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On March 12, the annual Best Employers for New Canadians competition announced this year’s list of winners. These employers recognize the benefits that skilled immigrant employees bring to their businesses, for example, by boosting innovation and providing connections to diverse global and domestic markets.

It’s great to see some new employers on this list. Businesses such as Assiniboine Credit Union, Home Depot Canada, National Bank Financial Group, Pythian Group and Shaw Communications, and institutions such as Dalhousie University and Health Canada are making their first appearances. These leading employers are in good – and growing – company.

ALLIES recently conducted research into trends in the immigrant employment practices of the Best Employers for New Canadians winners in 2011 and 2012 (PDF). It builds on a previous analysis of winning employers in the 2008-2010 competitions (PDF). The report highlights successful practices used by employers, such as credential recognition, mentoring, professional upgrading, language training, and developing community partnerships.

Key Findings

The findings suggest that leading employers have some characteristics in common. In particular:

• They are continuing to use and improve their immigrant employment practices.
• Large employers (with more than 500 employees), and employers in large provinces actively target immigrant employees.
• Financial, health care, energy and manufacturing sectors lead the field.
• More employers are adopting good practices, and more are using combinations of practices to hire, integrate and retain skilled immigrant employees.
• In addition to improved immigrant employment practices, leading employers are working towards religious and cultural accommodation for all employees.
• Leading employers are doing well in terms of visible minority representation on staff and in management, but must continue to work towards diversity on their boards.

Recommendations

Employers play a critical role in ensuring full and meaningful employment for skilled immigrants. These best employers for new Canadians can lead their peers to innovate and implement immigrant employment solutions. To this end, ALLIES recommends:

1. Employers should set goals and measure the representation of immigrants in their staff, management and on boards. What gets measured gets done.
2. Employers should champion the case for hiring skilled immigrants, as well as the practices that have helped make them leaders among their peers.
3. Immigrant employment councils, community organizations, government and other stakeholders should recognize employers for their leadership, and create opportunities for these leaders to share good practices.
4. Future employer competitions and knowledge exchange events should actively seek participation from small and medium employers, as well as employers from all provinces and regions in Canada.
5. Further research should continue to explore leading employers’ religious and cultural accommodation practices.

Read the full report, More Employers Adopt Good Immigrant Employment Practices: A Trend Analysis of the Best Employers for New Canadians competition (PDF).

Related

• Attracting, Retaining and Integrating Skilled Immigrants: An Analysis of Canada’s Leading Employers, 2008-2010 (full report, PDF)
• Global Talent for SMEs: Building Bridges and Making Connections
• Best Employers for New Canadians
• How you can use hireimmigrants.ca to improve managing immigrant talent

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

hireimmigrants.ca, provides businesses with the tools and resources they need to better recruit, retain and promote skilled immigrants. The site also profiles good examples and innovative practices of employers across the country. Here’s a round up of the useful resources recently posted there.

The Benefits of Hiring Skilled Immigrants (Series)
The business case for hiring skilled immigrant talent is clear to many of us. But it isn’t yet to everyone. This 3-part audio-video series helps make the case, in the words of employers who already get it.

Hiring Skilled Immigrants – A Sound Business Decision (eTip)
Business leaders from both large and small companies identify several key reasons why they hire skilled immigrants.

What Employers Want When They are Hiring (Article)
Canadian Immigrant speaks to the people who are instrumental in hiring talent for their companies and share their insight on what’s affecting the employment of newcomers.

Promoting Diversity in the Office: Tips for Bias-free Hiring (Article)
While many organizations may have the goal of creating diverse workplaces through bias-free hiring, they may not have implemented the many elements needed to achieve this goal.

In the News:

New Resource to Help Build Workplaces Inclusive of Skilled Immigrants
TRIEC launches new online learning hub for employers, HR leaders, community partners and immigrants.

Looking for Leaders: Nominations Open for TRIEC’s 7th Annual Immigrant Success Awards
Each year, TRIEC presents the IS Awards to recognize innovation and leadership in integrating skilled immigrants into the Greater Toronto Region labour market.

