Building a Workplace Culture That Embraces Diversity

I’ve spoken and written about the benefits of diversity for years and on six continents. However, as the adage goes, “we teach what we need to learn” and I’m definitely still learning. This year I’ve had the privilege of co-leading a research team to learn from internationally-trained professionals themselves about the challenges in the foreign credential recognition process in Canada. Their stories, without exception, illustrated how very far we still need to go to create Canadian workplaces that embrace diversity. I’ve also been facilitating employer training as part of two initiatives – the MAPLE 2.0 program and Welcoming  Communities. In both cases, I’ve listened to internationally trained skilled workers and professionals describe how they can’t get relevant work in their fields until they have “Canadian experience” – clearly a circular problem as they can’t get that experience without work in their fields!

I’ve also witnessed examples of individuals, though, who do get hired into positions closely related to their pre-immigration careers only to find themselves isolated, unappreciated, and clearly unwelcome by their colleagues and immediate supervisors. To build a diverse workforce, it’s not enough to have buy-in from the executive team and HR professionals within the organization – the average employee also needs to understand the value that diversity can bring. Too often orientation is focussed exclusively on the newcomers; however, to create a welcoming workplace it may be necessary to orient and train incumbent employees, building their cultural competencies and highlighting the synergies that result with working with colleagues who bring diverse perspectives, talents, and prior experiences to the project.

The SEED toolkit that we created for S.U.C.C.E.S.S. a few years ago has recently been updated. If you’re trying to build a workplace that embraces diversity, it’s a good place to start with links to virtual resources for recruitment, orientation, and inclusion of diverse workers, as well as a diversity champion’s guide, a topical backgrounder, and a diversity yearbook filled with activities and resources to shift your workplace culture so that diverse workers know they’re valued and are inspired to fully contribute.

Immigrant or Expatriate? There's a Difference

Some people think that anybody working in Canada who’s “from away” is an immigrant – but that’s not always the case. However, we rarely think of Canadians working abroad as having emigrated (i.e., left Canada permanently). Instead we consider them expatriates. This is an interesting shift in perspective, with all sorts of career/life implications.

Expatriates, international workers, or global careerists typically live a somewhat privileged lifestyle compared to locals; immigrants, on the other hand, typically struggle to get their careers back on track. Ironically, so do some people repatriating to Canada – although their careers may have blossomed abroad, similar to many immigrants they have a hard time convincing local employers that their international experience is of value.

Within Canada and many developed countries, when someone new to the country requests career services, there is often a focus on language training, skills upgrading, and, in some cases, complete re-careering. It’s not unusual to find an immigrant with a PhD driving taxi or serving in a restaurant. I once had a medical doctor from Afghanistan tell me that, upon arrival in Canada, he’d been told that he would have to work as a dishwasher here!

It astounds me that anyone would be surprised when a foreign-trained worker leaves Canada for better opportunities somewhere else. If I was to emigrate from Canada (i.e., immigrate to another country which was to be my permanent home), then it would be worth my time to learn the language and customs, upgrade my education, gain local job search skills, and take a survival job as I settled in. On the other hand, if I were to go to a foreign country where I'd heard that they needed people with my existing professional skills (e.g., teaching counselling in a university; corporate training for a multinational corporation), if I couldn't get that type of work within a very short period of time after arrival, there'd be no point in staying. I'd move to another country that could use my skills.

International/global careerists change countries in a similar way as people in a large city take on new jobs throughout the region. Within the Vancouver area, for example, someone might accept a job offer in Burnaby even if he or she lives downtown. The individual may commute rather than move to Burnaby. Even if a decision is made to move to Burnaby, once the contract is finished it’s quite likely that he or she will move again for the next job. So too, international workers go where the work is. They may leave family behind or families may relocate temporarily; children may attend local or international schools. Leisure time may be spent with other expatriates, groups from “home,” locals, or a combination.

Unfortunately, in Canada, we tend to view all people with foreign accents as "immigrants." However, the needs and expectations of immigrants are significantly different from the needs and expectations of people with international careers (or expats). Interested in learning more? Life Strategies offers relevant courses for career practitioners on The Immigrant Experience and International/Global Careers. Contact studentadvisor@lifestrategies.ca for more information.

