Our client, Snowflake took advantage of UofT’s Fall fair and gave nothing but rave reviews. “Connecting with new talent really cemented our place here in the Toronto tech scene,” said Harvinder Jammu, Executive Operations – Engineering, Snowflake. “It can be hard to find the right talent as a company operating and hiring in a new city. The University of Toronto gave us the opportunity to connect with some local, talented candidates, that we could bring on board to help build our team!”

Hosting a Career Fair in 2023? Contact Us

Toronto Global would love to know if you are organizing a career opportunity for 2023! Our clients are always looking for new ways to engage with talent, and we would be happy to connect them with the Toronto Region’s best and brightest and add more dates to our career opportunity calendar.

Contact emitchell@torontoglobal.ca to learn more.

A Deep Dive into CBRE’s Scoring Tech Talent Report

Ellen Mitchell — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:01:00 +0000

Each year, we eagerly anticipate CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent Report. The report ranks 50 cities throughout North America and provides a score, positioning each tech talent market against its competitors. Cities throughout Canada consistently rank in the top 10, with Toronto rounding out the top five year after year and moving up to the 3^rd overall spot in 2022.

As we read through this year’s report, we began to think about the many reasons why – what is it that makes Toronto stand out so much? From our postsecondary institutions to our open immigration policies and sizeable tech market, the Toronto tech talent scene is made up of a crucial combination of elements that help put us on the map and cement our status as a major player in the global tech community.

Underpinning Toronto’s tech talent ranking is the combination of our top ranked postsecondary institutions and our young, highly educated workforce. It’s no secret that Toronto produces some of the best talent in the world, and it’s all thanks to our exceptional universities and colleges. According to the World University rankings for 2022 by Higher Times Education, the University of Toronto continues to rank in the top 20. In fact, U of T was ranked #18 on the list this year. International students also play a major role in the equation, and at U of T they make up 25 percent of the total student population.

Tech companies around the world continue to choose Toronto because they can rely on STEM grads from U of T and the 10 additional postsecondary institutions located in our region – 18 throughout the Province of Ontario. Almost 44 percent of Toronto residents over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree and the province of Ontario produces 63,500 STEM grads each year. According to CBRE, over 30 percent of Toronto’s population is in their 20s and 30s, making us one of the largest Gen Z and Millennial populations in North America. This factor, combined with the region’s large international student population (many of whom remain in Toronto after graduation to enter the workforce) are both major contributors when it comes to scoring highly in tech talent across North America.

Canada’s welcoming attitude towards immigration continues to benefit the wider tech community and plays a key role in our region’s ranking. Ontario receives almost half of total yearly admissions to the country, with close to 45 percent in 2020. As we welcome over 400,000 new immigrants per year (according to the 2021 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration) Toronto is set to grow immensely by 2024, further enriching the talent and diversity of the region. Of the core working age population in Canada, one quarter is made up of immigrants. We cannot speak about the Toronto tech talent market without acknowledging the skilled immigrants and the important role that they play.

As overall costs continue to rise, finding the right balance between quality and cost – not to mention availability – is extremely important. Toronto is a popular location for tech companies of all shapes and sizes, so it’s increasingly important that we not only provide talent, but also ensure that the quality is top notch and that it comes at a cost that is competitive. This continues to be the case as our region is compared to others around North America. The critical balance between quality, cost, and availability ensures good value for money in our region.

But don’t just take our word for it – some of the most promising start-ups and tech giants have realized how large the tech scene is in Toronto and have already made moves to take advantage of our offerings. Within the past year, companies such as Groq, Cloudfare, Walmart, Reddit, and Wayfair all announced plans to set up tech operations and hire tech talent from the Toronto Region. Toronto is Canada’s largest technology hub and we are home to the third largest talent pool in North America, ahead of Seattle and Washington, D.C. In this year’s CBRE Scoring Tech Talent Report, Toronto had the largest tech talent growth by adding 88,900 tech jobs between 2016-2021. It’s no surprise that companies would want to invest in talent from here.