Making the Case for Employers to Tap into the Talents of Skilled Immigrants – a New hireimmigrants.ca Series
The business case for hiring skilled immigrant talent is clear to many of us. But it isn’t yet to everyone. That’s why we created hireimmigrants.ca.

Workshops Help Employers Source, Recruit, Onboard and Retain Immigrant Talent
Workshops use real world examples and case studies from the BC market to support HR practitioners in understanding how to overcome common challenges in recruiting skilled immigrants.

IEC-BC to Launch New Canadian Assessment Resource for Employers
The New Canadian Assessment Resource will be a one-stop, online source for assessing skilled immigrant job candidates.

Canada’s New Immigration Rules put Premium on Young People
New immigration rules will target workers aged 18 to 35 as the Conservative government provides the clearest sense yet of how Canada will rely on young immigrants to soften the fiscal pain of a demographic crunch.

More Changes to Canada’s Immigration Program
On August 17, 2012, the federal government announced changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program. While not a surprise (as changes have been proposed earlier in various forums), their impact will be significant.

Multicultural Canada? There’s a Banking Job for That
As change has become a mantra in the business world, executive responsibilities and job titles are evolving quickly. The Globe and Mail’s Emerging Roles series asks Canadians about how their jobs are changing.

Stay updated with hireimmigrants.ca.

• Subscribe to their eTips (bi-weekly email)
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Follow their LinkedIn page.
• Attend/watch one of their webinars.
• Subscribe to their RSS feed.

The business case for hiring skilled immigrant talent is clear to many of us. But it isn’t yet to everyone. That’s why we created hireimmigrants.ca.

This employer-focused site provides businesses with the tools and resources they need to better recruit, retain and promote skilled immigrants. With tools such as the Roadmap, we’ve laid out the steps any business, small or large, needs to take to tap into the incredibly valuable talent available to them. The site also profiles good examples and innovative practices of employers from across the country. Are your competitors and peers there?

Whether you’re just getting started on your journey, are on your way, or are a champion in hiring and integrating skilled immigrants, we’ve created a series of videos and podcasts to help you delve deeper into the HR cycle of managing diverse talent. The series launches next week, with a new podcast and video being published every two weeks over the coming months.

You will hear directly from leading employers as they share their successes, challenges and practical tips. Large corporations, such as CIBC, KMPG and Pitney Bowes, as well as smaller organizations, such as Advanced Precision in Darmouth and XEA in Edmonton, share why they hire skilled immigrants and how they have hired and managed this diverse talent.

What you can expect

• Why hiring skilled immigrants is important
  • The Canadian-born workforce is shrinking and the demand for labour is growing. Skilled immigrants fill that need and help Canadian companies do business with the world. They boost innovation and reflect the markets in which Canadian organizations operate.

• How to hire skilled immigrants
  • Recruiting and selecting needs to be inclusive and broad in order to tap into the widest range of talent, including skilled immigrants.  Equally important is ensuring your company makes these new employees feel welcome.

• How to manage a diverse workforce
  • Providing development and promotion opportunities can maximize the skills and experience of immigrant talent and ultimately increase your company’s growth and innovation.

Watch the trailer

Stay updated with hireimmigrants.ca:

• Subscribe to their eTips (bi-weekly email)
• Follow them on Twitter
• Follow their LinkedIn page
• Attend/watch one of their webinars
• Subscribe to their RSS feed

How can you tell if something is covered by the Code?

• Try using this sentence: This is discrimination based on  ______ in the area of ______.
  Example: This is discrimination based on ethnic origin in the area of employment.

What is discrimination?

Discrimination is treating somebody differently because of his or her race, disability, sex or other personal characteristics. Discrimination has many different forms. The key is differential treatment.

Interestingly, the Code considers effect, not intent. This means that intent is not required – if the result is differential treatment, it might be considered discrimination.  In other words, a person or organization can discriminate against someone even if he or she doesn’t mean to.

