Diversity Driving Greater Cooperation and Success.
Cooperation Canada (formerly known as the Canadian Council for International Cooperation) is a non-profit that works with over 90 organizations in the international development and humanitarian sector. It is focused on collective action and cooperation to influence Canadian and international policy, build capacity and work towards a world that is fair, safe, and sustainable for all.
The organization is no stranger to working with diverse stakeholders and organizations, building commonality, and focusing on driving actionable change. Internally, Cooperation Canada understands how having staff from diverse ethnicities, genders, ages, and religions, with differences in education, personalities, skill sets, experiences and knowledge bases furthers organizational success. They see creating a diverse workplace not only as an HR program, but a business strategy to outperform.
In order to recruit diverse talent, Cooperation Canada widely markets job opportunities online and shares postings directly with the Vanier Community Service Centre (VCSC), an agency that serves immigrants and supports employment. By creating and fostering a close cooperation with VCSC, it has been able to recruit new talent. Candidates from the VCSC often have strong international experience, an asset for Cooperation Canada, an organization that works at the nexus of international development and the humanitarian sector.
The relationship with VCSC has supported the organization to recruit diverse candidates and strengthened awareness of cultural difference and bias, helping the organization improve its HR policies and approaches to maximize diversity and inclusion. Screening and assessment processes aim to remove unintentional bias and focus on assessing skills, international credentials, competencies, language efficiency and past experiences in similar positions or roles. All candidates carry out a written assessment prior to the interview stage that goes through a blind review process. Interviews are conducted using plain language, avoiding slang or jargon, and focusing on skills.
“We appreciate this recognition, but more than that, we value the incredible contribution our new employees bring to our work,” said Nicolas Moyer, CEO, Cooperation Canada. “As an internationally minded organization, our increasingly diverse workforce helps us better deliver on our mandate and serve our partners and stakeholders around the world engaged in international cooperation.”
Cooperation Canada places a strong emphasis on training and onboarding for all staff and volunteers. Recognizing that culturally diverse team members may have additional questions and challenges understanding workplace culture, staff are empowered to have one-on-one meetings with their managers early on. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss challenges, experiences, and solutions in a safe and collaborative manner.
The organization’s diverse recruitment strategy and its work to foster inclusion has resulted in greater ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity within the organization. In addition to Canada’s official languages, Cooperation Canada’s staff speak Arabic, Czech, Italian, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovak, and Spanish. The diverse perspectives and experiences brought by immigrant employees and volunteers have added to the organization’s success working with international partners and stakeholders in countries around the world engaged in international cooperation and impact.