From India, Yukon and NS, recent grads are helping b4 stay innovative

In this age of accelerating digital innovation, more and more Nova Scotian businesses are tapping into a competitive advantage that, in other times, they may have overlooked: recent graduates with little or no experience.

And a lot of graduates are looking for jobs where they can put their knowledge to work.

Martin MacKinnon is CFO & co-founder of b4, a global hospitality SaaS (software as a service) firm based out of north end Halifax. He says the recent grads they hire are re-shaping their workforce and helping the company stay ahead of competitors.

“In our industry the landscape is changing everyday, making it more important for people to be trainable and adaptable than to have experience,” says Martin.

“The recent grads we’ve hired are sponges for information and natural innovators. They embrace change, and in our line of work, that gives us an edge.”

b4 has a suite of products that helps hotels and other hospitality businesses around the world better manage reservations and online payments. The company has customers in North and South America, Africa and Europe.

“Because our products are so new and we are tapping into new things everyday, employing recent grads has been transformational for us,” says Martin. “Ryan Doherty came to us fresh out of Saint Mary’s University and now manages integrations and account management for many of our customers. The Graduate to Opportunity program helped make it possible.”

Graduate to Opportunity (GTO) provides a two-year salary incentive to small businesses, start-ups, social enterprises and non-profits who hire a recent grad within 12 months of their graduation.

Employers like b4 can receive 25% of the Year 1 salary (35% if the grad is a member of a designated diversity group) and 12.5% of Year 2 salary from the provincial government.

Ryan has been with the company for two years, while Eric Fekete, Implementations Project Manager and recent Dalhousie University grad, joined the team this month. They are two of five grads that b4 has hired with the help of GTO.

“I am originally from the Yukon, but came to the East Coast for university,” says Eric. “Now I’m starting my first career-job here the same week that I graduate. I am excited to continue exploring a life in Nova Scotia.”

Morgan Shepherd, the first b4checkin employee to be supported by the GTO program, has been with the company for three years.

“I found the job posting through the HireSMU portal and was hired only a few weeks after graduation. Since starting with the company I’ve been able to take advantage of career-boosting opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise had,” says Morgan. “I realized my interest in the business, went back to school part-time for a master’s degree in communications, and was recently promoted as the company’s Marketing Manager. The GTO program was a great asset in accomplishing these goals.”

b4 hired Nova Scotian Cortlin Gillis in sales and Piyush Kishore, an international graduate from India, for quality assurance. Both are Saint Mary’s grads.

Since the program begin in 2014, more than 850 graduates like Ryan, Eric, Morgan, Cortlin and Piyush have secured permanent, full-time jobs in their fields with the support of GTO and are directly impacting the province’s economy.

If you are interested in learning more about the available funding to hire talented grads, visit here.