What You Get From Us:
Community Space Renovation Services
Construction Project Management Services
Our construction, retrofit, and renovation industry knowledge and contacts are unparalleled.
Recruitment Expertise
We take the guesswork out of building a diverse team. Our roots run deep especially in BIPOC hard-to-reach communities.
Language Services
Our exceptional translation particularly French Canadian to English and English-to-French
Advisory Services
Our unique lived experience coupled with cultural competencies inform our research and advice.
Submit Your Renovation Project
Getting started with us is as simple as sending us a short overview of your project and/ or sending a few pictures.
Security Statement
Be Secure. We keep your data safe!
Our facility and the Baobab team members meet the Canadian government security clearance requirements.
About Us
Baobab Staffing & Consulting is a Canadian social-enterprise firm offering staffing solutions, strategic project management, translation and advisory services. With a unique specialization in recruiting diverse highly qualified skilled trades talent, our social impact driven model is culturally informed. Our team of experienced staffing consultants serve private sector and not-for-profit clients across Canada seeking full-service construction project management and renovation.
What We Do
Baobab Consulting is a division of the Dream Maker Development group of companies and has built a reputation as a leading expert in managing new builds, renovation projects, building extensions, and retrofits. We utilize a wide range of techniques to attract the best candidates and temporary contractors for your projects and vacant positions.
Mission Statement
Baobab Staffing is…
Driven to solve the underemployment conundrum in the Canadian Labour Market. We do this through socially responsible talent search of diverse and underrepresented top candidates for your organization. We trace and connect the roots of opportunities to the nourishing soil of diverse communities.
Vision Statement
Provide a world-class talent search experience by building the most expansive network of underrepresented and in-demand talent – rooted in community. Being the best means adding value, producing quality, and saving time so that every client and BIPOC candidate can do their best work.
Why Do We Exist
Social Impact – Addressing UNDERemployment and Upskilling “The Working Poor”
Underemployment in Canada is a common reality that occurs when a person takes a job that does not reflect their actual training and financial needs. In other words, their job doesn’t use all of their skills and education, or provides less than full time work.
Underemployment also includes people with full-time employment but who live below the poverty line. They are known as the “working poor.”
PLEASE NOTE: This is not the same as unemployment, which refers to people who are not currently employed at all.
“Foreign-sounding names” are 20 to 40 per cent less likely to get a call-back for a job interview, depending on company size. Challenges like these are faced by immigrants, racialized people, and especially women in these two groups – seemingly regardless of the job candidate’s skills.
Research found that racialized minorities and immigrants experience greater unemployment and underemployment collectively, and that immigrant women experience poorer outcomes than immigrant men. Source: 2016 Census and Legislated Employment Equity Program (LEEP).
At Baobab, our social enterprise believes in the power and added value of diverse talent from a wide variety of backgrounds and lived experiences. Underemployment is a social problem that affects job growth, business growth, poverty levels, and the emotional and psychological health of the people who are underemployed.
Key Social Priorities
Housing Support
Affordable Housing Support
Financial Literacy
Income Tax Filing Support & Free Financial Literacy Training
Skills Development
Free Microsoft Excel and In-Demand Digital Skills Development
Workshops
Entrepreneurship Workshops
Summer Camps
Subsidized Summer Camps for children of “Underemployed” Candidates
Mental Health
Social Events and therapy referrals for Psychological Effects of prolonged underemployment
The Economic Case for Addressing Underemployment
When a person living in Canada is forced to accept jobs that do not match their skills, they typically receive an income that is below their pay grade. With inadequate income, families do not consume as many goods and services as before. This drastic reduction in demand leads to slow business growth, pushing the economy toward a recession or depression due to low Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and little to no job growth. Many families who previously enjoyed a comfortable standard of living begin to struggle financially.
This is the case for far too many Black Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC) in Canada.
Baobab and our team are on a mission to uproot the underlying cause of underemployment and extinguish the working poor phenomenon. Each person of colour working for fair and adequate income is a sapling of hope for a more prosperous and economically inclusive Canada.
Types of Underemployments
Two types of underemployments exist: visible and invisible.
Visible
Visible underemployment consists of employees who work fewer hours than what is considered normal in their field or industry. They possess the skills to work in a full-time position but are unable to find regular employment. They usually work multiple part-time jobs or gig to make ends meet.
Invisible
Invisible underemployment refers to people who work in jobs that don’t utilize their skills – such as an Engineer working as a Taxi Driver in an urban city. This type of underemployment is very difficult to measure and requires extensive research and surveys.
In addition, a third type of underemployment exists, which is called “marginally attached to the labor force.” It includes people who have looked for employment in the past year, who would like to work, and are available for work, but are “discouraged workers” or those who have given up looking for employment altogether because of their prolonged inability to find work.
Underemployment also includes people with full-time employment but who live below the poverty line. They are known as the “working poor.”