Although we are approaching economic headwinds for the year ahead with layoffs and hiring freezes across the tech industry, there are many companies outside the high-tech sector that look toward hiring our high-quality tech talent. In a recent article from the Financial Post, many employees from Wealthsimple’s layoff spreadsheet – a list of employees laid off amid market volatility – have been snatched quickly after the spreadsheet circulated through social media. Although nearly half of Toronto’s tech talent works within the core high-tech industry, industries such as manufacturing, professional services, and government inevitably hire tech workers, as technology is an integral part of today’s society.

About CBRE

Yet again, Toronto had a great year in tech and credit must be given to the strong ecosystem that supported the growth in our talent pipeline. As technology advances, our postsecondary institutions, open immigration policies and supportive accelerators and incubators will continue to contribute to our tech talent growth, which is ultimately why Toronto is ranked in the Top 3 in this year’s CBRE Scoring Tech Talent Report.
If you are actively hiring in the Toronto Region, our team at Toronto Global is ready to help. Reach out to us today to realize the many advantages of hiring Toronto talent.

FDI & Talent Attraction: Is the Toronto Region ready to embrace the (semi-)remote work revolution?

Nadine Oliver — Wed, 11 May 2022 23:40:00 +0000

As the future of work moves toward increasingly common remote/hybrid arrangements – shifting activity away from downtown cores and toward housing-friendly suburbs – strategies for attracting talent, FDI, and overall local development will have to evolve accordingly. Competitiveness here means forward-thinking around how to create a larger regional landscape conducive to that desire for flexible working arrangements that top talent has come to expect. For talent-driven economies, it’s an identifiable advantage to claim their region is equipped to understand, respond to, and support a range of work models – especially, flexible, semi-remote hybrid arrangements.

While individual talent can be quite mobile, the communities and the institutions that support them aren’t. This keeps many workers within a loosened proximity to the city of their employer, but not so far as to prevent the occasional commute. Correspondingly, economic activity shifts away from the downtown to the surrounding municipalities.

Compared to pre-pandemic levels, the City of Toronto has 80 percent less foot traffic to office buildings, according to Avison Young’s Vitality Index. At the same time, census data analyzed by the Toronto Region Board of Trade suggests that a growing number of people are settling outside of the two largest cities in the region – the City of Toronto and the City of Mississauga – while smaller cities within the Toronto Region and larger ‘Innovation Corridor’ region (Brampton, Kitchener, Oakville, Oshawa, etc.) have seen a population growth higher than the provincial average throughout the pandemic.

While the impact of remote work is yet to be fully mapped and the permanency and severity of these shifts still being debated, it’s clear that the future of remote/hybrid work is going to change the regional labour force’s commuting patterns one way or another. This was already a complicated picture, even before COVID-19, since most municipalities in the GTA already had more residents commuting to work in a different municipality than residents commuting within the same municipality.

There are of course various possible approaches to work policies – hybrid, fully remote, and fully in-person – the adoption of which will vary by industry, by company, and where allowed, by individual preference.

Some companies were early adopters of a fully remote strategy, such as Shopify. Yet other companies are now trending toward a ‘best of both worlds’ approach that exemplifies the competing push/pull factors of urban agglomeration vs. remote work. The benefits gained from proximity to innovation ecosystems are pitted against the employees’ desire for flexible work arrangements, lower housing costs, and access to nature. For example, Google’s campus in Waterloo is both expanding its facilities and simultaneously pursuing a hybrid work strategy. Not remote per se, but ‘remote-ish.’

This new pattern also opens up mid-sized cities to participate in the talent economy on a part-time basis. Richard Florida suggests a quarter of remote work happens outside the home. So then are we due for a rise in coworking, coffeeshops, and networking spaces in mid-sized towns? Could bedroom communities now become micro-ecosystems in their own right? There’s a great silver lining opportunity for smaller cities to creatively repurpose unused or underused spaces to attract remote workers.

