#ImmigrationMatters in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Recruiting global tech talent to support businesses

Video length: 3 minutes, 07 seconds

Inspiring piano music plays throughout.

 Aerial view of snowy downtown Saskatoon and the Saskatchewan River.

Text displays: “Immigration Matters For Canadian Companies: Vendasta, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan”

Brendan: Vendasta was founded in January of 2008.

A building sign reads, “Saskatoon Square” and, below it, the Vendasta logo is displayed.

Brendan King checks his phone in front of his office window, with a view of downtown Saskatoon.

Text displays: “Brendan King, Co-founder & CEO at Vendasta”

Brendan types on the computer on his desk.

Brendan: With the Vendasta platform, our resellers are able to provide small businesses with everything they need, from a website to e-commerce. Everything they need to run their business.

A sign reads, “Welcome to Vendasta ”.

Trophies are on display on a shelf. Framed newspaper clippings hang above the trophies. One clipping is a photo of Brendan King. The headline reads, “Sask. tech firm secures $120M”.

Brendan: Vendasta has grown rapidly over the years. We've grown to almost 600 people, and in 2020, we actually had to hire over 100 people in just one year.

Aerial view of the Vendasta building.

Brendan exits an elevator. He waves at employees as he walks across the office. He goes to see an employee at her desk, and they chat for a bit.

One employee is showing another something on her screen.

Aerial view of downtown Saskatoon.

Brendan: The software industry in Canada is growing very rapidly, and there's a lot of competition for talent. We partnered with local universities to build a talent pool, and we've done really well there, but at some point we needed more experience, so we started to look internationally to bring people to Canada.

Jean is sitting in her office, working on her computer.

Jean: We needed product managers, developers, people with experience running large SAAS (Software as a Service) companies, and we were nervous because we knew we'd be competing with centres such as Toronto and Vancouver…

Text displays: “Jean Parchewsky, VP of People Operations at Vendasta”

Jean is video conferencing with a colleague and taking notes.

Series of office images: 2 people speak in a conference room; large open areas are filled with rows of people working at their desks.

Jean: …and we were really surprised because people were really excited to move to Saskatoon, since the cost of living was lower, they could own a home and have a safe place to raise their families.

Aerial views of the Broadway Bridge and the Saskatchewan River looking away from downtown toward a more residential area.

A man is giving a presentation. Vendasta employees are seated at round tables, listening.

A man is giving a presentation. The listeners clap as the presentation ends.

Jean: Being able to hire from different countries and diverse experiences has really accelerated our growth. Some days there's 21 new hires.

Lunches are lined up across a long table. Employees gather and pick them up.

Jean: Every Friday, we get together at lunch and they get to talk a little bit about where they're from, what they do for fun and where they're working at Vendasta.

Jean eats at a round table with some colleagues. One of them is Tiago.

Tiago walks out of his home.

Text displays: “Tiago Braccialli, Engineer Manager at Vendasta”

Tiago: I started to work for Vendasta in 2019 as a software developer. Now I'm working as an engineer manager and I take care of 2 developer teams. I mentor not only my team, but other team members about how to be more comfortable sharing their knowledge and sharing what they have done.

Tiago sits in a meeting with his developer team. Tiago’s team shows him their work on a laptop.

Tiago walks with a colleague along the Saskatchewan River. They share a laugh.

Tiago: I was born in Brazil, and Canada was a country that always called me to come here because I loved not only the weather, but the people here and the culture that the country has. It's something that I always felt compelled to be coming here.

A curling match is taking place inside a stadium. Tiago is among the spectators.

Tiago retrieves his mail from his mailbox.

Tiago is on a video call with his wife, who can be seen on a tablet screen on the kitchen counter. Tiago and his wife talk and laugh together.

Tiago: Now, I finally bought my first house, and my wife will be back soon. She's studying to be a pharmacist, and she's really excited to come work in pharmacies here, so I'm excited for her to be back.

Jean is having coffee with Tiago in the Vendasta lunchroom.

Jean: The most rewarding part of being able to welcome families to Canada and into our company has been seeing the whole family come.

A man stands chatting with a woman who is seated at her desk.

A photo of Tiago, his wife and their friends hang on Tiago’s refrigerator door. Tiago and his wife smile in another framed photo.

Jean: You know, you meet people and you can tell that they're really excited.

This is their lifelong dream to move to Canada. It's fun to be able to offer them experiences like their first time attending a curling match or seeing snow.

At the curling match, Vendasta employees cheer on the curling team. One employee takes photos of the match.

An aerial view of the Broadway Bridge.

On a plaza overlooking the Saskatchewan River, Tiago and a family enjoy coffee outside. The young girl plays in the snow. They all laugh together as they look across the river.

Jean: When their spouses come to some of our events and I get to speak to them about what they're doing, it's really rewarding to see how they also are welcomed here and how they're able to contribute and give back.

The scene fades to black.

Text displays: “Canada attracts global talent for businesses”

The text fades away.

Text displays: “Learn more at Canada.ca/hire-immigrants; Canada.ca/immigration-matters”

The text fades away.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada corporate signature is shown followed by the Canada wordmark.