Brunel Welcomes 11 New Team Members with 2021 Brunel Academy

Dipped In Yellow

Starting a new job, especially at an established company, can be a difficult transition. It’s hard to find your footing with a new workload and also manage new social dynamics, especially when you have to do it alone. The Brunel Academy was created specifically to tackle those challenges. The Academy is a 2-week training program designed to welcome each of the new team members to the company, introduce them to their new team members and teach them not only the day-to-day technical aspects of their job but also the heart behind each of Brunel’s core values.

The Knowledge to Lead the Industry

In addition to learning about Brunel’s company culture, each of the new Brunellers spent dedicated time studying the ins and outs of their industries, the jobs they’d be recruiting for, challenges and opportunities in their sectors, and more. Participants would then go on to teach their new colleague about the sectors to help everyone be as knowledgeable as possible across industries. Melissa Rice, the coordinator of the Academy said, “one of the most common problems in the recruiting and HR industries today is a lack of understanding about the jobs they’re trying to fill. A clear picture of what each job consists of is crucial for finding and sourcing top talent.” New Brunellers were also trained on valuable skills such as LinkedIn best practices, attracting candidates online and delivering feedback to candidates.

Not Just Workers

Another key aspect of the Brunel Academy was self-discovery. During the training program each participant spent time reflecting on their strengths, weaknesses, experience in the industry, and personality types. New hires were also introduced to Brunel’s commitment to diversity and inclusion during an unconscious bias training titled “Thriving Across Our Differences”. Additionally an HR Manager at Brunel, Katie Bozant, lead a workshop to discover meaningful insights into the ways participants like to work and communicate. Brunel highly values personal development and invests a great deal of time and resources into each employee’s personal growth, and the Academy was a taste of what new Brunellers can look forward to in that regard.

The Virtual Vultures

Our class of new Brunellers voted on a team name to rally behind during the program. The Academy participants chose the nickname “Virtual Vultures” as suggested by Riham Hamdan – a new Recruitment Consultant based in Ontario. Brunel Academy took place virtually with team members across the continent so that piece was the easy part. Riham suggested the name Vultures to “symbolize being on the hunt whether it’s BDs on the hunt for clients or Recruiters on the hunt for the best possible candidates. We also took into account the real characteristics of a vulture that could apply to us in our roles such as patience, spotting great opportunities and having a wide range of vision and looking at the bigger picture. And vultures fly together in groups when hunting so that’s also a nice symbol for teamwork!”