March 9, 2020 Leave a Comment

Are we Doing Enough to Support Immigrant Women in the Workplace?

Senior Asian woman talking to insurance agent in office

March 8th, 2020 was International Women’s Day; a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and girls, and raising awareness of the work that needs to be done to achieve equality.

Immigrant women face a range of challenges in the workforce, including the gender pay gap, and difficulties accessing executive roles in the workforce. This is made even clearer by the data — a recent study by TRIEC shows that women only make up about 36 percent of executive roles in the Greater Toronto Area, and when those 36 percent are analyzed for immigration status and ethnicity, the number falls further — only 2 percent of executive roles in are occupied by racialized immigrant women.

Our Mentors Share Their Stories

To mark International Women’s Day, we asked a few of our female mentors to share their stories and challenges in finding a place in the Canadian workforce.

Portrait of Maral Melkonian

Maral Melkonian arrived from Syria in 2016, with a background in banking. After a challenging job search, she secured a position as a Credit Analyst at TD Bank and joined the Canada InfoNet program as a mentor. Experiences dealing with immigration challenges and assistance she received from employment and mentoring programs inspired her to become a mentor.

She shared the following about her experience:

It is very hard for all of us to be uprooted from our land, home, friends and parents, packing all our life souvenirs in few suitcases, and decide to begin a new life in a very different country like Canada, different in culture, nature, weather and environment. Undertaking the challenge because we all believe we are going to have a better and safer life, a brilliant future for our children and us.

The biggest and hardest challenge comes when we start to search for a job, related to the same profession and field (we had before immigrating). The main and most important point is to meet the correct person or organization to help and advise you, not necessarily by finding the job, but an encouraging word makes and means a lot, or lead you to dive deeper in searches in the proper sectors, companies and institutions.

In addition to barriers faced by all immigrants, women have to overcome additional challenges, Maral shares:

…the work schedule, the working hours and days, especially if they have families and young kids. It is so hard to manage if both parents are working and they have to accept any offer just to start and survive. For example, I have to work three different schedules a week with one day late shift, other examples some retail workers and bank branches require all weekends, noting here the kids’ drop off and pick up strict times by schools.

These are some of the many challenges faced by women, which can lead to their career goals having to be set aside. The support Maral received from her mentor – whom she calls “a lifesaving angel” – was crucial for her to get her first job in Canada at a leading bank. She emphasizes how her mentorship experience was beneficial, not only for the technical knowledge her mentor shared, but also to keep her motivated and encouraged. For that reason, Maral later became a mentor with Canada InfoNet — to pass on her experience and pay forward for all the support she received when she was new in Canada.

Portrait of Fabi Ramos

Fabi Ramos, now employed as a Marketing Manager at Next Edge Capital, immigrated from Brazil in 2016. She chose to become a mentor because she saw it as “an opportunity to learn, develop leadership skills and gain a personal sense of satisfaction” from helping immigrants who are now facing the challenges that she previously faced. In regards to being a woman in the Canadian workplace, she shares:

Like most women, I have also experienced challenges in the job market such as gender pay gap, career ladder opportunities, fear of becoming pregnant, appearance judgment, room temperature disparity and other gender bias. I usually say that women need to work harder to prove our worth in the work place, to win our space.

The Role of Employers

Employers have an important role to play in achieving more equality in the workforce. A study by McKinsey & Company reveals the importance of the link between diversity and corporate financial out-performance; one of their findings showed is that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21 percent more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.

We still have a long way to go, but we believe that bringing awareness to the issues and giving an opportunity for women to tell their stories is one step towards finding solutions that will benefit our whole community. JVS Toronto’s Canada InfoNet mentoring program is enriched by all the support offered by our women mentors to immigrating professionals.

Beyond International Women’s Day, diversity should not simply be something to strive for but it should be a given that women have their place in the workforce.

November 24, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Make the Best of Your Mentorship

Dear Joanna

I have just arrived to Canada, leaving behind a successful career in my former country as an experienced software engineer. I’ve been referred to JVS’s TRIEC Mentoring Partnership program and have been matched with a mentor in my field at a large telecommunication company. I am very excited to meet my mentor and hopefully he will help to guide me in finding work in my field and to start building my career here.

Please can you provide me with some suggestions on how to be an effective mentee.

Signed: How To Be An Effective Mentee

Dear Mentee,

Welcome to Canada! It is great news that you have already been matched with a professional in your field who is working in the local labour market. I cannot think of a better way for you to learn all about the IT business here in Canada, the workplace culture, self-marketing , accreditation, training opportunities, improve your communication skills, and start building your professional network. Your mentor could be a professional contact for life!

Patricia Houghton, the Mentoring Partnership Mentoring Coach at JVS Toronto recommends the following strategies to maximize your relationship with your mentor so that you both can benefit:

1. Make a time commitment.

In your first meeting, speak with your mentor about their preferred times and locations for meetings and means of communication. You should decide on the logistics of the relationship to avoid lost time and momentum in the relationship. Use tools like Outlook to book your mentoring meeting schedule in advance. It’s a great way to organize this professional relationship.

