Mike Lecorps

Brian is happy to invite Mike Lecorps on the Porch to discuss SIWI a project that is trying to bring skilled immigrants and local businesses together. Alberta is facing a workforce gap in the next 8 years and businesses that address labour gaps and foster engaged teams outperform their competitors. There is an upcoming workshop coming upon November 6th. If you are interested in attending go to Workforce Development for Business Growth Tickets, Thu, 6 Nov 2025 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite

We are also available where ever you listen to podcasts including YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music

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For more information of to contact Mike:

Workshop registration link: Workforce Development for Business Growth Tickets, Thu, 6 Nov 2025 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite

SIWI website: Front Page - SIWI

Facebook: Facebook

Email: mike@saamisimmigration.ca

Phone: 403-977-4861

Transcript

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It's not just where you're from, it's not where which country you're from. It's not what religion you you follow. It's do you hire? Do you have women worker in your in your workforce? Do you have youth in your workforce? Do you have older workers in your workforce? Somebody with special needs. That's diversity. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. Well, every now and then, we get the pleasure to sit down with one of our former CHAT TV colleagues, Mike Lecorps. Pulls up a chair this morning and Mike, you were with Saamis Immigration Services. That's correct. Yes. They hired me on. And you are here to talk about a special program that you have. It's called SIWI And when I first heard that I thought - seaweed on the prairies? It’s SIWI S-I-W-I. Yes. What's it all about? All right. So it stands for supporting intercultural workplace integration. So, prior to me getting on board, they were running a, a mentorship program. And so the mentorship program was focusing on individual employees or potential employees being paired with, an employer in the region, in the city. And so that, partnership would be followed and tracked and they would do certain workshops to, to try to help that employee, understand what the employer was looking for. And vice versa, helping the employer understand what they could do to help their employee. And so that tracked for about three years. And then the funding for the program, ran out, in March, I want to say. And then, yeah. And then so Sam is kind of pivoted and decided to run the C program. So they're taking like elements of that mentorship program and, and focusing it more on employers and service providers and the community at large as well too, but mostly on the employers and service providers where the the idea is to try to help, employers on board, potential employees without having any concerns about their background or anything like that. So, yeah, it's it's been it's been a very interesting, process because like, it's, it's completely different from what I was doing before. However it's, it's been a big eye opening experience, just kind of getting to see what it is that this community does. Behind the scenes that I really had no idea of a lot of the time. So, so something I saw a program like this where we can reach out to employers to help them hire and retain skilled workers, is great because, as we all know, like, if employers are doing well in the region, then they're probably hiring more people. And if they're hiring more people, it means they're making more money. And that's a good thing. It's good for everybody. Absolutely. Talk a little bit about how the workplace is changing from what it used to be to where we are now because, the faces in the workplace have definitely changed. Yeah, absolutely. It's it's it's when people don't like to hear the word diversity, but that's that's what it is. But I think there's been too much of a negative connotation put to that term. Because the diversity like if you really think about it, it's not just where you're from, it's not where which country you're from, it's not what religion you you follow. It's do you hire or do you have women worker in your in your workforce? Do you have youth in your workforce? Do you have older workers in your workforce, somebody with special needs? That's diversity. That's what we're kind of trying to to push with this. And that's what's changed over the years. Like you're you're probably used to seeing, one group of people. More often than not, there might have been 1 or 2 different person, within that. But there was one group and then but nowadays you can see like it's, it's it's so wide and varied in terms of who is in the workforce. We have I've heard of people who have who had retired and have come back. There was a, the, economic growth form the last couple of days. And one gentleman who had stopped by the to speak with me had mentioned how he was a painter for a long time. He'd been a painter for a long time. He had retired, and he was basically pulled back into it because they needed they needed workers. And he was in a he himself had said, like, not only am I an older worker, I also have I also have a special need as well too. That needs to be to be taken care of, that needs to be looked after. So no, it's just it seems like how you're seeing it now is there is so much variety in in the workforce that some employers might not know how to handle or how to deal with the variety, because it can be daunting. It can be challenging. They might not be certain of, okay, well, if this person has, a mental health issue that they need, special attention to for I might able to to help provide that the employer themselves doesn't need to necessarily provide that exact service. But if they know how to access a service for their employees, then that's a that's a bonus for them. Sounds like it's all about accommodation. