David Arkless has seen all the playbooks – and in some cases has rewritten them – in the human capital management industry. But the world-renowned expert’s endorsement of Joblio and its one-of-a-kind Applicant Concierge Experience (ACE) program carries weight. 

“Nobody else does it,” he says. “Somebody usually helps you go from one place to another, puts you in a job and that’s it. But that is not our ethos or culture.” 

As a former President at recruitment powerhouse ManpowerGroup, Arkless helped build a $20 billion company that is known as a global leader of workforce solutions. With a mission to stop modern-day slavery, ManpowerGroup became the first global workforce solutions company to directly employ those who it previously handed off to employers. 

“I said we need to employ 8 million people a year and place them, ethically, in the correct places,” says Arkless, now ArkLight Group Chairman and influential advisor to groups such as the International Organization for Migration and UNHCR. “So a number of small, mission-led organizations entered the ecosystem, including Joblio, that said we can do that for governments, international organizations and corporations. We can find people and take them from one country to another while making sure nobody gets mistreated in the whole process.” 

Arkless joined Joblio’s Advisory Board as Non-Executive Chairman in March 2021, a few years after he first met Joblio Founder and CEO Jon Purizhansky at a conference in Dubai, because he believes its unique approach to the recruitment and retention of talent is the future of staffing companies. 

“It is the kind of answer we need to correctly find, certify, verify and move people into other countries to get jobs,” he says. 

Employers of all sizes say that they cannot find talent, which is partly due to a worldwide imbalance of the labor force. 

“We don’t have the right skills in the right place at the right time,” Arkless says. “There is a huge opportunity to use people that are currently displaced or disadvantaged, but have been amazingly trained and have fantastic skills, and move them to where the work is.” 

The ACE program, the star of Joblio’s modern-day approach, sets it up as a sustainable provider of talent solutions. 

A 24/7 extended human resources service that’s free to those hired through Joblio, ACE ensures effective onboarding and creates retention by providing wraparound assistance that meets the unique needs of each worker. It could be anything from assisting with paperwork and travel arrangements for relocation to providing ongoing support to overcome language, housing, finance, education, transportation and other barriers. 

So instead of solely operating in the competitive space of labor provisions, Joblio is also invested in the ethical process of work provision. And it can access ready-to-work talent through its deep relationships with organizations that are trusted by refugees, immigrants, economic migrants and community leaders. 

It demonstrated that in the fall of 2022, when Joblio successfully secured jobs for the first group of Ukrainian refugees resettled in Canada. 

“Joblio, in my opinion, offers something that nobody else is offering,” Arkless says. “It’s the perfect conjunction of putting people to work and doing the right thing.” 

And its infrastructure is set up to do so long-term. Headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y, and established across Canada, Joblio recently expanded to Atlanta and Las Vegas and has plans for several more North American markets by the end of 2024. 

“Jobs aren’t that complicated,” Arkless says. “It’s not that hard to give a person dignity and decent work – correctly. That’s all you need to do, and that’s what we do at Joblio.”