Dear Jasmar,
We are hiring for a new role. When we posted the job online, my manager told me not to hire anyone who recently immigrated to Canada. What should I do?
- Anonymous
Thank you for sharing. First of all, you're right to be concerned. We would never be okay with a manager saying to avoid all women or not to hire anyone from Denmark. Whether your manager is discriminating against applicants from protected groups or against applicants for their hair colour, this hurts applicants and the company. Only qualities directly relevant to the job should be used as hiring criteria.
But, you know this. The problem is that your manager can get away with this behaviour in the context of your company’s hiring process. And, unless you’ve got a psychologically safe team environment, the power dynamics between you and your manager could make it challenging to address this directly with them.
There are a few things you can do if your manager asks you to screen out a whole group of new Canadians when hiring:
Understand your managers’ concerns
Tell your manager that you want to understand the reasoning behind this screening rule.
Your manager might think that new immigrants are simply harder to hire and manage due to cultural differences. They wouldn’t be alone. When interviewed, hiring managers said that foreign-sounding names led them to question whether the applicant:
speaks fluent English,
is eligible to work in Canada,
observes different holidays that require time off, and
takes more vacation to visit distant family or friends.
Or, they may be worried about “cultural fit”. Will the person fit into their team culture? Despite your company’s policy to hire for diversity of thinking, managing diversity is harder. When working under time pressure, it is hard to perceive the benefits that come from leveraging the diverse thoughts and different styles of work within a team.
Once you know why your manager is concerned about new Canadians, you can address their worries.
Dispel unfounded assumptions with real applicant information
Design the recruitment process to gather information from the applicant pool directly. Then, use these facts to refute your managers’ assumptions about new Canadians. For example:
Administer a short English-language test to screen all applicants on communication skills.
Design the selection and interview process to interrupt manager bias
If you add small nudges to the hiring process with behavioural design, hiring managers can be influenced to focus on skills instead of applicants’ immigrant status. For example:
Anonymize the applicant files you share with your manager. Let them pick or confirm the top applicants to advance without seeing the school they went to, their name, their address, or any cues about their cultural background.
Remind your manager that leaders of the future are inclusive
Your manager cannot succeed as a future leader unless they build the skills to lead everyone – so what will motivate them to try? Remind your manager of what the company will lose, in money and performance, if their hiring process is not driven by finding the most competent candidate for the job. Then remind them what they, themselves, might lose. Yes, managing diverse teams can be harder, but the benefits of having diverse-thinking groups who are comfortable sharing ideas are crucial for the success of a team and organization.
These conversations are never easy, but I know you can do it.
We’re rooting for you,
Let’s Make Inclusion Stick!
ABOUT US
The Jasmar Group is a behaviour change consultancy that helps organizations build team belonging, culture, and performance. Our solutions are evidence-based and designed to drive faster progress towards diverse and inclusive workplaces.
CONNECT
Follow the The Jasmar Group on LinkedIn and Twitter, and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on innovative approaches to workplace diversity and inclusion.
CONTACT US
Interested in a new approach to building a diverse and inclusive workplace? Contact Sylvia Apostolidis, President of The Jasmar Group at info@thejasmargroup.com or 416-262-2779.