There are three types of discrimination:

• Direct – may be subtle or covert
• Indirect – uses a third party (for example, using a temp agency to discriminate against a certain type of worker)
• Constructive/adverse – systemic discrimination, might not be intentional, but has an adverse impact on members of that group

The OHRC Human Rights 101 learning module has useful overview information and examples of discrimination.

Structure of the Ontario Human Rights system:

Ontario’s Human Rights system is made up of three separate organizations.

Each organization has a different role:

1. Ontario Human Rights Commission: Develops policies, provides public education, monitoring and community outreach, and initiates or intervenes in inquiries. Deals with the “responsibilities” side of human rights.
2. Human Rights Legal Support Centre:  The Centre can help you file an application and may represent you at the Tribunal. Deals with the “rights” side of human rights.
3. Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: Deals with complaints.

Ontario Human Rights Code and Employment

Much of Maytree’s work focuses on the integration of skilled immigrants into the Canadian labour market. Do you know how the Ontario Human Rights Code applies to skilled immigrants and temporary foreign workers in Ontario?

What aspects of employment does the Code cover?

• The Code covers all stages of employment processes and practices (recruiting, hiring, promotion, etc.).

Which employers does the Ontario Human Rights Code cover?

• The Code covers all employers in Ontario – except for federally-regulated employers, which are covered by Canadian Human Rights Code.
• An employer cannot contract out their responsibilities – temp agencies and head-hunters must also abide by the Code.

Are temporary foreign workers in Ontario covered by the Code?

• Yes.

What is discrimination in employment?

• Discrimination means not assessing an individual’s unique merits, capacities and circumstances.

What could be considered systemic discrimination in employment?

• Policies, practices and patterns of behaviour and attitudes (including organizational culture) can be considered discriminatory.
• Factors that create barriers to achievement or opportunity, and are not bona fide requirements, may be discriminatory. They might not appear openly discriminatory, but have the effect of discriminating against members of a protected group. For example, if promotion practices based on the organizational culture and experiences of white managers result in lower numbers of racialized people promoted to leadership roles, this might be discrimination.

How do you determine what is a bona fide requirement of the job?

• The Code uses a high standard to determine bona fide requirements. A bona fide requirement must be:
• Adopted for a purpose rationally connected to the job function; and
• Adopted in good faith; and
• Reasonably necessary.

What does the OHRC recommend to avoid discrimination in hiring?

• The Commission recommends basing hiring decisions on tests, rather than on interview questions.

For more information

Useful links on the OHRC site:

• Human Rights 101 – a self-directed online learning module
• Brochures, fact sheets and guides
• Policies and guidelines 
• Guide to your rights and responsibilities under the Human Rights Code
• Guidelines on developing human rights policies and procedures

Further reading:

• What You Can and Can’t Ask In an Interview – hireimmigrants.ca has useful resources about recruiting, retaining and promoting skilled immigrants in your business.
• Your Legal Rights – Valuable human rights and legal information.  You can view the site’s human rights resources by sub-topic, including employment.  The site has useful, curated, clear language information created by authoritative legal organizations across Ontario.
• The Canadian Human Rights Commission - Find information about human rights for federally-regulated employers and other areas under federal jurisdiction.

What is this research about?

This report (funded by ALLIES, a joint project of Maytree and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation) provides support for the development of a “one-stop” HR Support Centre for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in four regions across northeastern Ontario. This proposed support centre is the second component of the ongoing HR North project. The first component, an online database and matching tool, is currently being developed in partnership with Skills International with funding from Industry Canada.

Download HR North: An Analysis of HR Practices of SMEs in Northeastern Ontario (PDF).

Why is this research needed?

Previous research suggests that SMEs in northeastern Ontario are not reaching their full potential compared to similarly situated businesses in southern Ontario. Local SMEs face difficulties meeting their labour force needs. At the same time, many SMEs are unaware of the increasing business opportunity in hiring skilled immigrants and are not tapping into this talent pool.

The economic future of northeastern Ontario relies on the growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises. More than 98% of employers in the region have fewer than 100 employees, making SMEs absolutely vital to the overall development and prosperity of the local economy. Previous research indicates that 60% of surveyed employers in the North Bay area expect the size of their workforce to increase in the next three years. Employee retention is a concern.

