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Immigrants bring valuable skills, education and experience to Canada, yet many find themselves underemployed, working in positions far below their qualifications. Even highly skilled economic immigrants face common challenges to entering the Canadian labour market: access to a professional support system, discrimination and recognition of their foreign credentials and experience.
Immigrants are not the only ones being disadvantaged. A report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) and Deloitte, Talent to Win, shows that this underemployment costs the Canadian economy billions of dollars annually. Employers must recognize that there is a significant cost to leaving this untapped talent on the bench. According to the ICC/Deloitte report, employers who embrace immigrant talent have gained a competitive advantage.
Economic Class immigrants are “selected for their predicted ability to integrate into the workforce” to address critical labour shortages in Canada. They represent a growing proportion of all immigrants to Canada, comprising over 60% of total permanent resident admissions. Highly skilled immigrants have unique needs that go beyond the typical language classes and basic integration services offered to newcomers. Even among the entire newcomer population, in 2020-21 and 2021-22, only 19% of them used settlement services in their first year of becoming a permanent resident.
Highly talented and qualified immigrants are losing out as they sit on the sidelines – but so are Canadians and employers. So, what role can employers play in alleviating immigrant underemployment? And what opportunities might be waiting for employers who move first?
Identifying critical issues
The Talent to Win report highlights key challenges that employers face in attracting, retaining and developing immigrant talent, including:
- A lack of ambition in Canada’s workplace culture.
- Poor onboarding and training practices.
- A lack of consideration of country of origin and immigration status in DEI frameworks.
- Cultural disconnects between newcomers and Canadian employers.
- Difficulties translating foreign experience and skills to the Canadian context.
While there are government programs supporting employers to hire immigrants effectively, such as the Atlantic Immigration Program, most of these challenges need to be tackled at the employer level.
Creative approaches driving hiring success
Fortunately, some employers are engaging in more effective approaches that have improved immigrant hiring. Talent to Win highlights some of the most successful strategies:
- Cluster hiring. One mid-sized construction company used cluster hiring – hiring employees in groups rather than individually – to onboard single-language Ukrainian- and Hindi-speaking crews. These employees would previously have been turned down due to limited English proficiency. By cluster hiring employees who all speak the same language – even if it isn’t English – the company created effective and safe teams who boosted their growth and dropped lead times.
- Immigration centres of excellence. Another employer surveyed created a centre of excellence for immigrant hiring, retention and success. This centre includes “HR leaders, business leaders, immigration lawyers, and an employee support group.” Through this centre, the company has hired over 2,000 immigrants in high-paying, high-skill jobs.
- A holistic, full-family approach. Some successful employers are taking a comprehensive approach to immigrant hiring, with a designated manager to support immigrants and their families to access vital supports including school placements, childcare and language training.
These innovative solutions have demonstrated how creative thinking can improve immigrant hiring and retention, which ultimately boost company performance. Teams that have found success with creative programs such as those described above should share these stories across their organization to encourage other teams to adopt similar strategies.
What employers can do now to improve hiring success
Drawing on the key challenges and success stories from the report, there are concrete steps employers can take to tap into this underutilized talent pool.
Employers should consider immigrant employees’ country of origin and year of arrival as part of DEI frameworks so they can collect accurate data on immigrant representation in the workplace. Without data, immigrant underemployment is not fully understood. Collecting this data will allow senior leaders to make concrete changes that improve performance.
Employers would also do well to cultivate humility and a culture of ambition within the workplace. Immigrants bring a wealth of cultural and language skills that can provide businesses with a competitive edge. Recognizing the value of immigrant employees requires “a pervasive hunger to innovate” and an open mind about the skills that immigrants bring.
Finally, employers should pursue creative strategies like creating specialized immigrant hiring teams and supporting newcomers and their families to ensure “successful and long-lasting workforce integration.”
Immigrants bring an abundance of skills and talent to the Canadian labour market. Their potential is untapped, trapped behind red tape and outdated hiring practices. To fully take advantage of Canada’s immigration objective to help “employers find qualified workers to fill specific gaps in our labour market,” employers need to make strategic decisions to better integrate immigrant talent. This is a pivotal moment for employers to step up and make immigrant hiring and retention a priority, for the benefit of their own businesses and the Canadian economy.
