CCHRA forum recommendations

Whitepaper includes recommendations for HR professionals, employers and government

Recommendations for HR Professionals

1. Make the business case for enhancing diversity

2. Optimize selection and hiring

• Focus on competencies and capabilities, not credentials

• Ensure that the orientation is toward success and not defensibility of status quo

3. Enhance organizational effectiveness

• Issue explicit value commitment to diversity

• Communicate, support and embed values of diversity – requires leadership, support and reinforcement at all levels (culture, leadership, polices and practices) – build awareness and leadership

• Remove cultural barriers in workplace

• Create climate of inclusion at all levels of organization

• Provide diversity training in workplace

• Identify and promote employer role models and champions – create inventory of best practices

• Solicit employee feedback and develop action strategies

4. Evaluate performance accurately and fairly

• Make retention concerns real and evidence-based.

• Focus on performance, not credentials

• Ensure leadership, support and reinforcement at all levels (culture, policies and practices) – HR professionals should make program recommendations

• Solicit employee feedback and develop action strategies

5. Beyond the organization – networking

• Build relationships with professional and trade associations

• Work closely with settlement and immigrant-service organizations

• Share best practices of employers and communities

• Access government funding to provide services and training

• Join provincial HR associations to assist with their professional development and seek contact with other HR professionals facing the same or similar challenges in the workplace

• Promote your workplace as a desirable place to work

• Emphasize government’s public policy role

6. HR profession

• Make diversity competency a requirement for CHRP designation and include as part of the Code of Ethics

Recommendations for Employers

1. Accept corporate accountability

• Focus on competencies and capabilities, not credentials

• Ensure that the orientation is toward success and not defensibility of status quo

• Develop and implement internal communication practices to ensure that all diversity policies and plans are communicated to management and staff

• Ensure that all employees, both management and staff, agree to adhere to diversity policies and practices.

• Appoint or designate a senior executive to be responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of diversity practices and initiatives within organization

• Incorporate diversity objectives within its business plans, at the departmental, divisional and/or corporate level

2. Enhance recruitment, hiring and retention planning

• Ensure that all human resource policies clearly articulate a commitment to diversity, reviewing and eliminating on an ongoing basis all human resource policies and practices relating to recruitment, hiring and retention that act as systemic barriers

• Develop and implement mechanisms that foster an inclusive and accepting work environment aimed at increasing workforce retention

• Place advertisements for employment opportunities beyond mainstream media by placing advertisements in media targeted to diverse communities.

• Ensure that employees responsible for hiring and managing staff are provided with training on systemic barriers.

• Monitor progress and assess the effectiveness of policies and initiatives in furthering diversity objectives

• Make retention concerns real and evidence-based. Leadership, support and reinforcement at all levels (culture, policies and practices)

• Take ownership of retention efforts – business is the main beneficiary

3. Outreach

• Work in partnership with other organizations, agencies and government to identify programs for training and recruitment to meet diversity objectives, and to support capacity-building

• Promote themselves as a desirable place to work

• Think more holistically, work closely with Chambers of Commerce to engage at a variety of levels

4. Establish ongoing training

• Educate unions on advantages of inserting enabling language into collective agreements

• Work to include broader community in newcomer orientation – ensure long-term support, not just welcoming newcomers. Need multi-stakeholder initiatives

• Use TOWES (Test of Workplace Essential Skills) nationally

• Promote mentoring and coaching programs for new employees, but also for old time staff that might need an update in diversity appreciation

Recommendations for Government

Government as Employer

1. Promote a culture of diversity and inclusion

• Remove cultural barriers in government workplaces

• Provide diversity training in government workplaces

• Create climate of inclusion, at all levels of organization

2. Develop clear business case for enhancing diversity

• Communicate, support and embed values of diversity – requires leadership, support and reinforcement at all levels (culture, leadership, polices and practices) – build awareness and leadership

• Identify and promote employer role models and champions – create inventory of best practices

• Issue explicit value commitment to diversity

• Engage actors from different backgrounds to provide feedback and suggest recommendations in terms of diversity at the workplace

3. Commit to lifelong learning

• Encourage continuing education in the workplace and a culture of constant learning and adaptation to change

• Provide guidelines for diversity training in the workplace

• Support informed decision making in terms of employing highly skilled immigrants

4. Communicate core and strategic goals

• Governments should be leaders in their role as major employers

Government as Policy & Program Leader

1. Promote a culture of diversity and inclusion

• Encourage employers to remove cultural barriers in workplaces

• Promote diversity training in communities, educational institutions and workplaces

• Create climate of inclusion, at all levels of society

• Share best practices of employers and communities

2. Review and develop policy

• Analyze, develop and improve employment programming to ensure that it remains well suited in terms of diversity to the needs of the local/provincial/federal workforce and labour market

• Engage key population sectors from diverse backgrounds in public consultancies about expectations and issues to be addressed

• Identify strengths and needs in terms of workforce diversity and productivity and implement a balance to reconcile both

• Promote public policy role in supporting effective integration – municipal involvement is very important

3. Create programs and support initiatives

• Build partnerships with different organizations and programs that will support diverse working environments and link them to others that have not done so yet

• Fund research that will address issues about cultural diversity and the workplace

• Be accountable for implications and results in terms of efforts for improving the diverse workplace environment

• Develop a profile of leadership in terms of embracing diversity in the workplace, and promote it across the different sectors of employers

• Evaluate, revise and improve these programs and initiatives constantly

• Work to include broader community in newcomer orientation – ensure long-term support, not just welcoming newcomers. Need multi-stakeholder initiatives

• Improve predictability and reliability of immigration system

• Provide access to skills for the whole family, not just the new hire

• Promote tax incentives & educational supports for immigrants to settle in remote areas

4. Commit to lifelong learning

• Encourage continuing education in the workplace and a culture of constant learning and adaptation to change

• Provide guidelines for diversity training in the workplace

• Support informed decision making in terms of employing highly skilled immigrants

• Create prior learning and experience assessment programs – centralized and standardized across provinces

• Assess credentials at the point of immigration and make this service available to previous immigrants who have not gone through this process

• Work with employers to educate unions on the advantages of inserting enabling language into collective agreements

• Modify educational programs – modularize requirements to allow faster accreditation

• Re-evaluate requirements for licensing and professional accreditation

• Create exams in mother languages of immigrants in selected skills areas

• Create international reciprocal agreements among educational institutions

5. Communicate core and strategic goals

• Promote Canada as a desirable place to work

• Speed up immigration process – improve information to potential immigrants

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