The intercultural approach for companies participating in Interconnection

The intercultural approach for companies participating in Interconnection is an applied research project. The link between the immigrant labour supply and the needs of business is a critical issue and a condition for the permanent integration of immigrant professionals. This is particularly true for the Greater Montreal area. While 87% of immigrants settle there, this area is where the scarcity of workers is greatest. In this context, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal is rolling out, for five years, the Interconnection program. It provides close contact between companies in the Montreal area and recently arrived immigrant professionals. For the Interconnection program, however, serving as a labour market intermediary remains a challenge. It must develop effective and suitable tools that will enable employers to acquire and develop intercultural comprehension and diversity management skills.

The overall objective of the project is twofold. First, it’s to identify the views of employers on the relevance and effectiveness of the Interconnection program’s services. Second, it’s to provide tools and/or changes to the program that meet the unfulfilled needs of employers.

We have adopted a qualitative action research approach, where stakeholders will have an opportunity to actively participate and collaborate with researchers throughout the project.

The project’s innovative aspect is to implement coaching and intercultural training activities and tools based on the Bennet approach. It will help employers resolve intercultural issues based on an analysis of their challenges.

Type of service: Applied research
Person responsible: Monica Schlobach
Co-investigators: Johanne Blanchette
Funding source: Ministère de l’Éducation, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche – PART program – Social Innovation component
Project start date: July 2015
Project end date: June 2017