An international recruiting firm based in Sudbury is currently assisting employees in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
The IVEY Group operates in 12 different countries, and has employees stationed in each country taking care of recruitment.
Antonio Lopez is one of the co founders of the IVEY Group and he said the firm has three employees currently living in Ukraine.
“We are trying to do everything we can to get them out of the country. Right now we are doing applications, speeding up the process, and setting up accommodations, that’s on us.” said Lopez.
One of the employees is located in Kyiv and the firm is trying to get her out of the country within the next few days.
“Likely Sunday she will be getting out. It’s quite dangerous right now to get out so she’s trying to get out through a subway,” said Lopez.
Two other employees are also trying to evacuate.
“We have another one on the western side so it’s close to Slovakia. So, she’s just waiting for documents so she can cross border and then get on a plane with her daughter,” said Lopez. “The other one is also on the western side. She is also waiting for documents and then will be getting on a plane as well.”
Lopez said the firm is also writing up applications free of charge for roughly 27 families.
“We have an immigration team within the company and all they do is immigration so what they are doing is the family applications free of cost to bring them to Canada.”
Lopez said connecting with people they recruit on a personal level is nothing new to the firm.
“Our business slogan is “recruit differently” it’s something that we’ve done and we are doing. We said we’d change lives of people for generations to come,” said Lopez. “For us, every person is not just a number it’s family.”
The firm has brought more than forty individuals from Ukraine to work in Canada.
“We’ve brought workers to Timmins, Sudbury, and North Bay as well as Toronto, Trenton, and other areas,” said Lopez.
The IVEY Group just recently started a GoFundMe campaign as a way to raise money to help bring its employees as well as Ukraine families to Canada. The donations will going toward flights and accommodations.u
