Immigration Fredericton Wants To Support Atlantic Canadian Employers To Work Cross-Culturally With March 12 Conference
FREDERICTON – Simple things like “how are you” or an offer for a handshake may get vastly different reactions, depending on the cultural background of the person receiving them.
That’s what Immigration Fredericton wants to help educators, employers and other professionals figure out through an event called 50 Shades of Beige – Communications with Cross-Cultural Advantage at Crown Plaza Fredericton on March 12.
“Our objective with this conference is education, to support those who are working with, employing, educating, hiring, volunteering or any other front-facing interactions with new residents of our workforce and communities. Cross-Cultural communication will foster stronger relationships and promote a more inclusive experience,” said Janet Moser, Managing Director of Immigration Services in Fredericton.
“Immigration is our business in Atlantic Canada as we age, and our workforce retires. Immigration by nature is a very competitive space globally. We must have a viable value proposition to attract skilled workers, investors and young families who will grow and flourish in our regions. Our role is in making them feel at home and by offering opportunities. This is why cross-cultural understanding and communication is the cornerstone to achieving our goals.”
The one-day conference will begin with a panel of experts sharing information on immigration, followed by a workshop by Calgary-based diversity and inclusion expert Tina Varughese.
Varughese, who was born in Canada to immigrant parents, served in Alberta’s immigration office and ran her own relocation and settlement firm for oil and gas expats for over a decade.
She said having an understanding of cultural differences can help organizations tap into pockets of the workforce that are overlooked.
“There are so many underutilized new immigrants here in Canada – they’re getting screened out before they have an opportunity to be screened in simply because we’re so used to Canadian Human Resources practices that we don’t recognize that we need to look at more inclusive practices when it comes to HR, recruitment and retention. So, we’re really missing out on the opportunity,” she said.
For instance, employers who aren’t aware that people may interview differently depending on where they come from could miss out on a good employee because the candidate may not be seen as a “good cultural fit.”
That’s an affinity bias towards those who sound and look like the interviewer, Varughese said.
She said understanding cultural differences is ever more important as Canada’s population is now 20 percent foreign-born. That percentage is as high as 60 percent in Vancouver. But the rest of the country’s demographics is also changing, and more foreign-born people are building up communities outside the large cities, too.
Last year, New Brunswick received a record of 6,000 new permanent residents. That number doesn’t include temporary residents such as those on study or work permits.
Moser said the event is a way for the Immigration Fredericton and others supporting the city’s immigration five-year strategy to live their motto of “We Speak Welcome.”
“I call these the subtle settlement services and understanding how we’re doing as a welcoming community,” she said. “It’s not just waving at someone on the street. It’s not just saying ‘I hired an immigrant last year, I’m a diverse employer.’ It’s how we communicate and relate to our newcomers on a consistent basis. How we’re forging trust bonds and how we’re building bridges to cover the gaps that are identifiable and those not as easily defined”.
“We come from different places in the world, we speak differently, our humour is different, but at the end of the day, we’re all people and people need certain components in our lives to be successful, and that is to feel respected, to feel heard, to feel trusted, and to feel like they belong,” she added.
That requires an openness to understanding that people around the world have different values and ways of communicating. Otherwise, misunderstandings could flare-up.
For example, Canadians also look at time as a monochronic concept, focused on the task at hand and valuing a certain orderliness for things. Someone from a collectivist, polychronic culture like the Philippines can focus on various things at once and they value relationships more than time.
“So you may have a meeting or a lunch that goes on for hours and you may not talk at all about business, but that is part of business because they look at that relationship being much more important,” Varughese said. “So, we get to the same outcome, but how we get there is different.”
At the Fredericton event, Varughese will be talking about how all of this pertains to recruitment, retention, employee engagement, and performance feedback. She will also talk about different communication styles.
She said different cultural backgrounds bring a diversity of perspectives to organizations that could lead to innovation, creativity and even better products and services.
“It’s not just the right thing to do…it actually can be even more profitable,” she added. “If we’re not adapting accordingly and understanding and becoming more aware, then we’re definitely going to lose the potential capacity of the amazing workforce that we have.”
Moser said attendees will also learn to understand more about their own ways of communicating and the barriers they may put up unintentionally.
“When they don’t look you in the eye or when they don’t shake your hand, unconscious bias sweeps in because it’s not traditional Canadian etiquette,” she said. “So just understanding these subtle differences can make a huge difference in how we relate and how we think about immigration in this province.”
Those interested in attending can buy tickets here. The event will have simultaneous French/English translation. Doors open at 7:45 a.m for registration and breakfast with opening remarks at 8:30 a.m. It will conclude at 4:30 p.m.
This story was sponsored by Ignite Fredericton.