In any event, a regional cooperation approach is key to monitoring and understanding these new commuting patterns and their long-term impact. Transit service delivery, taxation policies , amenities and land use planning, pro-remote work legislation, infrastructure investments, ‘workcation’ tourism promotion – there’s plenty of public policy impacts and opportunities that stem from this new workforce reality. This then falls on governments to develop plans to observe and adapt as the re-distribution of their citizens’ live-work-play patterns evolves.

The Toronto Region’s global competitors for tech talent have already begun to strategize how to leverage remote work trends to improve their FDI attractiveness, and are channeling that energy toward reducing regional economic disparities. For example, Ireland is calling on its regions to introduce ‘bespoke offerings’ to encourage remote and hybrid working arrangements and distribute talent away from central Dublin. Of note, in each of the last two years, approximately 40 percent of jobs created by companies Toronto Global has worked with to expand into the region are located within the region’s 905 communities.

For the Toronto Region, where much of these changes are being most acutely felt, these new patterns of regional economies should trigger a rethink on regional strategies. For the many opportunities that remote work offers, it challenges the existing system that ties success and impact of investment attraction efforts to physical real estate footprints. To better understand these issues, there is a need for new or improved metrics, methods, and data to track the impact of remote work in the long term across the Toronto Region – something that can only be thoroughly achieved with intentional, regional effort.

While not all workers can or will adopt a semi-remote arrangement, the more options the Toronto Region can credibly offer employers, the greater its appeal to inbound investment. Those, like Ireland, who are quick to mobilize around this opportunity will enjoy a first mover advantage and lead the discovery of new best practices for regional development.

About FDI

There is a critical need for coordination across the Toronto Region to support and promote FDI and talent mobility on the global stage. Amenities, quality of life, broadband access, and regional transportation mobility will continue to be cornerstones of the FDI attraction toolkit. Yet, newly emerging remote work patterns call for a regional approach to understanding, monitoring, and guiding the impact of remote work for the long-term global competitiveness and resiliency of the Toronto Region.

Doubling Down on the Toronto Region’s Talent Advantage

Ellen Mitchell — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 22:58:00 +0000

Touted as North America’s fastest growing tech market, Toronto continues to attract talent innovative companies from around the globe. Over 81,000 new tech jobs were added to our region between 2016-2020, and there is no indication of that slowing down any time soon. Talent remains the primary factor impacting corporate strategy and is a key driver for location decision making. In the last two years, it has become evident that there is, in fact, a global war for expertise, with companies competing heavily for highly skilled people, especially when it comes to engineering and new technology.

Talent is one of the strongest assets that the Toronto Region has to offer (64 per cent of our population has a postsecondary degree — a higher percentage than any other country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)). Toronto Global is here to help new companies realize that expertise advantage. As we persevere through a global pandemic, our role as an organization is more important than ever. Attracting foreign companies into the Toronto Region ensures that we retain jobs in our community and continue to propel strong economic growth – all with the goal of building a region that is recognized internationally as the best place to live, work, and invest.

Toronto Global’s dedicated team will continue to promote the Toronto Region as the best choice for international business. In parallel, we must also focus on expertise; taking the lead when it comes to ensuring our region’s talent story is front and centre. Canada’s view on immigration remains aligned with globalization and economic sustainability, with nearly 100,000 new people settling in the Toronto Region every year.

Canada welcomes more than 250,000 international students every year. Nearly half of this student body resides in the province of Ontario and upon graduation, this group of international graduates chooses to start their career in Canada – a significant contributor to growing our expertise pipeline. In complement, as a province, we are home to 18 postsecondary institutions that are conducting innovative and ground-breaking work every day, with some of the best researchers in the world. As a region, we stand to compete with other global hubs like London, New York, and Silicon Valley. The goal to bring postsecondaries and foreign companies together will be an important new aspect of Toronto Global’s vision moving forward.