Identifying an HR support model that is tailored to SMEs can increase these employers’ capacity to hire and retain the skilled talent they need.

What did the researchers do?

This study looks at SMEs in the districts of Parry Sound, Nipissing, Timiskaming, and Cochrane, and limits its definition of SME to those employers with fewer than 100 employees. A researcher consulted with and surveyed local SMEs about their current human resource practices and requirements.

What did the researchers find?

SMEs in northern Ontario do not have formal internal or external human resource supports.

• More than 90% of local SMEs do not have dedicated on-site HR support.
• Many SMEs use online websites to source HR-related information.
• Few external sources of comprehensive human resource support are available to SMEs.
• Very few SMEs use external HR services.
• In order to successfully hire and integrate newcomers, employers need several key HR services: recruitment tools, candidate screening, mentorship or internship programs, language training, workplace diversity training, funding and support for skills upgrading, retention tools, succession planning and community integration support.

Recommendations:

The report supports the continued development of the online database and matching tool. It also recommends the development of a single source (“one-stop”) support centre for SMEs across the region that provides resources, tools, and live assistance with HR management issues. This support centre would provide:

1. Recruitment tools
2. Candidate selection and hiring tools
3. Language and communication training
4. Retention tools, including succession planning resources
5. Workplace diversity training
6. Licensing and skills upgrading, including funding for training
7. Community integration support
8. Mentorship or internship programs

How can you use this research?

The combination of attracting, recruiting and retaining skilled immigrant talent is of interest to all employers, but especially to SMEs. Previous ALLIES research outlined the business case for SMEs making better use of skilled immigrant talent. We also identified some of the same HR challenges and solutions outlined in this report. The model proposed here may be of interest to policy-makers and service providing organizations in both smaller and larger centres.

Related links:

• Global Talent for SMEs: Building Bridges and Making Connections
• Attracting, Retaining and Integrating Skilled Immigrants: An Analysis of Canada’s Leading Employers
• Hireimmigrants.ca - Supporting the recruitment, retention and promotion of skilled immigrants
• Immigrant Employment Councils (IECs) across Canada

hireimmigrants.ca, provides businesses with the tools and resources they need to better recruit, retain and promote skilled immigrants. The site also profiles good examples and innovative practices of employers across the country. Each week we bring you a round up of the useful resources posted there.

British Columbia Immigration Task Force (Report Summary)
This report from the B.C. Immigration Task Force details 28 recommendations to increase immigration and ensure programs attract and retain more immigrants with the skills required to build the province’s workforce and economy.

Assessing Language Proficiency (Article)
Essential skills profiles and assessment tools can help hiring managers determine if a candidate has the appropriate level of communication skills for a specific position.

Dos and don’ts of interview questions (eTip)
Under human rights laws in Canada, questions about a job candidate’s immigration status and country of origin are discriminatory. Find out what you can ask about a candidate’s eligibility to work in Canada and when you can ask it.

Hiring Skilled Immigrants Makes ‘Good Business Sense,’ Says Award-Winning HR Professional (Video)
In this video, learn about how Judy Sgro and Questrade recruit and integrate skilled immigrants, a practice that led to Ms. Sgro being honoured with the 2011 Canadian HR Reporter Individual Achievement Award.

In the news

Sourcing and Recruiting Immigrant Talent
An interactive workshop in Vancouver on June 14 will help HR professionals and hiring managers better tap into immigrant talent. Register by June 7.

Immigrants Continue Their Struggle to Find Good Jobs
Census data shows Vancouver Island’s population is aging and highlights the need to increase the number of skilled immigrants coming to the region.

Providing a ‘Pathway’ for Immigrants
New community-university project aims to help immigrants settle in smaller communities.

6 Great Blogs for Diversity Recruiters
These sources will help recruiters with diversity hiring objectives stay informed, engaged, and potentially a step ahead of the competition.

B.C. Needs More Skilled Immigrants Now
New report contains 10 key recommendations to increase the number of skilled immigrants and investors in B.C.

Stay updated with hireimmigrants.ca.

