Improving inclusion and integration of immigrants through a voluntary workplace charter

Abstract

Setting

The communities of Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, and Kananaskis are home to some of Alberta’s most popular tourist attractions. In recent years, the area has seen a significant increase in foreign-born residents. The Bow Valley Immigration Partnership (BVIP) brings together immigrants and stakeholders from multiple sectors to identify and implement strategies to promote integration.

Intervention

In collaboration with community service agencies and local employers, we developed the Bow Valley Workplace Inclusion Charter (WIC), a set of voluntarily adopted policies designed to increase inclusive practices in the workplace and promote integration of newcomers into the community. We then recruited and supported several employers in the area to make and implement specific commitments related to improving social determinants of health such as working conditions, social inclusion, education, and social support networks for immigrant workers.

Outcomes

Eight Bow Valley employers, providing work for 38% of workers in the area, were enrolled in the pilot program. Mid-course evaluation identified facilitators and barriers to implementation of the WIC. At the conclusion of the pilot period, we evaluated the commitments implemented by each signatory to the WIC. Six of 8 employers fulfilled at least 5 commitments as articulated in the WIC, and 4 employers fulfilled 10 or more commitments.

Implications

The WIC is a novel way of partnering with employers, community service agencies and immigrant workers to create inclusive workplace practices and improve integration of immigrants into the community. The WIC also has the potential to be adapted to address the needs of other equity-seeking groups who bring diversity to the workplace.

Introduction

Canada is well known for its generous immigration policy (Green and Green 2004) and has the highest proportion of foreign-born residents among G8 member states (Statistics Canada 2013). The majority of people receiving permanent residency are economic immigrants selected on the basis of their skills and ability to contribute to Canada’s economy (Statistics Canada 2017). Consequently, immigrants form a significant part of Canada’s labour force with one in five Canadian workers being an immigrant (Institute for Work and Health 2009).

Employment and working conditions are key determinants of health (Mikkonen and Raphael 2010). Immigrants tend to be at higher risk for occupational health and safety problems than their Canadian-born counterparts (Smith and Mustard 2010). Immigrants also face higher levels of discrimination than non-immigrants and the workplace is the most common setting (Nangia 2013). Workplace discrimination is associated with poor mental health and worsening self-reported health status (Agudelo-Suárez et al. 2011).

Increasingly, it is being recognized that having a diverse and inclusive workforce contributes to better business outcomes such as productivity, retention, innovation, and financial performance (Herring 2009; Prime and Salib 2014). While diversity refers to the demographic makeup of groups and organizations, inclusion focuses on encouraging involvement and participation of diverse groups into everyday work life (Nair and Vohra 2015).

Diversity charters have been implemented in countries of the European Union since 2004 (European Commission 2015). They are a voluntarily adopted document indicating commitment of businesses and other workplaces to promote diversity and equal opportunity in the workplace (European Commission 2015). Evaluation of diversity charters in 13 European Union countries showed that organizations adopting the charters reported several positive outcomes, including more respectful behaviour patterns, fewer conflicts among employees, opportunities in new markets, attraction of talented people, increased innovation, and creativity from staff members (Wondrak 2014). There is a paucity of publications in the peer-reviewed literature on workplace inclusion charters and their impacts on workers or employers.

Immigrant well-being depends not only on workplace inclusion but also on successful integration into society. Integration is considered a reciprocal process whereby newcomers are incorporated into their new environment (Wilkinson 2013) and is measured in terms of inclusion and participation in the civic, political, social, and economic dimensions of a community (Phalet and Swyngedouw 2003). The concept of successful integration includes equitable access to social determinants of health such as employment and working conditions, housing, education, social inclusion, and social support networks.

