In Canada, only 40% of skilled immigrant workers work in their chosen field. Why? Because Canadian companies have difficulty recognizing their credentials. When the time comes to fill key positions, recruiters turn to Canadian-born workers. . . which is natural, but harmful, according to the University of Ottawa’s Linda Manning.
According to Statistics Canada, over 1.1 million immigrants settled in Canada between 2001 and 2006. Of these, 51% have a university degree, vs. 20% for Canadians overall. And yet, comparably skilled foreign workers will need ten years to catch up to their Canadian counterparts in terms of job level.
“In practical terms, employers seeking to replace retiring baby boomers tend to groom young Canadianmanagers, whose degrees they are familiar with,” explains Linda Manning, director of the Leveraging Immigrant Talent to Strengthen Canadian Business program. In addition, red tape does not facilitate a greater diversity in the hiring process. The result is that immigrant workers—despite being highly skilled and experienced—stay stuck in junior positions, without the opportunity to be promoted or even trained.
Lack of openness
“Have you ever demonstrated leadership in a scout camp?” was a question a woman immigrant was asked in a job interview, saysLinda Manning. “Of c bnourse, the candidate didn’t have a clue about scouting, but this didn’t mean she wasn’t an excellent manager.” Recruiting techniques have not followed suit with the democratic changes that Canada is experiencing.
The idea is not to promote immigrants in particular, but just to be open-minded enough to find the best candidate without prejudice, regardless of where the person was educated or worked before. “We are not trying to blame HR professionals, but rather help them develop new recruiting strategies so that they can better leverage the skills of a highly qualified immigrantpopulation.”
Testing one’s methods
Linda Manning and her team are working on tools to help recruiters reorient their recruiting practices and thus open themselves to all available talents. In particular, the researchers developed an interactive talent management game to allow recruiters to test their own ingrained management and selection habits. The objective is to increase awareness about the changes to implement to become more inclusive. The game will officially be launched October 2, 2009, and will be available online at http://www.leadershipdiversity.uottawa.ca