Indigenous The Partnership is a regional collaborative to attract, welcome, and involve newcomers to Canada in our communities.
As Canada continues to welcome more immigrants from around the world, and advances in technology have changed the way we work, more and more diversity in the workplace is becoming important. This is not just the diversity of different ethnic backgrounds or nationalities, but the diversity of people, ways of life, and thinking. These differences can help push innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.
This isn’t merely inclusivity rhetoric. A study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America found that groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers. Add in that, diverse employees can bring different languages and cultural understandings, and companies find that diverse workforces are an advantage in an increasingly global economy.
A Statistics Canada study has also found that immigrant-owned firms had a higher rate of job growth than those by born Canadians. Giving newcomers a chance in the workplace can not only help them integrate into their new community, but it may also lead to growth of the community itself as new jobs and opportunities are created through a domino effect.
Here in Leeds and Grenville, in 2018-2019, the Employment + Education Centre served clients from 32 different countries, and CSE Consulting had clients from 8. This just showcases some of the diversity already in our region. There are several resources in SE Ontario to help both employees and employers create welcoming and diverse workplaces which can be found below.