Setting

The communities of Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, and Kananaskis (collectively referred to as the Bow Valley) are home to some of Alberta’s most popular tourist attractions. The hospitality industry is the largest employer in the area with a large number of entry-level, physically demanding jobs that are difficult to fill with Canadian workers. Foreign worker programs such as the Temporary Foreign Worker Program have helped alleviate labour shortages in this sector (Tourism Industry Association of Canada & Banff Lake Louise Hospitality Association n.d.). Many foreign workers subsequently transition to permanent residence status, mostly through the provincial immigrant nominee program. As a result, foreign-born individuals are an increasing proportion of the area’s population, with 34% of permanent and non-permanent residents in Banff being born outside of Canada (Statistics Canada 2016a). Such proportions of immigrants are more often found in larger metropolitan areas (Statistics Canada 2017) where immigrant services are concentrated, and less frequently in smaller communities where it can be challenging to reach and serve these groups. In 2014, the Bow Valley Immigration Partnership (BVIP) was formed to address gaps in immigrant integration in the area. BVIP brings together immigrants and stakeholders from multiple sectors such as education, employment, health, and settlement services to identify and implement strategies to promote integration (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.

Bow Valley Immigration Partnership (BVIP) governance structure in 2017

An integration assessment carried out by BVIP in 2014 revealed gaps in outcomes related to inclusion and employment. Forty percent of immigrants surveyed in the Bow Valley experienced discrimination and 70% of the time this happened in the workplace or when looking for a job. Although employment rates were high, one fifth of immigrants were not satisfied with their current job and two fifths of immigrants did not feel that their current job fit with their education and experience. Almost a third of surveyed immigrants did not understand Alberta employment standards or employee rights and responsibilities.

Given that 90% of recent immigrants in the area participate in the labour force (Statistics Canada 2016b) and that local employers are interested in recruiting and retaining immigrants, the workplace was seen as an ideal setting for intervening to accelerate successful integration of immigrants.

Intervention

Between May 2017 and October 2018, we piloted the Bow Valley Workplace Inclusion Charter (WIC), a set of voluntarily adopted policies with a related support system. The WIC was designed to increase inclusive practices in the workplace and to increase access to several key social determinants for immigrants in the community. We developed the WIC in collaboration with immigrant-serving community agencies and local employers. Foreign-born residents informed the process through participation in an integration needs assessment conducted immediately prior to development of the WIC and ongoing feedback provided by members of BVIP’s Immigrant Advisory Group. Through an interactive and iterative process, needs were prioritized into four major areas: improving access to language learning opportunities, improving employment standards knowledge and adherence, connecting newcomers to community services, and increasing cultural competence and inclusive practices in the workplace. The priorities were then translated into actionable workplace commitments. The following criteria were used to select the commitments incorporated into the WIC: necessity (commitments addressed known local integration gaps), efficacy (commitments, as worded, would help close such gaps), practicality (commitments were feasible for employers of varying sizes), and simplicity (commitments were written in plain language and did not require interpretation). Figure 2 gives a list of the 15 commitments at the core of the WIC.

Fig. 2.

The commitments contained in the 2017–2018 Bow Valley Workplace Inclusion Charter

With the help of local business associations, we recruited employers to adopt the WIC by signing the declaration of endorsement (Fig. 3). Employers were asked to complete at least 5 commitments from the WIC. We supported participating employers in fulfilling their commitments by providing a package of print and online materials with items such as pre-written internal memos, policy guidelines, best practices information, and lists of community resources. BVIP staff were also available to participating employers to answer questions and provide additional support.

Fig. 3.

Declaration of endorsement of the 2017–2018 Bow Valley Workplace Inclusion Charter

Twelve months into the project, we conducted an evaluation to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing the program and at the end of the pilot period, we assessed commitments fulfilled by signatories to the WIC. At both times, we collected data through semi-structured interviews with managers or human resource personnel representing each of the participating businesses. Facilitators and barriers to executing the WIC were identified using qualitative content analysis. We evaluated 13 rather than the original 15 commitments articulated in the WIC as provincial regulations on employment standards changed during the implementation period of our project and the commitment related to assessing knowledge of employment standards was removed, and two commitments under “Community Connections” were combined into one as a result of a community agency being unable to fulfill a designated role.

The pilot period concluded with an event offering professional development workshops, networking between current and future signatories, and a press conference during which participants were recognized as Inclusion Champions at the Gold, Silver, or Bronze level according to the extent they had fulfilled the commitments in the WIC.