That is why we are thrilled to announce that we are doubling down on expertise. Our aim is to create and facilitate an environment necessary for connecting, attracting, and retaining talent in the Toronto Region. Fostering strategic connections between our organization and the world-renowned postsecondary institutions within our region, we will help to develop the regional talent story, while also ensuring Toronto Global becomes the go-to organization when it comes to talent. Three main pillars will help our clients access the talent they need to succeed:

Connect with postsecondary institutions and internationally recognized researchers

We pride ourselves on designing education programs that deliver job-ready graduates and excel in industry-academic partnerships.

Spark brand awareness and connect with students through Integrated Learning opportunities.

Partner on Research & Development projects.

Co-create learning and upskilling opportunities for students, helping to shape the graduates of tomorrow.

Recruit highly skilled labour

Hire recent graduates and experienced alumni.

Attend roundtable discussions with key players and keep up to date with the latest expertise trends.

Access our open immigration policies. With supportive policies to welcome students and skilled workers from around the world, companies in Canada can access talent that is multicultural, multilingual, and globally connected.

Activate your growth plans

Leverage our research and data, allowing you to select the best location to attract and retain top talent.

Engage our partner networks to enhance your brand, reputation, and ability to recruit top expertise.

Access funding programs to extend your capital runway while onboarding the top talent you need.

Realize the Talent Advantage of the Toronto Region

The entire Toronto Region has a strong expertise pipeline, both in terms of new graduates and experienced professionals. No matter the specialized skill, our diverse and dynamic region gives you exactly what you need to succeed. Whether you are looking to leverage the local talent pipeline, or bring in talent from outside the country, Toronto Global can help guide you through the process.

If you are looking to build or scale a team in the Toronto Region, contact:

Ellen Mitchell
Senior Advisor, Talent Partnerships
emitchell@torontoglobal.ca

How Presto Used the Global Talent Stream to Grow in the Toronto Region

Erika Lewis — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 19:41:00 +0000

Presto is transforming the restaurant industry by offering innovative, enterprise-grade technologies. With over 100 million monthly active users and over 300,000 systems shipped across the U.S., Presto is the restaurant industry’s leading enterprise technology platform in North America. Presto recently expanded its operations to the Toronto Region for its globally renowned and growing technology sector and the large pool of highly-skilled candidates that could be recruited through local and international hiring.

Presto was drawn to Canada, particularly to take advantage of the Global Talent Stream (GTS) program – a timely, responsive and client-focused service to help companies access highly-skilled global talent to expand their workforce in Canada. The Global Talent Stream is designed for innovative firms in Canada that require unique and specialized foreign nationals in order to scale-up and grow, as well as firms that need to fill an in-demand highly-skilled position.

For Senior Software Engineer at Presto, Reaz Masud, the process of immigrating from Bangladesh to Canada as part of the Global Talent Stream program could not have been smoother. Masud moved to become part of Presto’s team in Toronto in September 2019.

“I have always wanted to learn more, work with different technologies, and develop large scale software,” says Masud. “Working for Presto, I have everything. There are so many talented engineers here whom I learn from every day. I also want to travel, see different places, and learn about different cultures and I think there are not so many places in the world like Canada, where we can meet so many people from different countries.”

Reaz Masud with the Presto Toronto team

The Global Talent Stream can be likened to the H1-B visa program in the United States, a popular visa for talented individuals seeking employment in technology and other specialty occupations, now suspended for the remainder of the year. However, the Global Talent Stream program boasts advantages such as fast processing times – candidates can be approved in approximately four weeks – and this pathway can help to increase the odds of individuals eventually seeking Canadian permanent residence. Since launching in 2017, the Global Talent Stream has helped to facilitate the arrival of an additional 40,000 tech workers to Canada.

For Masud, his experience with the program was a positive one. Presto took care of most of the necessary paperwork and fees, as well as provided guidance to Masud throughout the application process. Presto even made it a priority to obtain a work permit for Masud’s wife, allowing her to accompany him in Toronto.

Canada’s reputation for being welcoming endures. Even with the coronavirus pandemic affecting travel and immigration worldwide, the Global Talent Stream remains open. Masud’s advice for international applicants is that it’s never too late to apply, as Presto builds out its Toronto team and continues to seek diverse and skilled talent from around the world.