Diversity and Employee Engagement

Living in Canada, we are surrounded by diversity – economic, geographic, cultural, and ethnic diversity. With all of this diversity in our midst, it is a bit of a wonder how society can at times be reluctant to embrace it. Perhaps I’ve become more attuned to the concept of diversity since it has been the subject of a recent project, but it seems that everywhere I turn these days, there is some mention of diversity – the cover of the current issue of Maclean’s Magazine, the upcoming focus of the next Contact Point newsletter, or the recent CANNEXUS conference.

After spending the past month steeped in a diversity project, I have come to appreciate the importance embracing diversity has on employee engagement in the workplace. For engagement to work from a diversity perspective, employees need to be able to bring their “whole self” to work, without any fear of how their disabilities, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, etc. will affect how they are perceived. This in turn will allow employees to more fully engage with their job, increase productivity, and ultimately, lead to greater job satisfaction.

When an employee feels unable to come to work freely, without feeling emotions that could include discomfort, shame, dread, fear, this negatively impacts their ability to perform their work to their fullest potential. It seems that more and more companies are beginning to adopt or considering creating diversity policies and programs, recognizing that doing so is helpful to the bottom line. Because we live in a diverse society, hiring diverse workers and embracing our differences creates workplaces that better represent the diverse range of customers and clients, and will ultimately lead to increased employee engagement.

Sustainability: Building Individuals and Organizations to Last for the Long Term

There’s a lot of talk about sustainable environments, economies, and resources. However, what about people and the places where they work? At least a dozen times each day I hear people say how busy they are…in many cases, they wear their busyness as a badge of honour.

The Context
I juggle many professional roles – as a counsellor, counsellor-educator, editor of an academic journal, co-executive coordinator of a professional association, and president of a consulting and training organization. In each arena of my professional life, I see the results of chronic busyness – clients, students, colleagues, board members, and corporate clients are scrambling to integrate their complex life roles, meet impossible deadlines, and do more with less.

Skilled worker shortages have resulted in worldwide recruitment, retention, and employee engagement challenges. Absenteeism is an epidemic within some organizations; within others, presenteeism (i.e., showing up for work but not doing much) is on the rise. Supervisory and management time is a precious commodity – they’re busy, too. That leaves an odd mix of workers – some bored with little access to mentors or development opportunities; others burned out from the chronic, relentless stress.

In future posts, I’ll further reflect on sustainability. I’ll be presenting on the topic at a conference in Buenos Aires next week (for more on our travels, click on “Where in the World…?”

September 20, 2008 IAEVG Conference, Buenos Aires

My presentation on Sustainability resonated with many…although the issues are different in some of the Latin American countries represented (just as they are in other regions of the world).

However, in Uruguay, for example, the literacy rate is 98% and free access to university is available to many. The sustainability issue is jobs – not enough of them! Unlike in Canada, there are no visible Help Wanted signs…and there are lots of employees in every restaurant, hotel, and shop.

This was similar to our experience in China this summer. A presenter from Mexico spoke of a similar pattern – highly educated people but not enough jobs.

As we know in Canada, many well educated immigrants and migrant workers are underemployed – but earning more than they could “at home.” The sustainability issue, however, is the impact on families when parents leave children behind to take on temporary employment to pay the bills at home.

Also, as I learned from an Indian colleague at the International Symposium in Sydney, Australia in 2006, some of the off shoring solutions (e.g., international call centres in India) or lucrative opportunities abroad (e.g., Filipino nannies who were doctors at home) are leaving countries with damaged professional infrastructures (i.e., why train to be a doctor or lawyer if you can earn more in a call centre or as a nanny?).

Sustainability…of people and organizations…is a global concern. It is a complex issue, with a tangled web of interconnections. Finding a solution for one group seems to be creating new challenges for another…where do you see yourself fitting in?

In Canada, and other countries impacted by retiring baby-boomers and low birth rates, we are currently facing shortages of skilled workers and individuals/organizations scrambling to do more with less. It’s increasingly more difficult to encourage teens to stay in school, when work (and money) are readily available. Recruitment and retention issues are a crisis for many organizations and individuals are burning out or facing stress-related health challenges.