In an economic context marked by a major labor shortage, the inclusion of immigrants in the labor market offers a concrete solution to local organizations and businesses facing glaring challenges. With the Montréal Inclusive at Work initiative and the resulting Pact for the inclusion of immigrants in the workplace for the second year in a row, the metropolis is moving into solution mode.
Immigration is essential to Quebec’s post-pandemic economic growth. But recruiting immigrants is not enough: organizations must prepare to welcome them and equip them for success so that they can develop their full potential. The Office for the Integration of Newcomers to Montreal (BINAM) of the Diversity and Social Inclusion Department of the City of Montreal has piloted several innovative initiatives recognized internationally, in particular by the UN.
BINAM’s primary mission is to facilitate the socio-economic integration of immigrants who choose Montreal. First by ensuring their welcome and inclusion, and then by providing them with all the necessary tools so that they can integrate into their community and thrive in their new city. Several programs are offered to achieve this end, in particular those of the Inclusive Montreal at Work initiative which, since June 2019, has made the economic integration of newcomers a municipal priority. Moreover, the ÉCHO barometer of the City of Montreal has shown that economic integration is the priority of immigrants.
Access to quality jobs greatly facilitates integration and constitutes an important lever of growth for the economy of Greater Montreal. In this regard, the City of Montreal is counting on numerous partners, mainly from the community, institutional, educational and business sectors, to make the actors of change aware of the challenges of integration and to unite actions so that they are coherent and concerted.
An approach that changes mindsets
Despite the fact that most leaders of the Montreal business community recognize the needs and challenges associated with the professional integration of immigrants, the means to achieve this are not always easy to identify, nor are the best practices to achieve the objectives. Among BINAM’s most innovative initiatives, let’s highlight the Pact for the inclusion of immigrants in the workplace, created in 2021, and which will continue until 2024 in collaboration with the Pôle IDEOS of HEC Montréal, and with the financial participation of the Government of Quebec. It will welcome its second cohort this fall.
Like the first edition, which took place in the winter of 2021, the Pacte 2022 will offer 25 Montreal companies or organizations free of charge tailor-made support supervised by specialized multidisciplinary researchers. Its objective: to help participants promote the professional integration of immigrant workers. All the elements allowing a successful integration will be approached within the framework of supervised workshops dealing among others with the identification of talents, the processes of hiring, the integration in company and the professional evolution of the workers. Through co-design sessions, representatives of SMEs and companies that have been selected following a call for applications will be called upon to develop an appropriate action plan that will then be implemented. At the end of the course, trained managers will be able to take concrete impact actions in terms of professional integration.
A successful first experience
During the first phase of the implementation of the Pact, ten participating organizations were supported by researchers and experts from HEC Montréal, taking into account the reality of each. Among those who were part of this first cohort, let us mention the STM, TOHU, Moneris, the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) and the City of Montreal. Over a period of a few months, the 64 participating managers will have received personalized support through workshops, micro-experiments and personalized coaching sessions.
No less than 85% of newcomers to Quebec choose to settle in the Montreal metropolitan area. The migratory movements of the last decade in the metropolis from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and the United States, in the case of asylum seekers, have stimulated the desire of the City to position itself as a leader in hospitality and inclusion.
At the end of this training course, the participating organizations are committed to developing and deploying a specific action plan for inclusion over a period ranging from 6 to 12 months. For example, the City of Montreal has chosen to train all of its human resources staffing teams on unconscious bias and to set up a team of super users who will act as referents. The CCQ, for its part, is committed to establishing a structured methodology to monitor the entire continuum of the professional integration of immigrants when they are hired.
In short, all managers who have participated in the Pact for the inclusion of immigrants in the workplace become, in a way, ambassadors of change within their business community and they contribute to promoting diversity within the hierarchical structures of their company.
Measurable benefits
The managers of the businesses and organizations that took part in the first cohort reaped significant benefits, particularly in terms of improving their skills in integrating newcomers into their pool of employees. The training course also enabled them to develop a global integration strategy adapted to their reality and to support the development of concrete solutions in terms of management, organizational development, innovation and diversity management. The result is to promote the attraction, hiring, integration and professional development of immigrants.
In their final report, the organizers of this unique training course estimate that the repercussions on the integration of newcomers will increase in the long term. A significant number of managers and employees will have been affected by the program over the past year, which will have helped to create and maintain more inclusive professional environments. Benefiting from a competitive advantage in their respective business fields validates not only the operational and strategic effectiveness of the program developed expressly by the City of Montreal and the Pôle Idéos of HEC Montréal for the Pact for inclusion in the work of immigrants, but also all the policies implemented in terms of reception and inclusion.
Clearly, the investments made to better integrate immigrants into Montreal society constitute a win-win solution. And it will grow with the next exercises, starting with the 2022 edition.
The Office for the Integration of Newcomers in Montreal creates the conditions to accelerate the process of socio-economic integration of newcomers and to ensure the inclusion of immigrants and people of color.
For information: montreal.ca
This content was produced by Le Devoir’s special publications team in collaboration with the advertiser. Le Devoir’s editorial team had no role in the production of this content.
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