Unlocking Potential: Leveraging Employer Leadership for Immigrant’s Economic Inclusion
On March 26, 2024, the Annual Employers’ Summit engaged 100 senior executives, human resources professionals and stakeholders from private, public and non-profit sectors in a discussion on the theme “Unlocking Potential: Leveraging Employer Leadership for Immigrant’s Economic Inclusion.” This was set around Canada’s ambitious goal of welcoming about 1.5 million immigrants in the next three years. Speakers and experts shared their insights, experiences, best practices and strategies for building inclusive workplaces that effectively attracts, hires, and integrates immigrants. Read more…
Keynote Address – Dr. Rupa Banerjee
Dr. Rupa Banerjee, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, delivered the 2024 Summit keynote address. Dr. Banerjee highlighted the challenges immigrants face in Canada, such as unemployment, underemployment, earnings gap, undervalued international credentials and work experience, and discrimination. She shared best practices and emphasized the critical role of employers in fostering economic inclusion and belonging, urging them to move beyond surface-level diversity initiatives and recognize immigrants’ skills and experiences.
Panel Discussion – Addressing Barriers to Immigrant’s Inclusion
A panel of practitioners and employers from the fields of human resources management and immigrant economic inclusion and workforce integration, discussed the topic “Addressing Barriers to Immigrant Inclusion”. Louise Summers, Regional Vice President, Ottawa Central-RBC Royal Bank, Mengistab Tsegaye, Executive Director, World Skills Employment Centre and Steph Barlow, Chief People Officer, Iversoft. The panelists shared practical strategies for leveraging immigrant talent, emphasizing the need for a unified approach among stakeholders, the need for innovative hiring strategies, including removing educational requirements from certain job requirements where skills can be acquired through experiential learning, recognizing the value of international experience and the importance of cultural competency training and valuing “culture add” that newcomers bring to organizations.