Case Studies

PNI Digital tapped a world of talent

Revenue at PNI Digital Media grew 6500% over the past five years. During that time, President and COO Aaron Rallo didn’t consciously set out to hire immigrants – it just happened.

“We looked for the best and the brightest and the most talented, and if that person was an immigrant, as long as there were no major barriers in terms of written and verbal communication, we were happy to have them,” says the lean 36 year old, who helped take PNI from bankrupt to booming.

“We run online photo centres for retailers around the world. We have customers in China, Australia, the UK, Puerto Rico,” explains Rallo. His clients include heavy-hitters like Walmart, Costco, Hallmark, Kodak and the UK grocery chain Tesco.

PNI has no HR department, and Rallo has handled much of the hiring himself. Five years ago PNI had seven employees. Today it has 140 employees, and his staff includes people from India, Russia, Ukraine, Bosnia, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Iran.

Although Rallo wasn’t looking for anything but great programmers, hiring immigrants had unexpected benefits.

One example: PNI was producing a website for Kodak in China. Although the client had only requested an English version of the admin tool, a Chinese-born programmer went above and beyond. “He actually wrote a complete second version in Chinese. Which was a total surprise to us, and very welcome by the customer. He essentially did it on his own time to make it a little bit easier for the people on the other end of the phone working with it.”

Having immigrants on staff has also eased everything from conference calls to marketing. “With conference calls it really comes in handy, especially more technical conference calls with our clients in China, to be able to speak with them in their native language. When you are doing a conference call... and you have people here with the same accent, the same way of greeting, of introducing each other, I think it just makes everyone feel a little more comfortable, right off the bat. Also, having people here from different countries, they understand how culturally retailers work in those regions.”

Downsides? “We haven’t seen any major stumbling blocks at all,” says Rallo.

However, one area where the hiring team does make accommodations is in the interview process. “We try to have a little bit of patience,” says Rallo. “If there’s a language barrier, it might be more evident [at the start] than... after the first 25 minutes of the interview when they relax and get a little bit more comfortable. We certainly understand that if English isn’t your first language, it’s a challenge to communicate at the pace at which we communicate. So, we give them a bit of time to settle in, at least through the interview, and maybe do a follow up interview when they’re more comfortable to see if there’s a language barrier or not.”

Rallo’s advice about hiring immigrants? Go for it. “If they are talented, you’re going to reap the rewards. You might even get a new level of dedication from some of those employees, for being given an opportunity.”

The City of Vancouver tapped cultural competence

For Wendy Au, the equation is simple.

“To meet your customers’ needs, you have to really understand your customers,” says Au, an elegant and gracious woman who has over three decades of experience with city administration.

“Our customers are the residents of the city. Today, for 52% of Vancouver residents, English is not their mother tongue. To serve them well, simply translating programs into other languages isn’t enough. For effective design and implementation of our programs, we need staff who really understand all the cultures in our very diverse city,” says Au.

“For example, how do you ensure that neighbourhood planning meets the needs of the women who live there, when women from certain cultures aren’t culturally encouraged to attend the kind of meetings where we traditionally solicit input? Our staff have devised some very clever workarounds to obtain the feedback we need, so that we make the best use of taxpayer dollars. But our staff could only do that because they have the cultural expertise,” Au explains.

That’s why the City of Vancouver considers integrating immigrants into their workforce essential. In fact, the city has been a local leader in immigrant integration over the past several decades. Au sees it as a process which starts from the top.

“You need committed leadership, and you have to reallocate resources. To make it work, we’ve done training throughout the organization, and we’ve also hired people who can help do the bridging,” says Au.

Another factor is that the City of Vancouver is facing a demographic crunch. Approximately 35% to 40% of the City’s employees will be eligible to retire in the next five to ten years. However, instead of seeing this as a crisis, Au sees it as an opportunity to recruit staff from diverse backgrounds who will be able to relate to — and effectively serve — the City’s increasingly diverse population.

“We want people to feel proud that Vancouver is their city, and to do that, people have to feel that they are welcome, and that their needs as citizens are being met. We are well on our way, and over the next ten years it’s only going to get better,” Au concludes with a delighted smile.

HSBC Bank Canada is tapping global markets

Want your business to grow? Orient it more towards growing markets.

That’s the advice offered by Lindsay Gordon, President and CEO HSBC Bank Canada.

“Most future economic growth is going to come from the emerging markets, from developing countries. So we need to diversify towards those emerging markets. It’s just good business,” Gordon says.

And what’s an easy way to access those markets? Hire immigrants, says Gordon.

“Most immigrants to Canada are now coming from those emerging markets. They speak those languages, they know the business culture. If you are looking to the future, and to grow your business outside of Canada, outside of North America, hiring these immigrants will help you,” says Gordon, a tall man whose sharp blue eyes don’t seem to miss much.

