In the coming years, many Canadian businesses will begin to feel the pinch of a labour shortage. This will be brought on by the baby boomers beginning to retire conjunction with low birth rates. According to the Conference Board of Canada, one out of three jobs will have to be filled by new immigrants. And majority of them will be coming from the developing nations.

Despite the clear signs, many organizations are still reluctant to call applicants with ethnic sounding names for an interview. According to a recent report for the Metropolis B.C., businesses feel applicants with Chinese, Indian and Greek names might not be educated or be unfamiliar with the western culture.

The Human Resources personnel or the person making the final decision to hire staff needs to look at the experience and education of the applicant before making a snap decision. The main question all businesses need to ask themselves: Is their HR department qualified to hire people from diverse backgrounds?

Businesses that are going to survive and thrive in the coming years will be the ones that adapt to the changes of the diverse Canadian workforce.