If you cannot meet in person, or have to cancel, then use the phone or emails to communication instead of the face-to-face. It does however help to have as much time in person as possible. And, if you have to cancel, try to do so in advance. Check in regularly with your mentor on your job search progress. This helps keep the mentor motivated and engaged as well as build trust.

2. Set and clarify your goals.

At the beginning, you will have an opportunity to set your mentoring goals in writing. Make sure you are both in agreement on the goals and actions. This is a business and professional relationship. It should be a contract. Each time you check in together, review the goals and their status. Make sure there is movement and that you both understand the goals and have implemented the advice and strategies that were recommended. It’s important that you are both satisfied with the relationship.

3. Take initiative.

The mentor can benefit from the wisdom of experience, skills and expertise that you bring to the table. Although you have a wealth of experience, be sure to keep humble and be open to always strive to learn, grow and improve. Taking initiative as much as possible is very impressive to any mentor. Share what you learn with your mentor especially if there is relevant information and knowledge that they might like to know. Use social media to follow the mentor’s company and profile on Twitter and LinkedIn, if they have one. Join their LinkedIn groups, as well.

4. Get to know the coaching resources.

There is an abundance of resources for mentees and on related topics, such as coaching, advising, consulting and mentoring. All of this is available through your mentor coach, the service agency partner, and the online Mentorship Handbook.

Check-in with your coach on a regular basis to discuss any specific relationship needs to help you achieve your goals. Your mentoring coach can help you identify and access this material and community resources to support the goals. For example, if you have business writing or pronunciation challenges, your coach can refer you to classes on these topics, as well as courses such as JVS Toronto’s occupational-specific Enhanced Language Training for Internationally Trained Individuals.

Best wishes on your new career path in your new country, Mentee. You’re off to a great start!

Joanna

November 3, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Facilitating a Successful Internship

Dear Joanna

I am the HR manager of a large Information Technology company. We are working with JVS Toronto’s newcomer employment program that offers employers a two-month unpaid coop placement internships with insurance coverage for their clients who are internationally trained professionals from various fields, including IT.

I am interested in offering a placement to a couple of talented newcomers clients from this program. How do I facilitate an effective internship experience for these skilled new immigrants that will hopefully lead to full-time employment, if this works out for both sides?

Signed: Success Seeker

Dear Success Seeker,

Based on my observations and experience, I have identified the following seven criteria for a successful internship program, partly inspired by Nathan Parcelis’ (June 2014) insightful article, titled The Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Intern Program:

1. Prepare a plan for “converting interns to hires”

Engage the candidate in your standard formal interview process to determine if the intern could turn into an employee. This pre-screening can do wonders later on to ensure a good fit with your team and culture, as well as identify if the candidate has the skills required.

2. Set clear learning goals, expectations and structure.

Make sure there is a formal contract/agreement indicating the learning goals of the student as well as the outcomes desired by the employer. The placement should be treated by the intern as a real job. Students should be encouraged to be transparent with their schedule. If he or she has a job interview or appointment, the supervisor should be advised. The hours and days should be indicated in the contract. If the intern has exams or school work, there should be accommodations for this too.

3. Create a structure. The best intern programs have a long-term focus and a structure.

The intern should have a job title, know their duties, roles and responsibilities are, and whom they can talk to when they have questions, to eliminate confusion. Give interns one or two overarching projects that will last the entire placement, and allow them to contribute something substantial to the team. Meanwhile, interns can be given smaller projects and tasks throughout the internship that help expand that their knowledge, expertise and exposure to their field.

4. Make sure the experience is relevant to the student’s career/employment goals and profession.

This might mean connecting the student with junior and senior managers, and the executives during their internship. Or it might mean instructing your managers to clearly connect the dots for interns on how their work fits into larger company and departmental goals.

5. Keep the intern involved.

Introduce the student to all staff members of the company. This would include an overview of routines and processes such as signing in and out, parking, file retrieval etc. Let the intern know your schedule. Make them feel wanted. Invite them to meetings, corporate events as well as social events. Interns should learn what it is like to be part of your company as well as to contribute to it. Nothing is more misleading than an internship that doesn’t accurately reflect the work environment of a full-time employee. Immersing interns in the company culture helps them make better decisions about long-term employment with your company.

6. Mentoring from within.

It is a very effective strategy to connect the student with a mentor in their department. It’s helpful for the new placement student to have a person to go to for problem solving, questions, intercultural communication issues, such as those experienced by newcomers to Canada. The mentor can take a supervisory role, as well.

7. Supervision.

Parcelis recommends that the supervisor and student meet formally at least three times during the placement. In my experience it can be more informal, as it depends on context, deadlines, work and the workplace culture. The most essential characteristic of good supervision is feedback on students’ performance including successes and growth areas. This is an integral part of their development and learning.

Feedback should come from the supervisor, and should be ongoing and frequent. In order to learn from mistakes students must be informed of them so they can be given the opportunity to correct them. Feedback should be honest, clear, immediate, direct and stated in understandable language.

Best wishes for your new Internship program. We look forward to working with you.