Okay, great. Hi everyone. Welcome to the Client Spotlight podcast by MacRAE’S.
So I’m Crystal Bell-Smythe and today we’re thrilled to be joined by Richard Fernandez from Manucan. So what we’ll do is we’ll hear a bit about their journey, their business journey and how it has been working with MacRAE’S and how that’s helped them grow and ⁓ what they’ve seen on the business impact that they’ve had so far. So let’s go ahead and get started. So Richard, could you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role at Manucan?
Well thank you, I’m Richard Fernandes and I’m the CEO of Manucan. It’s a manufacturing career site focused on Ontario and helping those in the manufacturing marketplace get connected and be able to find better opportunities and careers.
Okay, that’s great. Yeah, that kind of leads into the next question about a bit of what you do and who it is that you serve in the industry. So is it primarily focused to Ontario, GTA, or do you help people in areas beyond that?
Yeah, so we are starting the project focused on Ontario, but Man U Can, as the name speaks to, is a long form or short form of the Manufacturing Canada marketplace. And we serve manufacturers right across Canada with Macrae’s, we’re focused on Ontario, and job seekers. And those job seekers can be all kinds of folks from newcomers, employed folks, schools, students. Manufacturing has just never really had a big focus for careers.
Thank
we needed a company to help get our message out there and that’s why we connected with MacRAE’S.
Okay, that’s great. You found a need and you’re filling it, so that’s awesome. If you could maybe in one sentence, I know you kind of gave me a brief background, but if in one sentence you could describe your business, how would you phrase that?
Absolutely.
I would describe it as a career marketplace to help match job seekers and employers.
Okay, perfect. sounds good. Short and sweet. And then at the time, I guess, when you, before you started working with the craze, what was it that you would say prompted you to start looking for a digital marketing partner?
Well, you know, when you’re focused as a CEO should be in terms of a marketplace, you have to look at, you know, and there’s many, many digital marketing agencies out there, but who understood and had a depth in manufacturing. And from there, being able to reach those, you know, we have a two-sided market of job seekers and manufacturers. And I was quite familiar with the Scots having been in recruitment for over 30 years have used Scots and bumped into the fact that MacRAE’S now was able
Yeah.
to offer digital marketing. So it was a really ⁓ cool situation to say, wait a second, you’re in manufacturing and the data side and now you’ve got the digital side. What a great opportunity to merge those together and deliver what they’ve done in very short order, which I’ve been very pleased with.
Yeah, that’s awesome. And then when you did partner or choose to move forward with MacRAE’S, what were some of the services that you started working with MacRAE’S for? And maybe if you could share, what made you choose working with MacRAE’S over possibly other options that were out there? As you mentioned, there’s a lot of digital marketing agencies.
Absolutely. The number one thing in any company and being a CEO for so many years is a team. And there’s lots of services out there, but I wanted to understand the team and they spent the time to really delve down into what each team member could do for the project. And so when I looked at MacRAE’S, wasn’t just about MacRAE’S, it was about the people behind MacRAE’S. And I’ve had the good fortune to recognize the skill sets of a strategist, a individual that can handle
content and of course someone that really had a good depth on analytics and those three people have been instrumental in giving us the results from McCrae’s not just as a one entity but sort of a three-pronged approach and that was important because of course we have a business plan, we have a strategic plan and we have deliverables so McCrae’s is able to really approach it from a standpoint of hitting all those different nuggets of our strategic plan.
