The scene in the city of Toronto’s downtown core this afternoon is like something from apocalyptic fiction. Three meter high fencing encloses the G20 zone of the city-turned-fortress where many Career Edge Organization employers and inters currently work.

Within the fenced area, police on foot, bicycles and even horses have taken up post at almost every street corner, providing a mixed sense of both security and heightened awareness of the potential chaos looming ahead as the world’s most powerful leaders come together.

It is a significant departure from the typical scene on a beautiful Thursday afternoon when the streets would normally be pulsating with activity. Instead the streets are eerily quiet and deserted, leaving one to ask – where is everybody?

And most importantly, who is doing the work?

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By Guest Contributor, Marcia Dunbar, Client Relations Manager, Career Edge Organization

As in previous years, Career Edge Organization was invitied by the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE) to deliver a presentation at their annual national conference. Last week I had the pleasure of representing Career Edge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and took the opportunity to share some of the insights derived from our recent National Gen Y study which we conducted in partnership with Angus Reid Strategies.

The workshop built upon the information we delivered at CACEE’s regional conference this past December – you might recall our blog post, “What motivates the next generation of leaders.” To the surprise of many, our findings debunked many of the (often negative) myths and stereotypes about today’s youth in the workplace.

Many of the seminars at last week’s CACEE conference provided some of the same old fodder that feeds pre-existing notions of what this newest entrant to our post-secondary institutions and workplaces, the Gen Y’er, is all about. But there were some discussions that challenged the attendees to think differently.

Let’s face it, every generation has brought their dreams and aspirations for themselves and this world to bear on the society they live in; inevitably creating some dissonance everywhere – including the workplace.

There is general acceptance that this generation is the best-equipped group of new grads ever to come out of our colleges and universities. The deliverable, from an academic perspective, is high quality. Where most gen X’ers and Boomers sought self-actualization through their work, the Gen Y cohort is bringing a heightened awareness of themselves and their place in the broader world to the workplace.

This generation is born into a world where all their needs have been met. After all, they aren’t struggling to feed themselves like the Greatest Generation or challenged to bring order, love and safety into a chaotic world like the Boomers and unlike Gen X before them, Millennials know they are valued and why.

How then will Gen Y respond to the call to action heard by every new grad since the beginning of time – In what way will they change the world? This certainly poses some interesting recruitment and retention challenges for today’s employers, but with the challenges also come new possibilities and most importantly, opportunities.

Two timely pieces of research on the topic of measuring Diversity were released today from the Toronto Board of Trade and Ryerson University.

The first one, a discussion paper called Lifting All Boats: Promoting Social Cohesion and Economic Inclusion in the Toronto Region, by the Toronto Board of Trade, concludes that even though Toronto attracts the best international talent, the numbers continue to show that overall foreign-trained professionals in the region remain underemployed and their skills and experience untapped. The second study, A Snapshot of Diverse Leadership in the GTA, by DiverseCity (an initiative of the Toronto City Summit Alliance) and The Diversity Institute at Ryerson University, concludes that visible minority leadership in the GTA is in fact moving in the right direction, but change is happening at a slow rate.

The stats around the presence of diversity in the GTA are impressive. For instance, the GTA is one of the most diverse regions in the world with 44% of our residents born outside of Canada. Back in 2008 The Conference Board of Canada predicted that by 2011 Canada’s net labour force growth would be entirely dependent on immigration; with Toronto region leading the way in this respect. Well, since we’re now less than 7 months away from this prediction becoming a reality why are our numbers still lagging? As the DiverseCity research points out, there are organizational trailblazers and there are laggards in each sector.

After having attended this morning’s release event of the second DiverseCity Counts Report, it was inspiring and hopeful to see about 100 of the region’s top corporate, public and voluntary sector leaders in attendance to show their support on this issue. Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, spoke eloquently about the social and economic benefits of local bridging programs that welcome, prepare and integrate newcomers into the Canadian workforce. In the true sense of the word, the purpose of bridging programs is to create a bridge between a newcomer and a potential employer. Clearly, this is not a one sided equation. It takes lots of work as a newcomer to navigate through the job search process, not to mention honing language skills while understanding a new culture. From an employer perspective, there also has to be an existing organizational culture in place to welcome, prepare and integrate an internationally qualified individual into their organization. As Dr. Hoskins stressed, bridging programs really do work. He cited the Ontario Government’s leadership in hiring internationally trained individuals (ITI) through their ITI Internship program (operated by Career Edge Organization’s Career Bridge Paid Internship Program) as just one example of a successful bridging program that has launched the careers of hundreds of ITI’s while achieving a key goal of the Ontario Public Service which is to be an inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible organization.

Since measuring business results is not a new concept and the reality is that there is a strong business case for embracing social cohesion, economic inclusion and diverse leadership – let’s all commit to ensuring the diversity needle moves forward to ensure the future prosperity and competitiveness of the GTA.

This article is by Guest Blogger: Janice Rudkowski, Director, Marketing & Communications, Career Edge Organization