Halifax BIPOC job fair hopes to match employers with eager talent pool

The Diversity Employment Network, an organization that works to promote a culture of inclusion in the workplace, will host its first job fair for Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) in Halifax on Sept. 15.

Idy Fashoranti, the director of the organization, said after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers want to hire staff and people are looking for work.

During the pandemic, the group facilitated virtual interviews between job seekers and prospective employers, but now it's time for an in-person job fair, she said.

Fashoranti told CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax host Portia Clark that the job fair will allow job seekers from the BIPOC community to show their talent to prospective employers.

This is a condensed version of their conversation that has been edited for clarity and length.

Who are some of the employers who are going to be there?

We have about 45 employers. We are actually platinum sponsored by HRM [Halifax Regional Municipality], Sobeys and Clean Foundation. We have other employers like Royal Bank, Scotiabank and TD Bank. We have insurance companies like Admiral and we have IWK [Health Centre]. We have quite a lot of organizations from different industries. 

We already have over 200 job seekers who have signed up for this event. We are really expecting something good to happen.

As far as matchmaking goes, what tells you that BIPOC people are still facing additional barriers to employment in 2020?

Before the pandemic started we, in Nova Scotia, were still kind of trying to look at the Ivany Report [on building the provincial economy] that came out and the recommendations that were given by the report. 

In that report it was actually stated that the unemployment rate in the Black and Indigenous communities was much higher than the norm of the whole province. While all other areas were improving, this one was not improving at all.  There is two times more unemployment in this community than there is in the mainstream community.

During the pandemic, most things impacted these communities much more than others. They were more affected health-wise, and job loss and things like that. Coming out of the pandemic now, they are ready and willing to be hired going forward with this new hybrid, remote or full-time, face-to-face situation we have in the labour market.  

Obviously the people who are there on the hiring end of things are interested in making things more equitable, diversifying their workforce. Do you feel that is a general trend that the companies and organizations are looking for employees from more diverse populations and maybe, more importantly, setting up the processes to support them once they are hired?

Yes, I definitely think so. DEN is in partnership with Feed Nova Scotia and the Clean Foundation to sponsor the event and that is because of the fact that we all agree that we support the improvement of diversity equity inclusion in organizations across the Maritimes. We know that through learning and collaboration and advocacy we can make this happen.

Before the pandemic people thought that diversity and inclusion would be something like a social issue that they can or cannot take part in. Then in the summer of 2020, George Floyd was killed and everybody realized that this is very important. There are organizations out there, and most of them are registered with us, that are now on their journey in that diversity, equity, inclusion space. Most of them are more advanced in that journey but some of them are just starting.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

MORE TOP STORIES