In this section we address the issues that employers raised with recruiting immigrant care workers in the home and long term care sector based on our findings from the employer survey and follow-up interviews. Interestingly, over 80% of the employers who responded to our online survey employed immigrant workers, but this was much more likely for urban and suburban employers than rural employers (Figure IV.7). These were more likely to be in the category of aides and assistants than RNs (figure IV.8). Most employers who hired immigrant care workers were more likely to have a lower percentage hired recently, indicating that they are a fairly stable aspect of the home and long term care workforce.

Most of the employers that we interviewed stated that they do not have significant issues with recruitment. In fact, many stated that word of mouth tends to direct workers to apply for jobs within their homes/care centres. This includes informing current employees about available positions, as well as informing other agencies/businesses within the community. Most, however, come from referrals from present employees:

It’s actually, it’s mouth-to-mouth. We just need a person and one of the girls says, well, I know this woman and she’ll come in for an interview (Québec Employer 2).

Employers of centres that are culturally independent also note that they rely on word of mouth/informal networks to recruit immigrant workers. An employer of an Italian sponsored facility explains:

Many people know us as the Italian care centre so many of our staff have come to us because they speak Italian and they want to work with our population. So we do get people by word of mouth going ‘Well, you know, I speak Italian so I’d like to work there’ (BC Employer 4).

Many employers find that using word of mouth/informal networks to hire immigrant workers is useful because internal employees usually have a good idea as to the type of worker the facility is looking to hire:

Well usually the person who does know what our standard of expectation and if you know that person has been a good worker in the home and recommends someone, they would be familiar with that person’s work ethics and so or else they would not be recommending that person (Ontario Employer 4).

Referrals also include a sense of responsibility of the new employer to the sponsoring co-worker to do good work:

The advantages are that especially if you have a good worker who, um, who recommends somebody who is a good to them then you already know the performance and they will make sure that that person lives up, you know, says ‘Don’t screw this up for me’ basically because ‘I’m the one that brought you on board.’ And so the person who is being brought in feels that, um, they don’t want to disappoint the person that kind of sponsored them, right? (Ontario Employer 2)

Some employers do, however, note that it can be a disadvantage to rely on word of mouth/informal networks to recruit immigrant care workers because it can isolate certain groups, and at times, cause cliques to form among staff:

Well sometimes you end up getting, you know, all friends and then they can be more, um, you know, they might all want the same days off because they want to do things together on their days off. There is the possibility that they form little cliques and, you know, it’s hard for other people to feel part of, you know, a good workplace environment (Ontario Employer 3).

Further, as one employer explained,

…that can also be a disadvantage because if, for example, they’re using their foreign tongue when they’re on the premises, that’s not good. That alienates other workers and, uh, it’s just not appropriate ‘cause English is the language that’s spoken here. So that would probably be the most difficult part of things. (Ontario Employer 2)

Employers state that another disadvantage is if employees begin to think they have an advantage in the hiring process and this can in turn perpetuate myths about how some immigrant care workers are better than others:

And then also sometimes it tends to, it pigeon holes people into saying, you know, ‘This type of worker is a good worker. Persons from this country are usually good.’ Like it’s more of a discriminatory kind of thing so we want to make sure we don’t get into that (Ontario Employer 2).

Employers also note that students tend to hear about open positions during their work placement terms and they apply to vacancies as they hear about them (BC Employer 5). A few employers stated that they receive unsolicited resumes for positions and seem to have no problem calling potential employees from this pool of resumes. (BC Employer 8)

We always have applications for care workers, care assistants, and we keep the applications for six months and then when we need to hire we look at, review those applications and call people for interviews if they are still interested (Ontario Employer 4).

Many employers had no experience with recruitment agencies and those who did expressed mixed reviews. For example, one employer states:

We’ve actually used agencies for, um, for nursing. I think we’ve got three of them but we haven’t had a lot of success with them either unless they have a lot of notice because they have... they’re also concerned about the shortage of nurses and not able to meet the demands (BC Employer 5). (RT)

This lack of reliance on recruitment agencies was also reflected in the online survey by over three quarter of respondents. When recruitment agencies were used it was largely because of the difficulties employers faced in recruiting by traditional means, in some cases they handled immigrant paperwork and were cost effective (figure IV.9).

The employers we interviewed or that filled in the online survey had even less experience and reliance on employment agencies – only 17% - while others relied on employment agencies to respond to staffing shortages and emergency staffing needs:

We don’t hire through agencies. ... once in a while we use agencies when we can’t fill a shift, but that’s not too often (Ontario Employer 3).

Employers may also turn to employment agencies before asking staff to work overtime hours to prevent staff from over-working/becoming ill or exhausted (BC Employer 4). This is particularly is the case for the hiring of nurses and other skilled workers:

We can’t get registered nurses casually. The work force is substantially depleted and we do use agency nurses when forced to (BC Employer 4).

The main reason cited in the survey for using employment agencies is to minimize paperwork, including immigration paperwork, but the need for skilled workers was also noted (Figure IV.10).

In terms of drawbacks of using employment agencies, one employer noted that it does not allow patients to experience continuity of care. Moreover, it can be detrimental when employment agency staff are not familiar with residents or the organization. Another employer noted the cost disadvantage in using employment agencies,

These are people that are, um, unless you’re using them quite often which you try not to because of the cost factor... they do cost more than employing your own staff... (Ontario Employer 1).

In terms of advertising strategies, there were mixed reviews among employers in terms of the effectiveness of using newspapers to recruit immigrant workers. One employer from BC stated that newspapers do not seem to be an effective means by which to recruit workers, but rather it appears to be more effective to spread the word internally through other employers. Some employers use newspaper advertising to recruit workers, however, this is usually not the sole advertising strategy employed. Several employers noted that they relied on internet advertising to recruit immigrant care workers. Internet advertising included utilizing free sites such as Craigslist as well as advertising online through Immigrant Services Society. Internet advertising strategies seem to accompany additional recruitment strategies, such as using word of mouth/informal networks to recruit workers. One employer sought immigrant workers when participating in a job fair.

There was little indication from the interviews and survey that different recruitment strategies were utilized across care setting (long term care/home care). The interview data suggested that there are differences in methods of recruitment among different urban/rural/regional facilities which was confirmed in the survey (see Figure IV.11. Rural employers did not use recruitment agencies at all, unlike their suburban and urban counterparts; fewer differences were found in regards to the use of employment agencies – it was the minority who used these across settings (15-21%). As one urban BC Employer explains,

We’re in a different situation here in Vancouver. There’s a lot of care aides. If we were in the interior or on the island it’s a different matter. There’s not as many. There’s lots of colleges producing care aides here. So we get walk-ins asking to apply or we’re getting applications through our fax machine (BC Employer 9).