Leveraging Immigrant Talent

Strengthen Canadian Business

Employers across Canada are facing shortages of qualified management professionals, in part due to an aging population and high rates of retirement

Canada’s small to medium sized businesses (SME) comprise over 97% of independent business, and in 2005, SMEs employed 64% of private sector employees. These employers struggle to fill management and key technical positions, yet the talents they need may already be available within their organizations.

To fill the positions left by the retiring workforce, employers usually groom younger employees, who have traditionally been Canadian-born or from Europe or North America. These people are fewer in number than ever, which means business will rely increasingly on skilled immigrants to fill the void.

New best practices for grooming managerial talent are needed as business draws on internationally educated professionals who do not necessarily understand Canadian workplace culture. Highly skilled immigrant employees are likely to come from countries that are not traditional source countries for Canada, such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Existing talent management practices may need to be updated to make them more effective for this talent pool.

Recent highly skilled Canadian immigrants face serious employment challenges, and if they find employment, they are often underemployed and undervalued. Their competencies and capabilities are often not recognized; they become disengaged, and often leave the organization. In fact, 40% of skilled and professional male immigrants leave Canada permanently within 10 years of arriving.This level of turnover would be a human resource challenge at the best of times, but given the looming shortage of management staff and the inherent difficulties experienced by immigrants, it has become a crisis.

TalentNet was created with support from HRSDC, University of Ottawa, and many other organizations and individuals to be a free resource for Canadian employers to help them better understand their own talent management practices, recognize high-potential employees, in particular their immigrant employees, and create a pool of qualified management candidates. TalentNet is an immersive learning simulation tool that plays like a game while teaching employers how to develop inclusive talent management competencies for employee engagement and retention.