Given his analysis, Gordon is probably quite pleased with the position his own company is in. HSBC Bank Canada has roughly 8000 staff; an astounding 48% are visible minorities, and many are immigrants.

Gordon acknowledges that the financial services sector has fewer barriers to hiring immigrants than some other sectors. “Banking is banking is banking. It’s not dramatically different from one country to another. And there aren’t the same credential recognition issues you have in other sectors,” he says.

But Gordon also attributes HSBC Bank Canada’s impressive stats to the bank’s origins in Asia and international scale, which he says have made the company both more open to and more attractive to immigrants. “We operate in 87 countries around the world, so we are a natural magnet for people when they come to Canada. They’ve probably already heard of HSBC, wherever they’re from,” Gordon explains.

Furthermore, while some companies are leery of hiring immigrants because of language issues, Gordon actually sees immigrants who have English as a second language as an asset.

“Some immigrants have weaker English language skills, but they’re keen to learn, and think of the people they can connect with in your marketplace or community as potential customers. Their English language skills may be a weakness, but their own language, whether it’s Mandarin or Punjabi can be a real strength, actually. Canada is an incredibly multicultural country, with a lot of immigrants. To me it is intuitively obvious – you want to hire immigrants and you want a work force that reflects the customer base that you have — or the customer base you want to have.”

Despite the large percentage of immigrants in its workforce, HSBC Bank Canada hasn’t found a need for any specific programs or training to help immigrants integrate. “We have programs everyone can access, and recent immigrants probably take more advantage of them than other staff, for language training, mostly. But we haven’t had to develop anything for immigrants per se.”

Little to lose, much to gain: the bottom line for this banker is that hiring immigrants is an excellent business proposition.

Investors Group tapped growing local markets

It’s time to buy in.

That’s the investment guru’s advice when it comes to tapping the growing population of foreign-born Canadians.

“English is really a second language in Burnaby today. In the past five years, the immigrant population has increased tremendously in Burnaby, in Richmond, in the Tri-Cities area. As employers, we need to keep pace,” says Bala Naidoo, the affable Regional Director of Investors Group for Burnaby and Coquitlam.

That’s why Naidoo is actively searching out immigrant employees.

“The big advantage in hiring foreign born individuals is their great understanding of the culture and their knowledge of some of the hardships immigrants face. Hiring, training and developing great candidates from these populations is a natural lead in to these market segments.”

Investors Group provides training and development to help people start their own financial planning businesses. Naidoo has had great success tapping into both the local Chinese and Indian immigrant populations by hiring people born in those countries. One recent hire has become a star employee:
“I interviewed her 15 months ago. She was a doctor in China, but it would take her over four years to qualify to practice medicine here, and she decided the barriers to entry were much lower with us. She’s doing phenomenally well. She’s exceeded her targets, and now she’s looking at getting into management. If I had not given her the opportunity, it would have been a real loss for Investors Group. We are using this individual to attract like minded individuals and build a Chinese division within our region. She’s a very hard worker. You know when you give someone an opportunity, the payoff is huge in terms of their commitment, their loyalty, and their dedication,” says Naidoo.

Naidoo, who is originally from South Africa, acknowledges that employers need to go outside their own comfort zones when hiring immigrant employees. “It is hard to understand and build and be patient, and it does take a real focus, otherwise we keep doing what we’ve always done, and that is to keep recruiting people that we feel comfortable with. The big thing for me is to have my leadership team and I come out of our comfort zones and not be scared about trying different things.”

One of the new things Naidoo and his team are trying is a different approach to interviewing immigrant employees. “We had a set interview process at Investors Group. But in other cultures, building the relationship is very important. So instead of the very formal process we’ve used in the past, my team now spends more time getting to know the individual more informally. For example, in Chinese culture, food is an integral part of building relationships, so with a Chinese candidate, maybe we would go for lunch as part of our interview process. Adapting our interview process has been a key learning for us.”

According to Naidoo, the adaptation has to continue after hiring too. “The other thing is spending the time integrating immigrant hires with the existing culture of the office, and taking the time, on an ongoing basis, to make these individuals feel comfortable. We do this by socializing with them, making sure that we spend the time introducing them to their co-workers, and also having forums so that we build better relationships.”

The process of learning to tap into what immigrant employees offer is like Canadians culture’s relationship to “ethnic” cuisines, Naidoo says. “We’re just uncomfortable trying something different. There was a time people didn’t eat sushi. And now it’s become a staple. This is the same thing. I now see the potential. Previously, I did not. I was very apprehensive. Now I see that as a great opportunity for a company like us to increase our client base and to really penetrate this market sector. I keep talking to employers who say the same thing: once they take the leap, they agree: it’s an amazing opportunity. There’s just so much to gain,” Naidoo concludes confidently.