Okay, that’s great. And then if you could, I know you mentioned some of the different people you’ve worked with at MacRAE’S. Could you maybe describe some of the services and the work that MacRAE’S has done for you so far?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, the strategist. We have a phenomenal strategist in Sac-Shee who really has a good understanding of the CEO’s vision. Not to mention having also not just done this on teams or otherwise. They came into the office and we actually whiteboarded and talked about the big picture and the vision. For me, when I find a partner, I want someone that’s passionate about our vision, not just as a service. So the strategist part was very important.
to me. From there, meeting the analytics person in Tanvir has been exceptional. He understands Google Analytics. No CEO needs to know everything to be successful. You just want to find the right people who know what they know. so ⁓ Tanvir has just been fantastic at helping us understand analytics and the graphs and the research. ⁓ Things that I love to do is look at the outcomes and we get to see that on a regular
basis. And last but not least, how do you encapsulate the message and that’s content. And Catherine has been phenomenal at not just creating content but also identifying the different demographics that the content has to reach. You know, when you’re running a job board marketplace and there’s 857,000 manufacturing job seekers, that’s a lot of folks to get the message across to. So between all three, that gave us the big outcome of why
we selected MacRAE’S.
That’s great. again, you just you answered my next question was gonna be a little bit about some of the people that you’ve worked with at McRae. it’s great to hear that, you know, between Sakshi, Kaephin and Timbure, you’ve had an overall, you know, great experience so far. And how would you say the communication has been just
Absolutely.
know, collaborating with the team. I know you mentioned that, you know, they came to your office and kind of whiteboarded a bit of your strategy and your vision. How would you say that helped maybe, you know, project moving forward in terms of their relationship and working with McRae’s?
Listen, I’ve worked with lots of suppliers in my 30 years of being in this industry. And I will say they’re far and far between their response rate, communication, openness to get an email from a CEO, you know, one in the morning when he’s doing some research or otherwise, you know, it’s incredible that, know, it’s something that I don’t see very often in service providers. It’s customer service, it’s the ability to take time to review what’s being
Yeah.
and just the deliverables are right on time, the scheduling is done right. Because again, you know, when you’re a CEO, you kind of want to, you know, set it and forget it, you know. You want to know that the people behind it are running things that need to get done. And when you meet once a month, they’re there and they’ve given you the results. When you have an email back saying, look into it, and they do the research and come back with, this is a better solution. That’s to me the kind of partnership I’ve wanted. So communication, outcomes, results,
Yes.
you know, it’s five-star. And I don’t say that very often. I’m very, very selective and frankly critical individual when it comes to services in a constructive way. But they’re also open to continuous improvement. They’re open to ideas. Because when you’re building something that never existed before, such as our manufacturing career site, and you’re up against, you know, the big names like Indeed and Monster, you know, it’s, you got to pick the
right team and this team is definitely going to give the competition a run for their money.
Yeah,
that’s great to hear that, you know, the collaboration has worked out well just in terms of what you envision. And like you said, you’re competing against a lot of those other big names. So it’s great to see that, you know, the team has worked with you to develop an area where you can sort of fill a gap that they maybe aren’t serving for, specifically the manufacturing field.
Absolutely, you
when you’re a startup, know having the right team at the beginning to get the outcomes. We’ve only been running the project since April and you know all of a sudden our analytics are up there with the big players and you know we’ve scaled job seekers, we have new clients coming in. That’s all mcraes and that to me is a great outcome.
Okay.
Yeah, that kind of leads into if you can share any insights on maybe some of the outcomes and results you’ve seen so far since partnering with MacRAE’S. know you mentioned this started in April, but maybe, you know, obviously from an SEO perspective or digital marketing perspective, if you’ve seen an increase in traffic to the website leads or revenue and things like that, if you could share a bit about that.
Yeah, all
of the above. mean, it keeps going up. I mean, I think even MacRAE’S is surprised. I’m sure you have many customers that have many services and goods, but from going from, you know, zero to where we’re at today, I believe that what I’ve seen is exponential growth, which is beyond even our expectations. And I think MacRAE’S, but that’s because it obviously fills a need in the marketplace and they’re able to recognize the channel. So all the channels are up. The SEO is up, you know, our, our, our,
Yeah.
count on LinkedIn, the number of job seekers hitting our site. And again, this is all the analytics is black and white. This is from reports. This is from our wonderful Tanveer showing us the graphs and it just going up. So what more can you ask for as a CEO?