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it comes down to. Exactly, exactly. And so the program is, I think, the focus, focus words that we were using for this one was work workforce development. Okay. Now you are working with employers. Yes. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. You need people to come to you. Yeah. And what will they get when they come to you? So what we'll provide, what we will be providing are workshops and training sessions. And because we're funded by the province of Alberta, government of Alberta, the those sessions, those workshops are free. So there's no charge to any employers, no charge to any service providers. And so what we'll do is we'll try to have, professionals, available to, to to run these workshops, to, to provide some tools that these employers can use to, to be able to onboard anybody they need to or without having any concerns. And the we're actually actually this will be a bit dated, but we do have our first workshop next week will be November 6th, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Esplanade. And that one particular one is, HR focused. So it'll talk about, hiring practices as, as one of the topics. It'll probably expand into more that we have a couple of great, HR professionals, one from Reddy and one from the SBT. Who will be, the who will have like a little panelist discussion and just have, have a conversation about what employers can do, to, to make hiring practices a lot easier because a lot of the focus, I would hope with this program is that we want to, we want employers to be able to hire on and retain these workers. The retention part is also key, like finding the workers is a challenge. Enough already. Keeping them is is even more important. That's one of those things that you hear a lot about where someone gets hired on, they get, the employer spends money for training, the the employer stays on for six weeks, a couple months, maybe three, and they're gone. And you're back to square one. Square one all over again. Right? So so then, with with this program, the idea is if we can provide the tools that employers need to not only just bring on workers, but also find a way to keep them. So that means having a workforce that's that's content that's happy, that feels like they're being listened to, that feels like they're part of the team. That is huge in in keeping and keeping people around. I'm wondering if an employer is looking at hiring and they've got candidate A, candidate A, B, and C, and they're looking, oh, well, this or this could be a challenge. They might take that resume an exact foot off. Yeah. But under your program. Yeah, they might take a different view of that. Absolutely. And that's that's the point. Yes. So we don't want employers to have to make that decision. They see somebody who okay, they have some of those skills, those skills that I need in my workplaces as an employee. But, I don't know if I can provide for whatever their needs are. Is it a language barrier? I don't know, is it, is it's signage in in the workplace that can help them understand what it is they need to do? I don't know, I don't know what it is. So hopefully with these workshops, we eliminate that decision for employers that instead of just like you said, instead of having to oh, maybe I'll put that off to the side for now. It's just like, oh, okay, this person has the skill set I need. I'm not worried about where they're from. I'm not worried about what they need. I know what I need to do to be able to have them as part of my team. And I know where to go to get help, and. I know where to go to get help. Absolutely. Yeah. The workforce, we keep hearing that, the boomers like myself are going to be fading out of the workforce, and that's coming up to replace them. Exactly. So this is another challenge that, employers and businesses are finding, anything in here that will help that. That's the hope. I know, yes. From the government of Alberta's own studies, in the last year, or even like they were seeing how there's going to be a huge need for workers in the next 5 to 7 years and just like you said, there's going to be people that are retiring. There's going to be businesses that are going to be growing. There will be businesses that hopefully will be coming into the region and will be hiring. And if you have a workforce that has retired, where are you going to get those people? Those people are here. They're here. And a lot of the time they're they're not being utilized because maybe they're not being given the chance to be they need to be working. Maybe the employer doesn't realize that they're there even exists, that they even exist here and they're available for work. Or they do realize that the here, they just don't know how to do that. They don't know how to bring them on board. So that's what the program is. Hopefully. One of the challenges we hear, too, about newcomers to Canada in finding employment is that they have all of these qualifications. Oh yeah. Where they came from. Yeah, yeah. But here in Canada they don't seem to be recognized. Yeah, that's and that's a challenge I know. And this certification is a huge, huge issue I believe I it's one of those things that I hear about. It's hard for them to try to, to rectify that to, to make that work. I don't know what the answer is for, for that, unfortunately. But. But there are ways to hire people that have the skill set that you need. For instance, one of the examples that I had heard was, job postings. You look at a job posting and it's like you requirements, you need a master's in this, you need a bachelor's in this. And that's totally understandable. But what if that position, if you were able to demonstrate what skills or what type of a skill set the person needed, in order for you, for them to be a part of your workforce? The example I like to, to sometimes use is when I, when I got hired on, with, with Samus, they asked me to