“We try to understand if someone has a basic understanding of software development while hiring engineers. They might have to brush up their problem-solving skills a little bit before appearing for a technical interview. I think it’s important to be confident and communicate effectively. I would say not to worry too much if you cannot solve a problem during the interview as we are always looking for someone who does not give up and keeps trying.”

“Reaz is humble, hardworking and curious to learn and improve the product,” says Milan Dhanani, Sr. Engineer Manager, Presto.

Masud’s first year in Canada has been anything but ordinary, but despite a global pandemic and the chilling winters, he has embraced the sense of community and multicultural environment that Toronto has to offer. In his free time, Reaz loves to listen to music and has started to learn to play the guitar during the pandemic, working his way up to learning a few chords and practicing during his leisure time.

About Presto Used the Global Talent

Reaz also enjoys traveling and adventure sports, including mountain trekking and skydiving.

“I think celebrating diversity is one of the most important factors that made Canada a great
country to live in. I believe that organizations like Presto stand by the same set of beliefs. People from different parts of the world can bring different ideas on the table and can lead us to a way of building excellent technology products for everyone. As we grow, I think it is fundamental to understand the software localization so that we can scale, adapt, and add value to the people’s lifestyle.”

The Future is Bright With Toronto’s Next Gen Leaders

JanWillem Gille — Sun, 01 Sep 2019 18:51:00 +0000

During this past summer, I was part of the MEI International Business program to earn two credits before going into my last year of High School. During the five-week program, we visited some of the biggest and most influential global hubs; New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, and last, but certainly not least, Toronto.

While traveling through these impressive cities we learned and examined commerce and the international marketplace through interactive competitions and case-studies. It was an extremely valuable experience that teaches students about the real world in a different approach than a regular school environment does.

Back in Toronto, it became evident that this region can easily measure up with the other influential, global cities. The easy access to the U.S. market, the renewed trade agreements with both Europe and the U.S., but especially our large availability of talented and skilled people.

The Toronto Region is home to a great talent pool — whether we are talking about skills, knowledge or experience, Toronto can offer it all. This is one of the appealing reasons foreign companies choose our region as their international hub in North America.

But are we able to keep up with the rest of the world? And how about the future? Are we ready to offer the same competitive advantages in the coming generations? The answer is yes!
Not only are we strong competitors against the rest of the world cities, but we might also just be ahead of the curve altogether.

In September, my father represented Toronto Global at WebSummit, the European version of Collision, which is coming to Toronto in 2019. At the summit, he met Jennifer Brown, who is the Director of Partnerships at a remarkable organization called The Knowledge Society.

The Knowledge Society, or “TKS,” which it is mostly known by, is an emerging, informative leadership program designed for children aged 13 – 17 years old. The program is designed to replicate learning environments like MIT, Stanford, Google, and Facebook. Participants tackle exciting and complex problems with teams while being exposed to the most important topics of their generation.

Throughout the program, TKS students have access to exclusive conferences and events, internship opportunities, deliver presentations, engage in debates and discussions, and build their professional portfolio, including their LinkedIn profiles, one-pagers, and slide decks.

Recently, I interviewed TKS CEO Nadeem Nathoo to learn more about the program. He and his brother started the program to give motivated, intelligent teens the opportunity to develop new technology, solve world-pressing problems and most of all, to learn about things that they love.

The two brothers were inspired to create the program by the fact that, when they were growing up, there was no such thing available to them. They are looking for bright-minded students who have intellectual curiosity, take initiative and are committed to their passions.

The students learn about more than just their chosen interests. Public speaking, leadership, effort, teamwork, and commitment are all qualities that are instilled within the TKS students.

“They are coming in as regular kids,” Nadeem said, “And after a year they are achieving things they could have never imagined.”
For example, one of the alumni, Jay Parthasarathy, was exposed to Artificial Intelligence and Robotics during TKS, and is now using his knowledge in those areas to disrupt the agriculture industry.

