By Stephanie Ford.

Hiring Foreign Workers to Overcome Hiring Challenges in a Tight Labour Market

With job vacancies now 80% higher than pre-pandemic levels and an aging working population, the Canadian government has identified immigration as being critical to the labour market. In fact, the most recent report from Statistics Canada shows that job vacancies in Canada reached the highest quarterly number on record. Unemployment also reached record lows during Q1 in 2022. The health care and social assistance sectors, as well as construction, manufacturing, and retail trade industries have been the most impacted by the high vacancies. Though, the Canadian Employee Relocation Council has pointed out that labour shortages are now pervasive across almost all sectors of the economy. The same report concludes that the rising vacancies and dwindling number of potential workers pose hiring challenges for Canadian employers. Hiring foreign talent is one solution to these challenges.

Benefits BC Employers Access When Hiring Foreign Workers

Beyond resolving some issues that come with the tightening labour market in British Columbia, hiring foreign workers comes with a host of potential benefits for Canadian employers. Some of the most common benefits Canadian employers see after hiring foreign workers include:

✅ Fill open positions

✅ Employ a diverse workforce

✅ Offer services in additional languages

✅ Expand your talent pool

Employer Accountabilities to Overcome the Challenges of a Diverse Workforce

The Canadian Government identified certain elements as being critical to its making progress on diversity and inclusion. These elements included:

✅ Commitment, transparency and support of management and leadership

✅ Accountability and reporting of progress

✅ Consistent organization-wide education and awareness

✅ Strategies that are integrated across the organization and into business plans, including tools to support considerations about diversity and inclusion in all decision-making

✅ Investment of financial and human resources

✅ Recognition and effective harnessing of the experience, qualifications and talents of people who are Indigenous or new to Canada

✅ Culture change that is meaningful, sustained and evolving within the human rights framework.

BC employers may use these elements to develop accountabilities and promote a culture of diversity and inclusion. By doing so, you can make your workplace a more attractive and more fulfilling place to work for both your foreign hires and local talent.

How To Integrate and Retain Your Foreign Workers

The federal government highlights several key factors for integrating and retaining internationally trained workers, including

✅ Training, mentoring, and career development

✅ Creating an inclusive workplace

✅ Evaluating your success.

Depending on the resources your company has and your commitment to retaining your foreign workers, you might consider the following strategies:

- Providing language training in English.

- Providing cultural and communications training.

- Implementing mentoring programs.

Tips for Effectively Communicating with Diverse Workers

If you have hired or are considering hiring foreign workers, it's essential that you consider how you will communicate effectively with your foreign workers. Grammarly's Ultimate Guide to Cross-Cultural Communications at Work provides the following pointers:

✅ Enunciate clearly when speaking

✅ Use idioms, colloquialisms, and slang sparingly

✅ Remember that speaking louder generally does not make it easier to understand you

✅ Commit to inclusivity by incorporating it into your policies and branding

✅ Make gathering feedback from employees part of the process

Access The Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

For a growing number of businesses, hiring foreign help is a key strategy.

If you want to hire foreign talent to fill your vacant position in BC, you CANDO it.

Ask our professional foreign recruitment specialists how!

Resources:

https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cerc.ca/resource/resmgr/industry_surveys/2022_surveys/cerc_survey_results_report_f.pdf

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/employer-roadmap-hiring-retaining-internationally-trained-workers.html#_5._BEST_PRACTICES