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"My job," says Lonnie Belfer, Industry & Community Liaison Officer at Avia Employment Services , "is to reach out to employers and let them know what we can do for them.
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"My job," says Lonnie Belfer, Industry & Community Liaison Officer at Avia Employment Services, "is to reach out to employers and let them know what we can do for them."

That sounds easy, but Lonnie's job actually involves building strong relationships with employers and providing them with a variety of services to help them with their hiring needs. Avia is part of Back in Motion, and works to help job seekers improve their job search skills, and also provides advice on how to access various training subsidies and other services.

Avia Employment Services provides the WorkBC program, the official employment program of BC that helps people find jobs, explore career options and improve their employability skills. Avia helps organize job fairs, information sharing sessions, and promotes skills and job matching.

Part of the mandate of Avia Employment Services is to work with businesses in the Richmond community, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to help match employers with suitable employees.

"For example," Lonnie explains, "an employer might come to us and say they have a role for someone in their organization with a certain set of skills. We then go to our database and work on a profile match. We find candidates that fit the profile the employer is looking for, and we do some pre-screening to come up with a list of appropriate job candidates. We then continue to act as a liaison between the worker and employer, to ensure a good employment match is made."

Avia offers recruitment services that are tailored to the specific hiring needs of employers. With a single point of contact, Avia gives employers access to a diverse pool of screened, qualified and job-ready candidates.

"Avia can also help with the negotiation of wage subsidies," says Lonnie. "There's a WorkBC program that offers a training subsidy of up to 50 percent of the usual wage for a period of up to six months. Once approved, we can talk to employers and offer them a suitable candidate with all the skills they are looking for with the added bonus of hiring someone at up to a 50 percent subsidy while they learn the ropes. ."

And what is the cost to the employer for a service that pre-screens candidates and offers a choice of job seekers plus a wage subsidy?

"Nothing," Lonnie laughs. "Avia is a social service and all our services are at no cost to either the employer or the job seeker."

For more information on Avia Employment Services and its services for employers, call 778.732.0285, email, visit the website, or stop by the No 3 Road location at #290 – 3631 No. 3 Road, Richmond. Avia can also be found on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.