Or, take Ayleen Farnood for instance, who is active in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces. This technology enables humans to control machines with brain signals, and Ayleen is presently an intern at Microsoft. On the TKS website, you will find numerous examples of what the Alumni of TKS have accomplished already.

While the external metrics of TKS are important, Nadeem explains that the internal metrics are just as, or even more valuable to the students. “I ask the kids why they wake up every day, and usually the answer is along the lines of, ’to go to school.’ We want to change this, shift the mindset, and help them become the best version of themselves.”

He believes that it all comes down to ensuring the happiness, confidence, and health of a child. TKS can do so and help driven students reach their full potential.

Besides this, TKS is currently talking to universities who are interested in replicating the program because of the unique approach of problem-solving and using the full potential of kids. In the future, TKS is hoping to introduce their program to an even younger target group, expand into the global market, and find more ways to support students that are motivated to solve world problems.

About Future is Bright

When asked why they decided to start their organization in the Toronto Region, Nadeem said it was definitely not a coincidence. He believes that as Toronto is growing, TKS can grow with it. “There is a unique mix of appetite and growth as an ecosystem.”

The Knowledge Society is an example of the fact that Toronto is incubating smart world leaders right in our backyard. Encouraging and protecting the most brilliant minds of future leaders that are going to be solving problems that the world has yet to face.

If you look at what these bright minds can do and the problems that they solve at such a young age, there is most definitely a lot more in store for the Toronto Region.

What Makes The Toronto Region The Fastest Growing Tech Hub in North America?

Erin Hennessey — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 19:15:00 +0000

The annual Scoring Tech Talent Report by CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, has got a lot of people talking about Canada. Not only because four of the top 10 cities with the highest tech talent labour concentration were Canadian, but also because the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has now displaced Washington D.C. to take third place among top-ranked tech talent markets, and is now North America’s fastest growing tech hub.

In the 2018 report, the Toronto Region was highlighted for adding more tech jobs than San Francisco and New York combined. Toronto has seen the greatest growth in tech employment of the 50 profiled markets — at 54 per cent since 2013.

It’s an incredible growth story that’s driven in part by the dynamics and economic diversity of the Toronto Region, which offers an advantage greater than the sum of its parts. The CBRE report data is based on the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which encompasses the City of Toronto along with the surrounding areas of York Region, Peel Region and most of Halton Region.

But the Toronto Region (or Greater Toronto Area) actually extends further east to include Durham Region, along with the City of Burlington on the western edge of Halton Region.

3D illustration of server room in data center full of telecommunication equipment,concept of big data storage and cloud
computing technology.

As the CBRE report highlights, the most highly-ranked tech talent markets are defined by an ability to attract and grow tech talent pools, and are typically characterized by high concentrations of post-secondary graduates, major universities and colleges producing tech graduates and large twenty-something populations. The Toronto Region stands apart on all of these aspects.

Millennials & Diversity

The Toronto Region is well equipped with a workforce that will grow into the future. We are ranked one of the top five regions in the world for millennials, who make up more than a fifth of our population. While the Greater Toronto Area added over 72,000 twenty-somethings to its population since 2013, New York lost over 10,000.

We recognize that to attract young talent, our region needs to work together to maintain a quality of life that is one of the best in the world, with an open and welcoming society. The Toronto Region offers choice – from downtown condos to century homes to new-build, family friendly subdivisions – across a region that is well connected by a regional rail system, allowing millennials to find the right balance between lifestyle and affordability at any life stage.

Our subway system has been extended north into the region and commuter bike lanes are being added everywhere which has encouraged millennials to live all across the region.

Diversity is also a significant part of our success and future growth strategy. We are proud of being the most multicultural metropolitan area in the world with approximately half our residents being foreign born – higher than any other metro region in North America, and higher than Greater London, Sydney, Melbourne, Paris, and Amsterdam.

Within the Toronto Region the rapidly growing cities of Markham and Mississauga, 61 per cent and 56 per cent of residents, respectively, are foreign born.