• Subscribe to their eTips (bi-weekly email)
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Follow their LinkedIn page.
• Attend/watch one of their webinars.
• Subscribe to their RSS feed.

hireimmigrants.ca, provides businesses with the tools and resources they need to better recruit, retain and promote skilled immigrants. The site also profiles good examples and innovative practices of employers across the country. Each week we bring you a round up of the useful resources posted there.

City of Montreal’s Internships Give Newcomers First ‘Canadian’ Experience (Success Story)
Program helps newcomers integrate into Quebec workforce through on-the-job training, mentoring and coaching.

What You Can and Can’t Ask In an Interview (Article)
Country of origin is a protected characteristic under human rights legislation, which means employers can’t ask questions about a candidate’s nationality or immigration status during the recruitment process.

Skilled Immigrants Attract More Talent to Pythian (Video)
Paul Vallée, Founder and Executive Chairman of Pythian, talks about how skilled immigrant employees attract other “leading minds” to the Ottawa-based company.

In the news 

Harnessing Immigrant Mobility Means Prosperity for All Canadians
Numerous studies find immigration and economic growth go hand-in-hand

Immigration System Aims To React Fast To Corporate Needs
A roundup of the proposed immigration changes, and their potential impact, announced over the past few months.

Stay updated with hireimmigrants.ca.

• Subscribe to their eTips (bi-weekly email)
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Follow their LinkedIn page.
• Attend/watch one of their webinars.
• Subscribe to their RSS feed.

hireimmigrants.ca, provides businesses with the tools and resources they need to better recruit, retain and promote skilled immigrants. The site also profiles good examples and innovative practices of employers across the country. Each week we bring you a round up of the useful resources posted there.

3 Ways to Prepare Skilled Immigrants for Promotion (eTip)
Three ways managers can be proactive and encourage all employees, including skilled immigrants, to apply for promotions.

Finding and Keeping Top Talent Big Concern for Employers (article)
Immigrants accounted for two-thirds of Canada’s population growth from 2006 to 2011 and are one solution to the skills shortages facing many Canadian organizations.

Cultural Competency Training Makes College an Award-Winning Employer (video)
Denyse Diakun, Director of Workforce and Personal Development at Algonquin College talks about the college’s cultural competency training and the effect it has had on employees.

In the news

Feds Propose Expediting Skilled Workers’ Transition from Temporary to Permanent Residence
Changes would allow skilled temporary foreign workers to apply for permanent residence after 12 months of full-time work experience down from 24 months.

Canada Immigration: Jason Kenney’s Reforms Will See Employers Selecting Newcomers
Proposed immigration reforms will better align Canada’s immigration system with labour market needs and address the skills mismatch, says Minister Kenney.

Stay updated with hireimmigrants.ca.

• Subscribe to their eTips (bi-weekly email)
• Follow them on Twitter.
• Follow their LinkedIn page.
• Attend one of their webinars.
• Subscribe to their RSS feed.

If you work in or follow Canada’s immigration sector, your head might be reeling a bit from the recent number of substantive announcements, press releases and comments coming from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

TVO’s The Agenda recently produced two segments on the proposed changes to Canada’s immigration system and they are well worth your time to watch.

First up: Jason Kenney – Bottom Line Immigration

Overall, this interview brings together a collection of what he’s been saying and has been previously announced. It’s useful as it’s all in one place!  A few interesting points made by Minister Kenney:

• High numbers of temporary foreign workers:
• A high proportion of work permits issued go to foreign students, working holiday/youth program, highly skilled workers here for a short-term stay – not the low-skill, seasonal agricultural workers, as people believe
• Backlog
• He wants to reduce the current backlog to a working inventory in 18 months
• Citizenship by birth – it seems he is suggesting that permanent residents and citizens would still confer citizenship to their children born in Canada
• What does he mean by “transformational change”?
• Moving from a slow, rigid and passive system to fast, flexible and proactive system with better economic results for newcomers
• There are large and growing labour shortages – the bad outcomes are a paradox
• Linking immigrants with the jobs that are available and bringing people in who can work at their skill level
• Economic need is the primary function of immigration, and there is consensus about this
• He also speaks to the issue of putting skilled immigration decisions in the hands of the private sector