Our Recent Projects
Our Skilled Trades Industry Expertise
Another reason for our success is our construction industry expertise, which includes:
Project Management
Carpentry
Plumbing
Electrical
Drywall Installation
Flooring
Roofing
HVAC Installation
Siding Installs
Retro-fits
Landscaping/Hardscaping
Facilities
Churches
Mall and Entertainment Centres
Hotels
Commercial Offices
Community Centres
Home Based Business Facilities
How We Work
Our Baobab Comprehensive Search Process
World-class organizations have teams of people that work so seamlessly together, that they improve and even inspire each other to reach new levels of achievement. We work with our clients in the not-for-profit sector in precisely the same way, as part of a team that is committed to finding and hiring the right skilled trades people at the pace your project demands.
As Afro-centric staffing consultants, we are sticklers for quality service. Through our culturally informed approach, we look to provide the right amount of collaboration, research and intuition needed to deliver a few well-chosen candidates, instead of a mass of untested CVs. And we provide our services with the kind of professionalism and accountability that you would expect from an internal team member.
Top Candidates We Source: Skilled Trades
We help you hire for all positions including:
Estimator
Foreman
Labourer
Cabinet Maker
Roofer
Truck Driver
Installer
Millwright
Forklift
Plumber
Electrician
Technician
Steel Inspector
Landscaper
Carpenter
Shipper/ Receiver
Our Executive Leadership and Administrative Industry Expertise
The roots of our organic approach stem from our non-profit sector and community expertise, which includes:
Project and Program Administration
Community Research
Public Relations
Accounting and Administrative Support
Language Translation
Grant Writing
And many more...
Top Candidates We Source: Executive & Administration
We help you hire for all positions including:
C-Suite Executives (CEO/CFO)
Administrative Assistant
Social Media Specialist
Accountant
Supervisor
Sales
Project Coordinator
Youth Outreach
Research Assistant
Our recruiters know these industries and the people working in them. This, combined with their agile recruiting experience, gives them the advantage of knowing who you need to hire and where to find them.
Learn more about our services for companies and services for candidates. Or contact us to discuss your needs and how we can help you build the project and organization of your dreams – from the root to the canopy!
Baobab Staffing is a socially responsible equal opportunity employer for applicants experiencing multiple barriers.
Submit Your Candidate/Contractor Profile
Getting started with us is as simple as sending us your company profile and/or CV
Translation? We Have You Covered…
The Baobab Translation Team is comprised of culturally competent and highly specialized translators. Our area of expertise is in English-to-French and French-to-English translation. Our certified translators speak and write Canadian French. The certifications held, coupled with over 20 years of experience, guarantee that our clients receive translations of the utmost quality. It’s the “B” in the Baobab promise!
Productive Public Servant Profile
You are swamped and regularly deal with high volumes of protected B (or higher) material that must be available in both official languages. You need top-notch translations that meet the highest standards of the Canada’ Official Languages Act. Most importantly you can’t be late and it needs to come in under budget.
Community Warrior Profile
You’re serving a unique community and require frequent material translated on a shoestring budget. You applied for a grant and need to provide services in both official languages. The program or press release requires impeccable Canadian French translations that capture the message and is “fine tuned” to your audience in tone, style and terminology. Noone wants a language backlash now!?
Meet the Team
Monique Asuquo
Co-Founder and PartnerMonique Asuquo is a Co-Founder and Partner at Baobab Staffing & Consulting Firm.
Monique is a seasoned project manager and education curriculum designer with over 15 years in solving complex organizational challenges both in the classroom and in land development. Before co-founding Baobab Staffing, she established a successful career in Education and spent a significant time teaching English to newcomers to Canada. She has extensive community experience supporting adults and children working to speak English as a second language. A graduate of University of Toronto TESOL program, she possesses firsthand knowledge of the significance of community support for immigrant communities especially as it relates to underemployment. Her education sector expertise and operations skills make her an invaluable asset to projects unique language training services, construction design, real estate, and land development.
Monique is also a member of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) and holds a Master Degree in Second Language Education from the University of Toronto. She wrote her thesis on the difficulties of community assimilation in a second language. She is mother of two, and passionate about helping newcomers as well as underrepresented children and youth.
Eldon Holder
Co-Founder and PartnerE.J. is a Co-Founder and Partner at Baobab Staffing & Consulting Firm.
E.J. is an award-winning HR professional with over 12 years of experience in community development, Labour Economic research, recruitment and project management. Before founding Baobab, he co-authored and published the Counter-Cyclical Workforce Planning Strategy for the Canadian Mining sector which was used to implement workforce sharing agreements for vulnerable communities and employees. His area of expertise is developing workforce planning policies, and talent management strategies for the private, public, and non-profit sectors. As a bilingual Certified Human Resource Consultant, he is often called upon to build specialized and diverse leadership teams from across Canada. He’s passionate about the Skilled Trades and helping great people find meaningful work.
E.J. holds a Degree in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Ottawa, and is an accredited Staffing Consultant. When he is not tackling the underemployment conundrum, he can be found mentoring youth, filming documentaries, or experimenting with making small batch Hibiscus Sorrel Kombucha.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the land we are working, living, and nurturing is the traditional territory of many nations including the un-ceded Algonquin Anishnabeg territory, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge the Elders who have lived on this territory for millennia. Their culture and presence have nurtured and continue to nurture this land. Baobab Staffing honours all First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and their valuable past and present contributions to this land.
Pronunciation: Anishnabeg: (ah-nish-naw-bek) Haudenosaunee: (hoodt-en-oh-show-nee) Métis: (may-tee)