Safeway tapped a world of innovation

Cliff Yeo chuckles at the Safeway of yesteryear.

“In the mid-80s, I was part of a management training group. All ten of us were white males, around the same age, most with young children. We were basically clones of each other,” says Yeo, smiling wryly at the memory.

“Imagine if our VP had asked that group to brainstorm for an innovative idea. How successful would we have been, compared to the Safeway of today, where our management teams now include women, people from all over the world, members of our aboriginal community, people with different sexual orientations and people with disabilities?” asks Yeo.

Yeo, a warm man with a friendly smile, is now a Human Resources Advisor with the giant supermarket chain, and over the years he’s seen Safeway evolve into an employer which consciously incorporates immigrants and other aspects of workforce diversity into every aspect of the business.

He notes that Safeway provides workshop training in diversity and inclusiveness for all management-level employees. It has a diversity website on their company intranet that includes a resource library and training materials. Progress on diversity goals is monitored quarterly, and results are embedded into leaders’ performance appraisals and compensation structure. All the diversity activity is coordinated by a corporate diversity and an inclusion department.

It seems to be working: Safeway was called one of “Canada's ‘Best Diversity Employers 2010.”

“We’re proud of our diverse team at Safeway. From our corporate offices to the front lines, Safeway is built on the strength of our people and we value the differences they bring to the workplace. Diversity of thought is what employers should strive for,” says Yeo.

BC Hydro beat the skills crunch

BC Hydro saw a potential skills shortage on the horizon.

“BC Hydro has about 6000 employees. About 40% are baby boomers who could retire in the next ten years,” says Lesley MacDonald, who manages the diversity portfolio for the crown corporation.

“The boomers will be retiring right at the same time as BC Hydro will be taking on huge, complex new projects. So we have to be proactive, or we’ll be facing a serious skills shortage just down the road.”

That’s one of the reasons BC Hydro is tapping into BC’s immigrant talent pool, using strategies such as supporting foreign-trained workers in obtaining Canadian accreditation, by offering tutoring, coaching, and flexible work hours.

BC Hydro is also making hiring immigrants a priority because it wants a workforce that fully reflects the demographics of the province by 2017. MacDonald explains the business drivers behind that decision this way:

“Firstly, our research shows having people with different experience, backgrounds and perspectives working together on projects improves business results. Secondly, by having employees who really understand our customers because they have the same backgrounds, we get fabulous insight into our customers. Thirdly, we think it makes us a more attractive employer for both new Canadians and non-immigrants looking for a dynamic, creative work environment.”
MacDonald’s advice to other employers?

“As the economy recovers and the baby boomers retire, skill shortages will mean a very competitive talent market,” says MacDonald. “I’d advise employers think about creating an explicit strategy to include immigrant groups in their plans for business growth, ensuring they also adjust the organizational environment to ensure their success.”

Telus tapped growing local markets

For Richard Beed, hiring immigrants is just common sense.

“At Telus, we want our team to really understand and mirror our customers. In 2031, 59% of the population in the Vancouver area will be visible minorities. That will be the mix of our customers, whether it’s consumers or businesses. So how do we support those customers? You have to ensure that your team members reflect that reflect that diversity and really understand the resulting broad range of markets. That’s just a reality of business: you have to mirror,” says the youthful, energetic Vice President of Talent Solutions at Telus.

Beed hasn’t had any problems selling the strategy internally, either. “For us it’s all about customer first, so mirroring really resonates for our hiring managers; they can see the correlation between having staff that mirror your customers and providing the best possible customer service.”

The Canadian telecom giant does help their managers broaden their perspective on what makes a good hire. “We go though manager training to help insure that people are judging applicants for their skills and personalities and what they can bring to the table, rather than the easier route of just hiring the person most like you. Otherwise managers keep hiring in their likeness and you keep getting the same types of people,” Beed explains.

Originally from England, Beed has only been in Canada for four years himself. He says the fact that he had training and work experience from abroad was part of what made him attractive to Telus — and that principle applies to people from anywhere. “When you come from outside Canada, you bring a different perspective to the table, and that’s good for the organization as a whole. The more diversity of thought that we have in the organization the better it’s going to be.”

Beed doesn’t understand companies who are reluctant to hire immigrants. “As the demographics of Canada continue to change, ultimately, where will they hire from?” He also thinks that, by failing to mirror their entire potential customer base, these companies essentially cut themselves out of currently “underutilized” markets.

“We see hiring immigrants as a huge opportunity. Others don’t. We see it as a positive … and we’re certainly going after it,” Beed concludes, flashing a confident grin.