perform tasks. They asked me to perform some tasks to see if I could do what it was that they needed me to do as part of this program. And then they sat me down. There was three people in a room they had a conversation with, or asked me questions to see if I can kind of handle that, and then they made the determination from that, as opposed to having a sheet of paper in front of you as like, well, it didn't list it. They had the skill set, I guess enough good enough for my work for the. Next. The next day. Right. But you might have missed out. You might have missed something. Maybe the the the the employee, the potential employee misunderstood what they were, what was needed. Maybe the potential employee has a similar kind of skill set from a previous job, but wasn't sure if that was something that they could put onto their resume or not. That part, that side of things. Sure, that could be an employee issue, but, an employee also has the ability to make the job postings such a way that they can attract a larger group of people for them to, to draw from. And they might surprise themselves. That it was just a good thought. Just ran through my head. An employer that is doing a job posting, if they just posted in English or French, yeah, they've limited themselves. Yeah that's too. Yeah that too. Yeah. So help them write a job posting that might attract someone who speaks another language. Absolutely. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. And and and the other thing too is even just aside from, from any, permanent residents or immigrants, some one of the things that we hear a lot about lately, of course, is youth workers. Right? Oh, the unemployment under 15 to 24 is right to the roof. Right. And a lot of the time, yeah, it's understandable. Like you might remember the old saying from, from back in the day is like, I can't get a job because I don't have experience. I don't experience. Gets one or. Two. Exactly. But what if there's an opportunity to to bring some of the youth workers on, even on a trial period? Maybe do some volunteering early on in the process just to see what they can do. And if that's the case, okay, but let's hire the ones they know what they know what to do. You know how to do this job. I'm not going to be too concerned about it. Or they can learn. Or they can learn anyone to learn something. Right? Like. Yeah, that's that's basically what it is. Anyone anyone can learn. You got to give them selves. You got to give yourself that opportunity. For an employer who's looking to, investigate this project, how much time do they need to invest in this? Not a lot. So the the focus, the goal of the program is to make it so that it's easily accessible. The training sessions, the workshops, they will vary in length. So like this first one we have coming up is a couple of hours. But for the most part you're probably looking an hour 45 or 50 minutes. We want to make it so that it can it won't interfere. With what the job that they already have to do. But we'll help them, hire people and retain people. So, so we'll be able to offer in-person, programing. We'll be able to offer online programing, the website, c weeks, weeks, that will get updated as we go along through this process, people will be able to access resources, again for free. They'll be able to sign up and register for workshops and training sessions. If there is something on the upcoming lists that doesn't quite fit with what you're looking for as an employer, let us know. Reach out to me. We will come to you and have a sit down and figure out what it is that you actually need. In your workforce, in your workplace. And we will develop a program or a training session for you. So you're going to work with an employer. Yeah. And this is no charge. No charge? Yeah. So, a resource that people should be, taking advantage. Absolutely. Yeah. The the the the idea is we want to be able to help the region out as much as we can because of, like I'd mentioned earlier, like we said earlier, like if businesses are expanding their hiring and if they're hiring, then people are working. And if people are working and they're accessing, a group that maybe they've never accessed before as an employer. In terms of profits and sales, that's good for them too, right? Like, that's that's the but the bottom line is we understand companies are in it most of the time for the money. They're for for making a profit. And we get that. Yeah. And you know, finding ways to to expand that process for them and accessing markets that they probably never access before. It's it's a good thing. How do people get Ahold of you, Mike? Okay. So they can, call me at (403) 977-4861. Call or text. They can email me at Mike at Saamis immigration. Okay. And of course, you can go to the website siwi.ca. A lot of our contact information is on there as well too. We are on Facebook. Yeah. Supporting intercultural workplace integration on Facebook. We're also on LinkedIn, and we have a YouTube page, on the YouTube page, we will have, as the as we go through the process, we'll have some videos that people can access, resources they can access. We'll also have, features like videos that will kind of speak to what we're hoping to accomplish with the program as well, too, from from other sources. And anything else that we haven't touched on. No, I think that pretty much covers the most of it. I'm really thankful for the opportunity to come in getting to talk to you. I just quickly probably the last one of the last thoughts I wanted to, to mention was, with our time together in our previous job, that was one of those jobs where I felt the most part of the team. I felt the most, heard. I felt the most welcome. I felt like I truly belonged, and this program is is basically trying to duplicate aspects of that. Take that good. Take that. Good and spread. It around. You got it. Mike Lecorps, Saamis Immigration Services. Thank you for the visit, Brian. Thank you so much.