Abstract

Research Problem: Manufacturing small to medium enterprises (SMEs) outside of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are turning to immigrants and temporary foreign workers to fill a labour shortage. This study investigated SMEs onboarding programs to attract, integrate and retain, immigrants and their perceived efficacy from the perspectives of executives, supervisors and immigrant and non-immigrant workers to identify stakeholders' support and training needs
Research Questions:
1. What onboarding strategies do non-gateway manufacturing SMEs use to recruit train and retain immigrant employees with technical or trade skills?
2. What are the perceived challenges that non-gateway manufacturing SMEs encounter when trying to recruit, train and retain immigrant employees with technical or trade skills?
3. How do non-gateway manufacturing SMEs see immigrants as meeting their labour needs and what drives this vision?
4. What are non-gateway manufacturing SMEs perceptions of government policies, and the immigrant integration services available to them and what additional support do they need to successfully onboard immigrant employees with technical or trade skills?
5. What are the onboarding experiences and challenges of immigrants with technical or trade skills in non-gateway SME manufacturing companies?
Methodology: Four manufacturing SMEs from different regions in the province of Quebec participated. Data was collected in three forms i) qualitative phenomenological interviews with six to eight employees per company, for a total of 28 participants, ii) company onboarding and community integration service artefacts and iii) field notes from company visits.
Results and Conclusions: Onboarding programs are an iterative learning process, that should be framed by a culture of organizational learning, communication, teamwork, and where training is provided for both incoming and existing workers. Stakeholders can improve the attraction and retention of immigrants through the two Bienvenue Onboard models emerging from this study. The models are adapted to the needs of immigrants and temporary foreign workers and consist of seven iterative steps: i) Prepare an action plan, ii) advertise and recruit strategically, iii) prepare existing and incoming staff, iv) offer workplace and job orientation programs, v) offer social integration support, vi) follow-up with further investments in people and vii) evaluate the onboarding experience.