As COVID-19 restrictions continued throughout 2020 and the beginning of 2021, many of TRIEC’s programs transitioned from traditional methods of program delivery, to using new digital applications and platforms.

The TRIEC Mentoring Partnership team adapted to the changing needs of stakeholders in the ensuing months. Meetings between mentors and mentees took place virtually instead of in-person. All of the Professional Development and Mentor-Mentee networking events were offered virtually, and delivered via Zoom, Teams and Webex. The team also developed and facilitated bespoke Professional Development sessions and discussion forums to help mentees and mentors make the best of the virtual partnerships, and navigate and adapt to virtual job search and networking processes.

The Professional Immigrant Networks (PINs) team also moved their networking events and workshops online, with events held in the initial months of the pandemic focusing on resilience and mental health, to help immigrant professionals and newcomers cope with the challenges of this period. PINs associations were also offered use of TRIEC’s Zoom platform to host events for their members.

Finally, for the first time ever, the TRIEC Inclusion Summit was organized as a fully virtual event in March 2021. Delivered via Livestream, the event was a huge success with 155 people attending from across Canada.

These successes would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our team and the support of our partners, who worked tirelessly to ensure a seamless transition while still maintaining the quality of the events and programs.

While immigrant employment outcomes have generally improved over the last decade, gaps still exist for immigrants when it comes to finding jobs where they can fully contribute all their skills and experience. In 2017, TRIEC completed a pilot program with a leading organization in the financial industry to support their employees’ career advancement goals. The outcomes from that program showed the need for a program that would help immigrant professionals grow in their careers beyond finding that first job in Canada.

TRIEC’s Building a Corporate Ladder for All Report, released in 2019, also confirmed this existing gap in career advancement outcomes for immigrant professionals. To address this, we launched TRIEC’s newest program in 2020 – the Career Advancement for Immigrant Professionals (CAIP) program.

Through this program, organizations can gain greater insight into their current immigrant talent pool, find their next great hire internally, and leverage this existing immigrant talent to meet current and future business needs. CAIP will also provide immigrant professionals with the opportunity to learn more about how career advancement works in their organization, and learn how to build their internal professional network and identify opportunities to progress.

In March 2021, TRIEC launched Make or Break, a report looking at how Middle Managers and Executives can build inclusive teams in their organizations. The report is based on in-depth expert interviews with middle managers, most of whom were also immigrants, and Diversity and Inclusion leaders across different industries to provide evidence-based recommendations and examples on advancing workplace inclusion.

The report looks at the roles that both executives and middle managers play in building inclusion in their organizations, and includes concrete actions they can take towards this. The report findings were discussed by a panel of experts at the TRIEC Inclusion Summit, and featured in news outlets, including the Toronto Star, Hamilton Spectator, and New Canadian Media.