As Edmonton’s tech employers ride the wave of fluctuating employee retention typical to the tech sector, hiring globally trained talent is more important than ever, pushing tech employers to rethink how they attract and retain international students and newcomers entering the Canadian workforce.
YEG Connect’s first Employer Practices article features Marie St. Antoine & Lauren Olson, two Protégé program coordinators at ELIXR Simulations, and Michael Bowman, Chief Marketing Officer at KOVR.
Both Alberta-based organizations, ELIXR is a non-profit that supports the production and acceleration of immersive technology, and KOVR is a virtual reality training development company, working with local organizations to strengthen and develop their training through immersive experiences. ELIXR and KOVR collaborated through ELIXR’s Protégé Program, providing insight into how relationships between organizations can play a critical role in successfully attracting, integrating, and retaining international talent. Their partnership provides insights into employer hiring and retention strategies that work, particularly in relation to international employees, by identifying the gaps that remain in the hiring process.
KOVR is a custom studio focused on industrial equipment simulation, specifically healthcare medical device simulation, patient education work, and health and safety world simulations for various enterprise-focused learning environments. KOVR prides itself on being a local business that hires Edmonton-based developers.
“Highly qualified candidates will be more inclined to go to and stick with companies that have leading-edge training that is technologically advanced, giving them the best opportunity to excel,” says Bowman, who attended both of YEG Connect’s Tech Forums when we began our outreach to tech employers to hear their concerns and challenges around hiring international professionals.
Bowman says that one of the ways KOVR successfully retains its employees is by providing a top-of-the-line work environment and implementing a loose hybrid structure where employees frequently work on projects together, in person. This structure is the building block for strong team collaboration at KOVR, enhancing a greater team environment psychologically, and sparing KOVR from the high employee turnover that many tech companies grapple with.
“Unlike other tech companies, our philosophy relates to the work environment and working on site. We have a great studio in the heart of downtown, with good equipment, and look to recruit people that realize we work as a team, face-to-face, and in person,” says Bowman. Fostering a team-oriented, personable, and welcoming environment has helped KOVR keep its employees engaged and committed over time.
When hiring new developers for their growing team, KOVR looked to ELIXR ’s Protégé Program and its partnerships with leading post-secondary Extended Reality (XR) programs to source and hire the newest talent.
“ELIXR did an excellent job in finding us the right candidates and knew exactly what we needed,” says Bowman.
The Protégé Program, coordinated and run by St. Antoine and Olson, filled two intern positions at KOVR with international students who, according to Bowman, have “brought new insights and passion to KOVR’s projects and have incredible long-term potential.” The partnership between ELIXR and KOVR speaks to the value of collaboration between organizations, especially in competitive sectors.
“We handle all of the recruitment and short listing of candidates for organizations that don’t have a huge HR [Human Resources] support system or the time to really dig into creating those job postings and filtering all those applications,” says Olson.
By handling candidate recruitment, ELIXR removes the burden of the hiring process, coaching, mentorship, professional development, and training from employers, freeing up the space for employers to prepare for the next steps of onboarding their international employees permanently.
However, there are still gaps to be filled.
St. Antoine and Olson have observed that many employers face challenges related to international hiring and retention, including fragmented information, the lack of a single source of truth on Canadian immigration processes, and constantly evolving systems, making it difficult for the industry to keep up. International students face this challenge just as much as employers.
“In my work with student interns, access to support is a constant concern, and too often the responsibility falls entirely on them. Employers can play a key role by directing students to available resources,” says Olson.
Beyond co-op or work-integrated learning programs, there are dedicated international student and advising offices within post-secondary institutions that provide guidance on hiring processes, regulations, and available pathways. These resources can help employers better navigate recruitment and help students understand how to access opportunities directly. Employers and students simply need to be pointed in the right direction.
This is the gap YEG Connect is aiming to fill.
“Navigating the next step in the hiring process will be a challenge, which is why YEG Connect’s Tech Forum was so valuable,” says Bowman.
Both ELIXR and KOVR identified a key benefit of YEG Connect’s forums: gaining shared insight into common tech sector challenges. Connecting with other employers and learning from their firsthand experiences and resources helped validate concerns, build relationships, and emphasize that these issues are widespread. They also accentuated the growing importance of collaboration between organizations, where respective experiences offer practical guidance and strengthen their teams while contributing to a more connected and dynamic tech ecosystem.
“It was valuable to talk with the other employers to hear what they had to say. ELIXR is always listening to employer concerns so that we can help them in the ways we can,” says St. Antoine.
Building on these efforts, YEG Connect aims to strengthen resources and support systems, helping employers better support international candidates and access guidance when needed. From our Tech Forums and conversations with employers like ELIXR and KOVR, YEG Connect’s next focus project is the implementation of a concierge system to be a straightforward, centralized resource to address employer questions and uncertainties about hiring and onboarding immigrant talent.
YEG Connect, led by the Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council (ERIEC) is part of a national coalition of Immigrant Employment Councils, working together to simplify and strengthen the process of hiring newcomers and internationally trained professionals. Funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, YEG Connect aims to make it easier for employers to recruit the skills, experience, and diverse perspectives of immigrants while helping build a more inclusive Canadian workforce. We also thank the Government of Alberta for funding our regional hub.
