Diversity and inclusion in the workplace

The whole world is going through a period of change. Whether personal or professional, these changes affect employees and employers equally. Why not take advantage of the current changes to improve some of your company’s practices, in addition to addressing the labour shortage?

A good way to address this is to change the spirit and culture of your company by making it more diverse and inclusive. Diversity in business can bring a lot of positivity and strengthen the bonds between everyone. Whether it is sexual, ethnic, religious, behavioral or physical, diversity will bring renewal to your organization in addition to bringing a great brand image.

If we focus solely on the international talent pool, we can see that there is a great loss of talent, as some (highly qualified) candidates are not considered simply because their name sounds different and for fear that they will not fit in. At Défis RH, we believe that we need to lower this barrier, to value the difference and what each person can bring to our company and to ourselves.

Many newcomers have difficulty finding employment according to their qualifications. In a conference of the Comité québécois femmes et développement (CQFD) of AQOCI, Muzna Dureid, a Syrian refugee, said: “Everyone can be a refugee one day.” Which is true! We want to be able to turn to others in times of need, so we should offer our help to everyone!

Managing diversity at work

Two very interesting conferences by Interconnexion Laval, featuring training by Corinne Béguerie, present many interesting statistics and tips for employers.

A few numbers out of the box:

• There were 341,000 immigrants in Canada in 2019.
• 40,565 in Quebec, still in 2019.
• 61.9% of these immigrants have more than 14 years of education.
• 84% are under the age of 45.
• 49.8% know French.
• 76.1% settle in Montreal.
• 119,000 temporary residents in Quebec (2019).

Some tips quoted by Corinne:

• Explain the types of Quebec qualifications to the new employee coming from abroad.
• Explain the standards (personal and professional) of Quebec.
• Welcome the new employee the right way. The first contact can make all the difference.
• Prepare the rest of the team (involve others and make them aware).
• Integrate mentoring into the business.
• Make the effort to take small actions: it’s really the little things that make the difference and allow retention.
• Integrate the family as well: even if the employee feels comfortable in Quebec, if the integration of his family is not going well, the employee may not stay.
• Help the new employee with the culture shock he will certainly experience (loss of reference points). It is important to keep an eye on the new employee and to reassure him often to ensure that he feels comfortable with the company.

A lot of information can still be conveyed on this subject. On May 20th, Jessie Fortin, President of Défis RH, will offer a conference in Prévost concerning diversity in the workplace. We have entitled this conference “Défiversité“. Stay tuned to our networks to learn more about it. Jessie will be going into more depth on the subject, including all the other types of diversity and inclusion in the workplace!