Outcomes

Eight Bow Valley employers became signatories to the WIC pilot program. They represented 28 businesses located in Banff and Canmore. The signatories taken as a whole employed 2846 full-time equivalent employees, with a median of 132 full-time equivalent employees per business and a range of 8 to 1520. The total number of employees working for WIC signatories represented 83% of hotel workers in Banff and Canmore and 38% of all workers in the area.

Six of 8 employers fulfilled at least 5 commitments as agreed to in the declaration of endorsement, and 4 employers fulfilled 10 or more commitments (Fig. 4). A breakdown of the number of signatories fulfilling each commitment is given in Table 1.

Fig. 4.

Breakdown of number of 2017 Bow Valley Inclusion Charter commitments fulfilled by signatories (out of a possible 13 commitments)

Table 1.

Breakdown of number (percentage) of signatories fulfilling each commitment

Commitments	Signatories fulfilling commitment (%)
Community connections
• Community support resources	8 (100)
• Scheduling for settlement support	7 (88)
• Referral for permanent resident workshop	4 (50)
Employment standards
• Communication of employment standards	6 (75)
• Supervisor training	2 (25)
• Open-door policy	8 (100)
• Ethical purchasing	1 (13)
Language learning
• Connecting to language learning	5 (63)
• Scheduling around language classes	6 (75)
• On-site language classes	6 (75)
Culture and leadership
• Intercultural training	0 (0)
• Plain language use	6 (75)
• Inclusion as organizational value	6 (75)

Facilitators

Respondents identified a number of factors that facilitated execution of the WIC. Having a human resource department in the organization with dedicated staff overseeing the implementation of the WIC was perceived to be a facilitator by several respondents, as was having existing organizational policies and practices in alignment with the WIC. Respondents reported perceiving the threshold for participation as low in terms of financial cost and amount of change required within their organization and also reported the online and print resources provided to be helpful. Recognition as Inclusion Champions and the associated publicity for signing and fulfilling WIC commitments were cited as motivators for participation, as was a desire by employers to create a positive work environment and take pride in the diversity of their employees and community. Finally, timing the endorsement of the WIC outside of busy operational seasons, having advance notice regarding evaluation dates and publicity events, and sharing practices among signatories during meetings of a common business association were other factors cited as facilitators to participation in the WIC.

Challenges

Signatories also reported a number of challenges within their own businesses and in engaging other community organizations during the implementation of the WIC.

Internal challenges

Within their own organizations, respondents found operational priorities often overshadowed work related to implementing the WIC commitments. Human resource managers reported finding it easier to implement the commitments that they had control over, but harder to achieve completion of commitments that needed to be carried out by other staff in the business or suppliers outside of the organization. For some employees in a supervisory role, the perception that the WIC favoured one group of employees (i.e., immigrants) over others made implementation of commitments related to scheduling problematic. Smaller businesses, especially those without human resource departments, reported finding it challenging to implement the WIC without higher levels of external support. Changes within the business such as company rebranding and turnover in managers and leadership were also cited as difficulties.

External challenges

Several participants reported that communication channels with BVIP, and information sharing with other signatories, could have been improved. Some participants reported that community organizations did not or could not respond to their requests for on-site language instruction and cultural competency training. Problems related to resource materials such as not receiving enough copies of brochures or non-functioning web links in electronic resources were also reported.

Lessons learned

The success of our project hinged on being able to engage with businesses employing a large proportion of employees in the area. This was enabled by existing and developing relationships between BVIP, area employers, and their local business associations, and by employers’ motivation to recruit and retain employees. We found that employers had a sense of ownership of the project as representatives were involved very early in the process to co-create the WIC. However, having buy-in from managers and leadership was not always enough to implement some commitments and we learned that, depending on the culture of the workplace, relationship-building may need to target all organizational levels, including immediate supervisors. As with employers, relationships with community service agencies and their early involvement were foundational to improving how systems and sectors worked together to achieve the goals of this project.