In 2017, Canada welcomed 286,479 new permanent residents, of which almost 137,000 were skilled workers (IRCC). With a national goal to increase skilled worker intake to almost 200,000 by 2021, the Toronto Region stands to benefit further as a major destination for this talent. Over 105,000 of Canada’s 2018 immigration intake moved to the Toronto Region, compared to the Bay Area and New York, which are estimated to have taken in 44,000 and 98,000 immigrants, respectively (US Census Bureau Estimate).

International companies also benefit from the Global Skills Strategy program which allows employers setting up new businesses to bring key employees from around the world to Canada in as little as two weeks – Toronto Global can assist companies in bringing in existing employees as we are a designated referal partner for the Global Skills Strategy.

Labour Force Pipeline and Education

When you consider both university (bachelor) and college (diploma) graduates, 64 per cent of people in the Toronto Region hold a postsecondary degree. This is the highest ratio amongst all OECD countries.

Ontario as a whole produces over 40,000 STEM graduates each year, with over 100,000 students enrolled in STEM related programs across the Toronto Region’s 18 postsecondary institutions. We also provide international students with the opportunity to stay and work in Canada for up to three years after completing their postsecondary studies here through the Post-Graduation Work Program.

Our colleges are renowned for producing graduates with job-ready skills through co-op programs and industry partnerships. We recognize that to produce in-demand engineering graduates, industry experience is critical through practical, on-the-job training for academic credit. Regional institutions have built on this momentum.

The University of Waterloo – roughly an hour and half drive from Toronto – is internationally recognized as a pioneer in this field, having developed the largest co-op program in the world. The University’s engineering department has become a major source for tech recruitment worldwide. Ontario Tech University (Durham Region) also offers major opportunities for industry partnerships in sectors such as Advanced Energy Systems, Aquatic Toxicology, and Robotics and Automation.

Tech Hub Establishments and Employment

Also unique to the Toronto Region is the distribution of tech companies across the entire region. Each municipality making up the Toronto Region has its own strengths, providing a variety of options for companies of all sizes and across the value chain.

For example, Cognizant opened a new 50,000 sq. ft. technology and services delivery facility with co-innovation space, training rooms, and a digital lab in the city of Mississauga. General Motors is harnessing the talent of 700 engineers in Markham, York Region, to advance the capabilities of its fully autonomous vehicle program, driver assistance features, and infotainment centre design and improvements.

Amazon has established state of the art logistics and distribution centres in Brampton, Milton, Caledon and Mississauga, along with an expansion of its Toronto office to complement operations.

The Toronto Region is also home to a robust startup incubator environment, with 80+ incubators and accelerators. This includes MaRS, along with four other provincially supported Regional Innovation Centres such as ventureLAB, located in the IBM Innovation Space – Markham Convergence Centre (York Region), Haltech in Halton Region, and The Spark Centre in Durham Region.

Peel Region’s RIC center, located within the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, houses over 100 industry expert advisors and partners to help companies scale rapidly in advanced manufacturing, Internet of Things, hardware & software, cleantech, and life sciences. This culture of collaboration across the Toronto Region and across many tech verticals is what gives us a competitive edge – and investors are taking note.

In 2018, Toronto Venture Capital (VC) backed companies raised over $1.3 billion, a 47 per cent increase from the previous year and the fifth year of consecutive growth (PwC Report).

The future of tech will not be limited to the smartphones and tablets that made the Bay Area so famous. Our top five automotive, food & beverage, digital media, and life sciences sectors made our success in tech inevitable simply because technology will be integrated into everything we do. From AI to agritech, pharmaceuticals to film, our region has it all, and will continue to leverage our strengths for an integrated technology future.

Consider this: if the top five metropolitan areas in the report hold steady their rates of talent growth, the Greater Toronto Area would surpass the Bay Area in number of tech jobs in a mere five years.

*Greater Toronto Area

Sure, 54 per cent growth is a tough pace to keep, but our continued expansion in terms of our educated and growing population, increasing VC investment, and industry and academic partnerships shows our potential is not even close to being fully realized.

