H2 Visa Expert

H2 Visa Expert

Company Overview:

About Palladium – Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value.  We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people’s lives. 

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.  

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com

Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Project Overview and Role:

The USAID | Guatemala Creating Economic
Opportunities Project (“the Project”) is a 5-year, broad-reaching project
designed to spur productive economic activity in and beyond Guatemala’s capital
city. With the overarching objectives of generating 50,000 new jobs,
facilitating $75 million of foreign and domestic investment, and mobilizing
more than $60 million in financing to SMEs, the Project is designed to harness
drivers of economic growth, including domestic and international businesses in
priority sectors and infrastructure developers. In addition to the department
of Guatemala, the Project focuses on five departments in Guatemala’s Altiplano
region, including Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, Totonicapán, San Marcos, and
Quiché.

A core objective of the CEO Project is to
strengthen the private sector as an engine of growth to reduce poverty, improve
living conditions, and create sustainable economic opportunity for Guatemalans,
at home. By focusing on Guatemala’s secondary cities as natural platforms for
investment and growth, cultivating alliances between public, private, and civil
society stakeholders, and emphasizing an enabling ecosystem for innovation and
entrepreneurship, the CEO Project will play a key role in creating jobs,
facilitating investment, and enabling prosperity beyond the capital. Among the
many activities the Project is implanting to achieve these objectives is direct
support to the Government of Guatemala to promote investment into sectors that
will generate economic activity and create jobs.

Within this context of promoting economic
opportunities in Project geographies, an opportunity arises to collaborate with
the Ministry of Labor in the Seasonal Labor Program, focused on promoting
regular and safe migration by obtaining temporary work visas for the U.S. and
Canada. To achieve the goals of the program (to send at least 300 Guatemalan
workers per quarter) it is necessary to identify and recruit employers abroad.

In response to this, the Ministry of Labor has asked
for support for an international consultant to attract new clients/employers in
the United States. This will not only promote the Seasonal Labor Program, but
also establish contact with potential new employers/ companies, attract them to
the program and generate new temporary work positions. 

 Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

GENERAL OBJECTIVE
Promote and grow the Guatemalan temporary
workers program in the US under the H2 visa programs.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Creation of a database of new employers in the United States interested, with basic contact information and documented interest in hiring Guatemalans as seasonal workers under the H2 programs.
Placement of Guatemalan workers with new employers in the United States offering temporary seasonal labor opportunities within the framework of the H2A and H2B work visas.
TASKS
The Consultant will complete the following tasks under this
scope of work:
In support of the H2 Visa Senior Technical Advisor:
Provide inputs to a work plan that includes short, medium, and long term goals, and key performance indicators.
Identify and recommend events to attend and events that the Project should organize.
Identify U.S. states as strategic and competitive markets to position Guatemalan workers as a seasonal labor opportunity.
Apply lessons learned in regional recruiting for harvesters in Mexico to Guatemala – identify regions that are harvesting hubs that could serve as recruiting points for US crops.
Pinpoint bottlenecks in employment processes and delays in connecting employers to eligible temporary workers
Identify new companies to contact as potential employers of seasonal Guatemalan labor.
As required, participate in program presentations with, but not limited to, USAID, CEO Project, US Embassy key players and MINTRAB´s high-level representatives

Conduct written and telephone communications with potential new employers, including planned presentations (face-to-face and/or virtual) to promote the seasonal labor program.
Prospect and build relationship with new employers interested in hiring employees in H2.
Coordinate strategic communication and convene work meetings as needed with the local consultant assigned by the MINTRAB to serve as counterpart to follow up on the processes needed to respond to new employment opportunities.
Present periodic progress reports, as required by the project, especially weekly and quarterly reports. Participate in coordination meetings, as required.
Provide inputs in work plans and other planning as required.
Place at least 500 Guatemalan citizens in jobs through identified U.S. companies
Provide biweekly pipeline updates and other progress updates as required.
Support in other tasks related to the subject, at the specific request of the project management.

Required Qualifications:

Experience of at least
5 years working with H2 workforces.
Ability to communicate
verbally and in written form in English (and preferably also in Spanish).
Ability to synthesize
large quantities of information and communicate complex ideas to a range of
partners.
Detail oriented.
Ability to manage
competing deadlines with minimal supervision.