Yep,
definitely heading in the right direction, the upward trend that we like to see, including all that positive growth that you’ve mentioned. If you can maybe pinpoint what has been the biggest win or the base impact on your business so far since working with MacRAE’S.
Right?
Yeah, I
think the biggest impact is that we’re becoming a brand name. When 400 people start coming to your site and registering their resume, or 50 employers come to your site and want to use the platform, obviously something’s working right. And so the outcomes I see, the interactions I’m seeing, obviously behind the scenes is what’s happening to create those outcomes. No one magically shows up and says, wow, there’s a job
Right.
Ottawa that I knew nothing about in manufacturing and all of a sudden I need to know that there’s a job seeker if I’m an employer in Ottawa. So obviously all these things are happening that you know we have to guess that in April but now we’re seeing the reality of what’s hitting the site.
That’s great. And if you could maybe give us some insights on if there’s anything you think that could be done differently or maybe any areas for improvement just in terms of, you know, overall working with the team or maybe the frequency of meetings and things like that. Like if you have any insights you can share.
Yeah, you know, that’s, you
know, that’s a tough one. I really don’t see anything more than the fact that you have somebody who had a vision, myself being that person, to wanting to 10X. And I don’t know if that’s anything less than just passion, but I believe MacRAE’S will 10X this company. So obviously, you know, the CEO wants 10X and they’re keeping me at a hundred foot level and say, we’re going to do it patiently. And now we’re going into another budget year. So we’re looking at MacRAE’S again to continue.
Yep.
Yeah.
the project but I don’t see any particular continuous improvement other than to keep up with me and be able to you know take us into the thousand foot you know the blue sky and I believe they’re doing that already but they have to work with what they have to work with but as long as they’re keeping up with me this company is going to get to where I envision it to be in a very short period of time.
Yeah.
Awesome. Yeah, I have complete faith in Tim, Mirosakshi, and Catherine to help you with your goal of 10X in the company. I don’t see that being an issue. Any ⁓ parting thoughts or anything you’d like to share to wrap up?
Absolutely.
Next one.
You know, I would just say that, you I’m sure there’s lots of people going out there were testimonials and four star Google reviews, but you know, doing this kind of stuff is really about, you know, getting the real face to the voice. And I don’t very often do these types of things. I’m doing this because I really believe in the fact that MacRAE’S has been a tremendous impact on the company. So, you know, the wrap up is really that if you do have future customers or existing customers that want to hear a guy that feels
happy about the results then happy to to give two thumbs up to MacRAE’S.
Okay, that’s perfect. So yeah, I appreciate that. And I know Sakshi and Tanvir and the team appreciate that as well. So thank you very much, Richard, for taking the time and for sharing a bit about your story with us. It’s great to hear some of what you’ve achieved so far and sort of where you’re headed towards. So I look forward to hearing more about that. So thank you to everyone listening and stay tuned for more of our stories on the digital growth with MacRAE’S. Thank you.
You’re welcome.
Thank you.
In this edition of the MacRAE'S Client Spotlight series, we highlight the innovative businesses we partner with. Today, we feature Richard Fernandes, CEO of manucan, a manufacturing career marketplace that's transforming how job seekers and employers connect in Ontario's manufacturing sector.
manucan is a career marketplace dedicated to matching job seekers with employers in the manufacturing industry. While the name represents "Manufacturing Canada," the current focus is on serving manufacturers across Ontario, with plans for broader expansion.
"I would describe it as a career marketplace to help match job seekers and employers," says Richard Fernandes, CEO of manucan.
The platform serves a diverse range of job seekers, including newcomers to Canada, employed individuals looking for better opportunities, students, and schools. With approximately 857,000 manufacturing job seekers in the market, manucan addresses a critical gap in an industry that has traditionally lacked focused career resources.
Contact us to explore how we can help your business grow.