This is BIG. This is Toronto Region.

Toronto’s Got Talent…and Lots of It!

Ashleigh Ryan — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:47:00 +0000

The Toronto Region’s tech boom is showing no signs of slowing down. In the last five years, Toronto added over 80,000 tech jobs – more than any other North American city. This past September alone brought over $1.4 billion in investment from U.S. and Canadian technology companies, including a new Canadian headquarters for Microsoft; a $200 million expansion to Uber’s Advanced Technologies group; and a new Toronto office for Shopify. Since then, Intel, Pinterest, Instacart, WeWork Labs, and Accenture have all announced a Toronto expansion.

The region’s exceptional talent pool is a big driver of this success. With over 670,000 STEM degree holders and one of the most educated populations in the world, our region is full of incredibly bright people with a diverse range of skillsets and knowledge. The question is, do we have enough of them?

Cities and academic institutions all over the world are realizing the need for a strong talent pipeline to supply local tech companies, particularly in burgeoning new fields like artificial intelligence. MIT, for example, recently announced a $1 billion plan to create a new college for AI in response to the sharply increasing demand for skills in areas such as machine learning and computer vision. China has pledged to create a similar school for machine learning, with the help of Google exec Kai-Fu Lee, in its mission to become the world’s leader in AI by 2030.

The thing is, we did it first.

Canada has a long history of supporting research in artificial intelligence. The Toronto-based Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) first introduced the “Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Society” program in 1983. Today, CIFAR is leading the Government of Canada’s $125 million Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy – the world’s first national AI strategy focused on supporting research and developing talent. Toronto’s Vector Institute is headed by none other than Google’s Geoffrey Hinton, one of the earliest proponents of deep learning application.

Aerial view of Downtown Toronto including architectural landmark CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Building on this momentum, the Vector Institute is working with postsecondary institutions across the province to increase the number of applied AI grads to 1,000 per year by 2023. The Ontario government has also committed to increasing the number of graduates in STEM disciplines from 40,000 to 50,000 over the same period.

The Toronto Region is also benefitting from an enormous brain gain in recent years. In 2017, 94,465 immigrants settled here – a rise from 90,675 in 2016 and 88,905 in 2015. More than half (53.5%) of those who immigrated to the Toronto Region between 2011 and 2016 have a university degree or diploma at bachelor level or above and 10% are STEM professionals. Adding them all up, our region’s tech workforce is growing by tens of thousands each year – regardless of how many companies come.

But some in the industry fear we’re still not doing enough – that there aren’t enough graduates and new immigrants waiting in the wings to sustain all this growth.

To this we say, Toronto is changing – for the better.

The Toronto Region has one of the most diverse industrial economies in North America. Nowhere else do you find a top 5 tech, automotive, food and beverage, digital media, and life sciences sector. That gives us a unique advantage, as it allows businesses to tap into supply chains and expertise that exist outside their immediate cluster. Tech companies can draw people from a wide array of technology-focused industries to be found here, from broadcasting and publishing, to finance and insurance. This gives us stability as a region, while providing tremendous opportunity for workers and businesses. In fact, one of Toronto’s strongest growth areas is in fintech, building on our high concentration of leading international banks as well as STEM talent. Many coding bootcamps have cropped up in Toronto to help workers transition to the industry, from HackerYou and Product School to the innovative Insight Data Science Fellows Program.

About Toronto

Our competitive wages in tech are also a great advantage for businesses, but they’re bound to change as demand for our talent increases. As wages go up – and in Toronto, they have a lot of room to grow relative to other tech hubs – more workers and students will be motivated to enter the industry, further adding to our talent pipeline.

The Toronto Region is one of the largest and fastest growing metropolitan regions in North America. By 2036, the region is projected to grow from 7.7 million to more than 10 million people. We have the people, the stellar academic institutions, and the public commitment to build a world-class technology workforce. The question is not whether we have enough talent, but what can we expect from it. At least for now, the future is bright.