Why letting different cultures celebrate ‘who they are’ is key to workplace integration

Imagine starting a new job and being invited to take time off periodically to honour and celebrate your cultural customs and preferences. 

It may seem like a small gesture, but it’s one that could have big implications for worker happiness and well-being, job satisfaction, and employee retention.

That’s the view of education and employment expert Trevor Buttrum, a panelist at Integrating different cultures in the workplace, the latest event in the Building Future Ready Communities: Virtual Tour series.

The Building Future Ready Communities: Virtual Tour creates opportunities for cross-sectoral dialogue between community based employment agencies, post secondary institutions, and employers across all regions in Canada on issues related to the future of work. Each free virtual event is a panel discussion and Q&A ‘hosted’ by a different province or territory.

Buttrum, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE), said employees from different cultures and backgrounds would benefit from having “a bank of days…to embrace and celebrate who they are.”

“Whether that is a day to be a part of Pride Month, whether that is a day to be able to participate in feast days or in fasting, or whatever it is they may celebrate,” Buttrum told the webinar audience. “In giving that space and giving that time, you’re creating a community where people can live authentically, and it’s not going to cost productivity.”

Mentorship is “an absolutely critical component” of successful workplace integration, said fellow panelist Shawna Garrett, President and CEO of EduNova Cooperative Ltd., ​​an association of education and training providers in Nova Scotia.

To illustrate the value of mentorship, Garrett shared an anecdote about a foreign student on a post-graduate work permit who was interviewing for a job in the aerospace industry, but told she wasn’t eligible to receive security clearance. 

Fortunately, the woman’s mentor was able to check with industry peers and clarify that she was eligible for security clearance. Not only did the woman get the job, her mentor created awareness among members of his industry association, helping create pathways to employment for other foreign students.

“That was a really good news story about how mentorship can work with an international student: sharing information, doing research, providing support,” Garrett said.

Ultimately, Buttrum said, efforts to integrate different cultures into the workplace must be founded on clear ideals about what diversity and integration mean to an employer, and what outcomes they hope to achieve.

“Doing something for the sake of doing it isn’t actually good enough,” explained Buttrum. “We need to make sure that it’s not just representation, but it’s actually integration, and we aren’t looking for assimilation into our workplaces. It’s enabling identities and individuals to come as they are.”

Click here to register for the next Building Future Ready Communities: Virtual Tour event, Building scientific capacity and a new generation of researchers, happening Tuesday. Sept. 27 from 1-2 pm ET.