Top 3 Take-Aways from Our Diversity Toolkit Webinar

Last week we hosted a webinar to present the new Diversity Toolkit as a result of a very successful pilot project in Alberta. The project matched more than 100 people who have barriers to employment with a foodservice employer.

The Alberta program proved to us that everyone wins – the employee, the company, and the community – when you hire people who might otherwise be overlooked.

Now we’re extending this initiative across the country, with The Diversity Toolkit. It contains everything you need to successfully recruit from untapped labour sources in your community, and build a strong, productive and loyal team.

Here are the top 3 take-aways from our webinar:

1. The under-utilized talent represent an array of groups readily available in your community. Module 2: Meet your potential workforce provides demographic information that will help you understand the size of potential talent pools in your area, as well as key attributes of each available group to understand their potential contributions to your workforce.

• Aboriginals/ Indigenous people/ Canada’s First Nations
• Differently-abled talent/People with disabilities/diverse abilities
• Youth
• Newcomers to Canada/Immigrants
• Mature/older workers/Baby Boomers

2. The need is there, and the facts prove it.
   The introduction of the toolkit provides a business case for a diverse workforce, including the current make-up of the Canadian restaurant workforce, along with demographic trends and anticipated shortages that push forward the need for change. Some examples are:

• Demand for labour in hospitality is expected to increase by 33% from 2010 to 2030.
• 1 in 7 people of the workforce have a disability of some kind.
• 1 in 5 people experience a mental illness at least once during their lifetime.

3. Hiring inclusively can dramatically affect your bottom line.

Inclusive employers, those who intentionally hire diverse staff like Tim Hortons franchisee Mark Wafer, often speak of the strategic business advantages that diversity provides their business, which include:

• Employers experience higher productivity and lower turnover rates among their employees who have disabilities, with retention rates 72% higher.
• Not only does hiring people with disabilities serve an underserved market that is worth over $40 billion annually in buying power, surveyors consistently report that customers are more likely to show a preference for giving their business to employers that hire inclusively.
• There is enhanced reputation in communities, increased understanding of diverse customer needs, and overall higher engagement among employees.

A special thanks goes out to our webinar leaders:

Shawn de Raaf, who is Research Coordinator at the BC Centre for Employment Excellence

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Jamie Millar-Dixon, who is Principal Consultant at MacLeod Silver HR Business Partners and a Recruitment Specialist at BC Partners in Workforce Innovation