Suky discusses our growing skill shortage, as well as the division between companies who will hire people without Canadian experience and those who tend to not.
Transcription
Hi I’m Suky from Professional Selection. Today I’d like to talk about hiring new immigrants coming into Canada.
I think something we can all agree on, we do have a skill shortage. Various verticals, but we do have a talent shortage and we need to fill those roles. But one thing I am hearing so often when it comes to talking to anybody with regards to a CV of a candidate that’s new to the country is “oh but they’re great on paper, they have no Canadian experience”. Well guys unless we give them Canadian experience, they’re never going to get Canadian experience.
So what do we do? I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with my clients, who in return have been speaking with their clients and quite honestly, it’s really divided. I have those clients that are saying “you know what, it’s definitely worth investing in, definitely worth putting a training program etc together” and then there’s those that say “no, sorry, want somebody to hit the ground running must have Canadian experience.
Now there’s another side to this coin that I’m not really going to go into detail here but I’ll just touch on briefly. As a new immigrant coming into Canada you have a sense of responsibility and duty as well to yourself take ownership of your career. You don’t have Canadian experience, you don’t understand our work culture here so take the time to learn.
Yes, something may have worked a certain way back home, wherever home may be, England, Australia, India really doesn’t matter.
Don’t assume that is how things are done here. So that’s just an FYI.
Coming back to should we, shouldn’t we, hire somebody without Canadian experience. Well those clients that are saying yes we should hire those people, well they’re interviewing those individuals fully understanding that there’s going to be a learning curve for both the candidate and the company. So they may not necessarily see a return on investment so to speak on that individual in three or six months, where they may see that on somebody that’s coming in that has the Canadian experience.
But guys, we’ve all made hires where we’ve hired somebody with experience, even from a competitor and it’s not worked out.
So there’s no guarantee that it’s going to work out in either case but at least give it an opportunity.
We have another option available to us here and that’s to continue saying “no we’re not going to hire people that don’t have Canadian experience” But we also need to be aware if that’s the path we choose, these individuals have given up their livelihood from wherever they may have been, made a financial investment come to Canada. They may have family to support either here or back home, wherever home may be. So they have to work. Guess what – if they can’t get a job here and they cannot earn a livelihood and support their family what are they going to do?
They’re going to either go back home o they’re going to go to a country where the local experience isn’t as important, and people are willing to give them an opportunity. So at the end of the day we as a country, we need to look at this. It’s your business I’m not telling you how to hire all I’m saying is maybe we need to open our mind a little bit more.
As always, love to hear your comments, feel free to comment below. Thanks for taking the time.