Next: The Debate – Realigning Canadian Immigration

This segment featured:

• Audrey Macklin, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
• Arthur Sweetman, Professor of Economics, McMaster University
• Phil Triadafilopoulos, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Toronto Scarborough
• Francisco Rico-Martinez, Co-Director, FCJ Refugee Centre
• Binoy Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, The Weekly Voice

Overall, there was a good amount of disagreement about whether changes being proposed are good, bad, or if they even represent real changes. A few interesting points:

• There was some debate over whether these changes are really transformational, or just new expressions of existing trends in immigration.
• These are just continuations of trends we’ve seen since the 1960s and 1980s (Triadafilopoulos)
• Major concerns expressed by panel:
• It’s a move towards, temporary, conditional, provisional status (Macklin)
• It’s changing the culture and ethics of immigration, e.g. Rico-Martinez predicted move to English-speaking source countries and those where credentials likely to be recognized here
• Changes to selection/character of new arrivals will have the most negative impact on those who are one or two steps ahead of them (e.g. recent-ish newcomers). (Sweetman)
• It’s increasing the demonization of newcomers – “bogus” refugees, marriage “fraudsters”, useless to the economy (Macklin)
• Generally positive on admission of mid-skilled workers (trades)
• The romantic myths – about seeking a better life, about selecting country based on ability to sponsor parents and grandparents – are not true. People want a better job. They want their spouse and children only. (Thomas)

Of special note is Arthur Sweetman’s answer to the following question (around 23:30 in the video): Will these changes improve outcomes for Canadians who are already here, and the immigrants who hope to be here?

“Changes, if/when implemented, will help new immigrants who arrive. But whether they’ll help newcomers who are already here is a very different question, and it’s far less clear what will happen.

“As you give more authority, more power to employers, it could be that that increases competition between people who are already here and people who are arriving, especially on the temporary foreign worker side. And it could well be that there is some bidding down of wages for people existing in Canada by competition from new immigrants and from temporary foreign workers.

“Of course, for people who have been here for a long time, or people who were born in Canada, that competition is minimal. The main people who seem to experience competition from new immigrants are the people one or two steps ahead of them in the queue. That is to say, people most similar to them.

“So, it’s not entirely clear that if you give employers new powers that it will be positive for everybody. It might well be for some people in society, people, to use a technical term, who are ‘complements in production’ to the new immigrants, they’re going to benefit. But the people who are ‘substitutes in production’ for the new immigrants, they might well feel some negative consequences.

“We don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, but it might.”

His answer echoes Ratna’s recent Globe and Mail OpEd: “While we look forward to a new immigrant tomorrow, we must keep in mind the immigrant of today.”

Related links:

• Top 10 Canadian Immigration Stories of 2011
• Naomi Alboim – What does the future hold? Recent changes in Canadian immigration
• A reflection on immigration policy: two years after Adjusting the Balance

With files from Bonnie Mah, part of Maytree’s Policy team

hireimmigrants.ca, provides businesses with the tools and resources they need to better recruit, retain and promote skilled immigrants. The site also profiles good examples and innovative practices of employers across the country. Each week we bring you a round up of the useful resources posted there.

TD Unlocks Employee Potential by Helping Them Develop “Soft” Skills (video)
TD Bank helps newcomers integrate into the workforce in three ways, says Craig Alexander, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist at TD Economics.

Winning HR Practices: A Closer Look at the 2012 Best Employers for New Canadians (Sign Up – webinar)
This webinar will highlight award-winning practices from the winners of the 2012 Best Employers for New Canadians competition.

Employers can show the way (eTip)
Craig Alexander, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist at TD Economics, talks about how profitable businesses will be those that effectively integrate newcomers into the workplace and help them succeed.

In the news:

Ontario Developing ‘First-ever’ Immigration Strategy
The Ontario government is establishing a roundtable to examine ways immigration can support the province’s economic development and ensure new Ontarians find jobs