We underestimated the amount of ongoing support employers would need during the course of this project to prioritize and implement the WIC. Likewise, we found that community service agencies would have benefited from more frequent communication regarding their role in supporting the commitments made by employers. Finally, we found that despite efforts to word commitments in the WIC to be simple and unambiguous, several businesses had adapted and interpreted the commitments during implementation. This may have affected or changed outcomes for their employees.

Implications

The Workplace Inclusion Charter is a novel way of partnering with employers, community service agencies, and immigrant workers to create inclusive workplace practices and improve integration of immigrants into the community. The WIC integrates key concepts in health promotion (Rootman and O’Neill 2017) and is consistent with frameworks that integrate population health and health promotion (Hamilton and Bhatti 1996). Specifically, the commitments in the WIC aim to improve social determinants of health related to employment and working conditions, social inclusion, education, and social support networks, and empower immigrants to participate successfully in Canadian society.

The WIC demonstrates 3 key action areas for health promotion as outlined in the Ottawa Charter (World Health Organization 1986): supportive environments, personal skills, and community action. We sought to create supportive work environments for immigrants by embedding inclusion as a core organizational value, by improving cultural competence within businesses, and by advocating for fair treatment policies in the workplace. The WIC can contribute to the development of personal skills through improving knowledge of employment standards and increasing access to English language classes for immigrant workers. Furthermore, community action for improved immigrant health was strengthened through (1) participation of immigrant workers in creating the WIC; (2) strengthening of existing community structures such as the Immigrant Advisory Group and BVIP Council; and (3) intersectoral collaboration among employment, health, education, and other sectors.

There are several limitations to the evaluation we undertook of this pilot project. Conducting interviews with immigrant workers at workplaces in addition to interviews with employers would have yielded information about implementation effectiveness from the workers’ perspective and served to complement data collected from employers. Given the early stage of program development, we chose to do a process evaluation examining the extent of WIC implementation, and barriers and facilitators to implementation. An outcome-based evaluation of the project is needed in the future to understand what changed for immigrant workers and their employers as a result of the WIC. In particular, we would want to collect data on impacts on health and social determinants of health such as changes in self-reported physical and mental health, income, working conditions, workplace discrimination, English language skills, and social support networks.

The impetus for the WIC arose from conversations between settlement and other community service providers on how best to collaborate with employers to improve settlement and integration outcomes for immigrant workers in the hospitality industry. With intersectoral partnerships in the community, BVIP was well positioned to innovate a tool to bridge the gap between public and private sectors. Our initiative arising from locally identified needs, intersectoral collaboration at the grass-roots level, and involvement of an immigrant advisory group stands in contrast to the diversity charters of the European Union that use a top-down model of policy implementation. Likewise, WIC commitments aimed at improving referral rates to support services and connections to community fundamentally differ from initiatives focused solely on changing organizational culture. Whether implemented using top-down or bottom-up approaches, the WIC has the potential to support building healthy public policy, the fourth key action area outlined in the Ottawa Charter.

This project was entirely conceived, developed, and implemented by community service agencies and businesses from outside of the public health realm. Yet, the project has clear implications for population health and is firmly grounded in current concepts of health promotion theory and practice. Reorienting health services, the fifth key action area in the Ottawa Charter, is frequently thought of as a shift from diagnostic and curative services to preventive and health-promoting services within the healthcare sector; however, it can apply in equal measure to public health. We suggest that upstream work of this kind falls appropriately within the realm of practice of public health practitioners and there is an important role for them to play in development, scaling, and evaluation of similar initiatives. This project focused on the needs of immigrant populations; however, there is potential for the WIC to be adapted and expanded to other equity-seeking groups.

Conclusion

Immigrants form a significant part of Canada’s labour force and are at higher risk of workplace injuries and discrimination. The WIC is a health promotion tool designed to improve inclusive practices in the workplace and to accelerate integration of immigrants by improving access to social determinants of health such as employment and working conditions, social inclusion, education, and social supports. Preliminary evaluation revealed that real-world implementation of this tool is possible and leads to at least moderate organizational uptake. An outcome evaluation needs to be carried out in the future to prove effectiveness.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.