Diversity & Inclusiveness 2012: Inclusion, Innovation, and Immigration

Monday December 3 - Tuesday December 4 2012 • Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel • Toronto, Ontario

Message from the Program Developer

Conference Overview

Diversity is one of the defining characteristics of your future workforce.

Chances are your workforce is becoming more diverse. As the population ages, more skilled talent is retiring, making greater diversity and inclusiveness essential to fill roles and maintain performance. One of the key sources of new skilled talent is immigration, and the challenge is to take full advantage of this diversity.

An improving economy means more acute shortages of the skills your organization needs

Recent economic news in Canada and the U.S. has been encouraging. Most regions are experiencing at least modest growth, and Western Canada is in the midst of a boom. Good economic news also means that skilled labour demand is growing. At the same time, governments are trying to reduce deficits, often through cuts and attrition. Organizations that are able to attract and motivate an increasingly diverse workforce are more likely to be successful. Also, Conference Board research has found that properly integrating new immigrants boosts innovation.

Learn how to recruit, engage, and develop your increasingly diverse workforce more effectively and efficiently, as we focus on three aspects of diversity:

1. Inclusion—create a workforce that’s not just diverse, but inclusive. Diversity describes the makeup of your workforce, inclusiveness is its culture, and how it allows everyone to be their best
2. Innovation—capitalize on the diversity of your workforce to drive innovation and performance
3. Immigration—even with new initiatives to attract skilled immigrants to Canada, “taxicab syndrome” is common—highly qualified immigrants end up in jobs that don’t use their in-demand skills

A tale of three Canada's?

The immortal words of Charles Dickens:

"it was the best of times it was the worst of times" echo down the centuries to resonate with Canada today."

For in some respects, in terms of employment prospects and growth there are now three Canada’s and their prospects differ wildly. Yet each needs to embrace diversity and inclusiveness.

Western Canada is in the early stages of a long period of significant growth due to the development of the oil sands, potash, oil, and other resources. As a result, many companies find themselves short on skilled labour—there simply aren't enough skilled workers to do the work that needs to be done. This will inevitably lead to more immigration and so the diversity of the workforce will increase. Winning employers will be those that honour this diversity and build genuinely inclusive workplaces.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing centres of Ontario and Quebec face a hard road back to prosperity. But they too face labour and skill shortages—shortages intensified by growth in the West. Eastern organizations now need to work harder to attract new workers. In addition, organizations with established diverse workforces need to develop them as a source of innovation leading to growth.

Lastly, we have the public sector which federally, and in many provinces, faces contraction. Public sector employers need to work even harder to maintain the diversity of their organizations as jobs disappear and people move between roles. And while retirement of public servants will ease pressures somewhat it will also necessitate hiring in and developing the next generation of leaders.

Whatever your specific situation, this conference will help you to take the right steps to ensure you leverage diversity and inclusiveness for your specific environment.

What issues would you like to explore at this event?

Each year we examine the latest public and private sector diversity issues and opportunities, and call on experts to help delegates think about old challenges in new ways. Let us know what you’d like to discuss, and we’ll make every effort to include it in this year’s agenda.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn how to capitalize on the full value of diversity and inclusiveness to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your workforce.

Quotes from 2011:

Our 2011 event was our most successful to date, featuring insightful presentations and unmatched networking opportunities. Attendees of this event left refreshed and energized about using the knowledge they’ve gained in future applications. See below for what delegates had to say:

“There are many different perspectives of equity, diversity and inclusion and they were very well presented at this conference. Lots to consider for our organization.”

“Thought provoking and a great opportunity to hold a mirror up to our current diversity journey and look for further potential for improvement.”

“Overall found great value & excitement about the topic. We clearly have work to do in our organization. This event provided a lot of helpful information, and I look forward to sharing with my team.”

“Will recommend to leadership sponsors at my organization.”

“Very good event—good speakers—well organized!”

“This is a very solid conference on diversity—I learned how much broader the topic can be, and what really matters is not getting one definition for diversity, but how we action inclusion.”

The details of this conference are subject to change. Please revisit this page periodically for updated information.