A new top 20 listing shows which Canadian employer is struggling in hiring and integrating newcomers

Canada’s largest publisher of employment-related periodicals and online directories, Mediacorp, and the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers competition, in partnership with the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), have released a list of country’s Top 20 Employers who are setting the standards in hiring internationally trained immigrants, and ensuring their smooth transition into the Canadian workplace.

The Best Employers for New Canadians is an exceptional list of employers chosen out of 200 Canadian companies representing employment fields such as financial, high-tech, engineering, healthcare and academics. Large or small, all of these 20 employers are leading the way in opening their doors to newcomers.

Here are the top 20 best employers along with a brief overview of their policies for new Canadians:

i3 DVR International Inc. (Toronto, ON): i3 DVR hiring policy dictates that they hire the most qualified applicant by testing his/her technical skills, no matter what school, country or length of time in Canada. i3 DVR encourages new Canadian hires to develop their English skills on the job. The 50 per cent of i3 DVR head office workforce comprises of new Canadians.

Wardrop Engineering Inc. (Winnipeg, MB): Wardrop helps new Canadian employees obtain their professional engineering (P.Eng.) designation with formal technical mentoring and development programs.

University Of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK): UoS recently introduced an international medical graduate residency program to help new immigrant physicians obtain their licenses in Saskatchewan.

Toronto Transit Commission (Toronto, ON): TTC encourages internationally trained employees to have their credentials assessed by World Education Services (WES). TTC has recently joined TRIEC's Mentoring Partnership program while conducts regular outreach employment presentations for community centers, programs and agencies that aid new Canadians.

TD Bank Financial Group (Toronto, ON): TD provides the largest number of relationships in TRIEC's Mentoring Partnership program and has hired more than half of their Career Bridge interns since the program's inception in 2003. TD has also developed the financial services industry component of Ryerson University's new Professional Communication for Employment program, which helps new Canadians improve their soft skills. In TD’s management associate program, 50 per cent of trainees are internationally trained professionals.

St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto, ON): St. Michael’s runs in-house mentorship program, which provides internationally trained professionals with interview and communication skills’ training, and job shadowing opportunities in fields such as HR, laboratory technology, library science, IT and finance. St. Michael’s is a founding member of CARE Centre for Internationally Educated Nurses, an agency that offers mentoring, job shadowing, work-related experience and exam preparation services to help foreign-trained nurses enter the nursing field more quickly. It also published mentorship guidebook called "Making Connections: A New Model of Mentoring or Internationally Trained Professionals."

Replicon Inc. (Calgary, AB): Replicon provides six-week work placements in a corporate training program, which helps immigrants gain Canadian work experience in their field of expertise. It also provides on-site testing during the hiring process to evaluate the practical skills of new Canadian candidates in addition to considering their international credentials.

Providence Health Care (Vancouver, BC): PHC encourages new Canadian hires to get their international credentials evaluated at point-of-hire by referring them to a provincially recognized evaluation service, and includes international work experience when determining the starting wage rate of new Canadian employees. PHC provides an intensive orientation and training program for internationally trained nurses, and provides ESL tutoring.

Manulife Financial Corp. (Toronto, ON): Manulife serves as a host employer with the Career Bridge internship program since its inception in 2003. It is currently hosting five Career Bridge interns and serves as a host employer in TRIEC's Mentoring Partnership program.

MDS Nordion Inc. (Ottawa, ON): MDS Nordion serves as an inaugural member of the employer council of champions for Hire Immigrants Ottawa. It provides intercultural training and language programs to employees.

Keane Canada Inc. (Halifax, NS): Keane recognizes international education and work experience through local agencies, provides an English-in-the-workplace program for new Canadian employees in conjunction with the Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre and the Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association. It also manages an employee buddy program to help new hires adjust to life in Halifax.

KPMG LLP (Toronto, ON): KPMG serves as a host employer with TRIEC's Mentoring Partnership program for more than two years. It reimburses the cost of CA equivalency courses or assessments for new Canadian employees writing the CA reciprocity exam and operates a training pilot program on how to manage a culturally diverse workforce.

Island Hearing Services (Victoria, BC): IHS helps new Canadian employees obtain certification with Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA) or other bodies through supervisory work agreements and pays the licensing fees for new Canadians seeking to gain certification in Canada. It also provides supplementary training to help new Canadians achieve Canadian equivalency.

Enbridge Inc. (Calgary, AB): Enbridge evaluates international credentials and education of new Canadian job applicants using services like WES and manages internal mentorship program that pairs new Canadian employees or interns with a mentor. Enbridge hired former Career Bridge interns to senior-level positions as project leaders, financial analysts, revenue analysts and IT and system support specialists. It also provides an on-site multi-faith room.

