On March 9, 2010, Stats Canada released a report stating that the diversity of Canada’s population will continue to increase over the next two decades, Stats Canada Report. One of the report highlights says that by 2031, between 25% and 28% of the population could be foreign-born. It is expected that 30% of Calgary’s population will be foreign born.
What does this mean for future workforce planning for Canadian companies? My colleague, Ken Vinge, spoke to Calgary’s Global Television yesterday about this topic to share BOWEN’s viewpoint, Global Story.
Quite simply, companies need to start planning how they will recruit, incorporate and manage their foreign workers NOW. For several years, BOWEN’s Immigrant Works program helped to place temporary foreign workers into professional intern jobs. Our learnings from this program are very relevant to future workforce planning.
Companies need to take into considerations the language and cultural nuances in managing a foreign workforce. Plan for how you will support foreign professionals within your workplace and orient them to how business typically operate in North America. How will you coach your managers to really maximize the benefit of this dynamic workforce? What we do know is companies that are already hiring foreign workers and investing in diversity in the workplace will be ahead of the curve when the real hiring crunch comes. Best of all, they will reap the rewards of a knowledgeable, talented, hardworking and loyal workforce. And that makes great business sense to me!