Ernst & Young LLP (Toronto, ON): Ernst & Young screens candidates on technical skills prior to interview in order to eliminate cultural barriers during the hiring process. It provides inclusiveness training workshops to all their recruiters and provides an in-house CA reciprocity exam for employees with international credentials. Ernst & Young also participates in TRIEC's Mentoring Partnership program.

CIBC (Toronto, ON): As an active participant in TRIEC's Mentoring Partnership program, CIBC have hired several former Career Bridge interns as senior financial analysts. It created newcomers to Canada internet portal on its careers website, which provides information on foreign credential assessment while works with WES to speed up foreign credential assessment and verification. CIBC also provides ESL classes to employees as part of the corporate training program.

Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. (Waterloo, ON): Christie attends recruitment fairs and networking breakfasts specifically for internationally educated professionals and provides on-site ESL tutors to help internationally trained engineers develop their technical vocabulary. Christie has also revised interview process to accommodate cultures that have difficulty talking about their strengths.

CAE Inc. (Montreal, QC): CAE pays educational course fees for new Canadian employees looking to improve their skills or obtain Canadian equivalency, offers free in-house English- and French-language courses on weeknights, and recognizes international undergraduate degrees on par with Canadian undergraduate degrees.

Business Development Bank of Canada (Montreal, QC): BDC recognizes foreign credentials and experience when screening newcomers’ applications.

Associated Engineering Group Ltd. (Edmonton, AB): AE provides training and educational support to internationally educated employees obtaining their professional registration. It also provides mentoring so employees can receive Canadian experience to become registered.

Canadian businesses and government capitalizing on business mentorship programs

Spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project, MENTOR, and the Corporation for National and Community Services, this US-based initiative now gaining momentum in Canada as more companies celebrate National Mentoring Month (NMM) this January.

NMM was first held in January 2002 and after five years of raising awareness about the value of business mentoring, a growing number of Canadian companies are now setting up or expanding mentoring programs in the workplace to enhance career development opportunities, to offer another attraction and retention tool to employees and to build stronger ties between different generations and departments.

This type of mentoring relationship gives something back to a new generation of employees after learning by trial and error, while creating another mechanism to achieve business goals. These programs help reduce the possibility of repeating the same mistakes that past generations have made, which ultimately boosts productivity and reduces barriers to career advancement.

A month-long outreach campaign focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities and nonprofits can work together to develop a national policy and/or framework which would provide a societal context for business mentoring programs for immigrants.

On the government side, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has also identified business mentoring as one strategy to address the complex issue of finding a job by newcomer to Canada for which he/she is trained and capable. CIC is interested in developing a model for business mentoring program, which can be offered through the Host Programs by Host program service providers. The suggested objectives of this model are (a) to build immigrants’ social capital and understanding of the Canadian labor market; and (b) to reduce barriers to employment by reducing racial stereotypes through increased cross-cultural understanding.

To achieve these goals and objectives, business mentorship or partnership programs will connect skilled immigrants (mentees) with established professionals in both the public and private sectors who share the same occupation (mentors). Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), Career Edge, Career Bridge, Association for New Canadians Mentoring Links, CARE for Nurses, Skills for Change, SUCCESS Job Mentoring Program, and Youth in Motion New Horizons Mentorship program are few examples of such community organizations whose programs may be applicable to business mentoring program for immigrants delivered through the Host program.

In Canada almost all mentoring programs are funded through local donations or community organizations, while very little funding is provided by federal or provincial jurisdictions. The YMCA Cross Cultural and Community Services in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge regions of Ontario, however, recently received a new funding of $1.4 million from CIC, which will be used to fund a business mentoring program for immigrants, developed and administered by YMCA.

In addition to the mentorship programs, Canadian government, in partnership with provinces, territories and settlement providers, delivers a number of other programs that help newcomers settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society. Some of these programs include (a) the Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP), which offers orientation and interpretation services as well as referrals to community resources, counselling, general information and employment-related services; (b) the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC), which provides basic language training; (c) the Host Program, which helps newcomers by connecting them to Canadian volunteers who help them learn about community services, practise English or French, participate in community activities, understand the Canadian labour market, and find job contacts in their field; (d) Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO), which help internationally trained individuals find the information and access the path-finding and referral services they need to put their skills to work when they arrive in Canada; and (e) The Enhanced Language Training (ELT) Initiative, which help immigrants improve their language, pronunciation and workplace skills, as well as improve their self-confidence through a variety of bridge-to-work activities and services.