SMTC – 2012 CBC Toronto Immigrant Advantage Award

SMTC, a global Electronics Manufacturing Services provider, requires a workforce with strong engineering expertise and a specific skill set. It is not always easy to find, but for SMTC skilled immigrants are part of the answer.

 

The immigrant advantage:

• Strong engineering expertise and a skill set that is not always easy to find
• Diverse ideas and experience to improves processes and better serve customers
• Language skills and cultural know-how to work with customers, suppliers and colleagues around the world

 By the numbers:

• One third of the senior management team are skilled immigrants
• The Markham workforce of 250 employees represents over 20 countries
• 95% of employees on the production floor in Markham and 50% of the head office are immigrants
• More than 20% of immigrant employees have been employed with SMTC for over 15 years program, to recruit and integrate skilled immigrants

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“Finding talent with our required skill sets and a transnational outlook is becoming increasingly difficult. Skilled immigrants bring needed expertise and dedication to SMTC in Canada and to our customers globally.”

  – Alex Walker, Co-CEO and President, SMTC
 

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SMTC, a global Electronics Manufacturing Services provider, requires a workforce with strong engineering expertise. With two thousand three hundred staff globally, finding the necessary skill set is not always easy. However, for their manufacturing facility and corporate head office in Markham, SMTC has tapped into the greater Toronto region’s large immigrant talent pool to great advantage.

“Finding talent with our required skills set and a transnational outlook is becoming increasingly difficult,” says Alex Walker, Co-CEO and President of SMTC. “Skilled immigrants bring needed expertise and dedication to SMTC in Canada and to our customers globally.”

Ninety five per cent of employees on the production floor in Markham and fifty per cent of the head office are immigrants. They bring a wide variety of skill sets and diverse experience, helping SMTC fill their skill gaps and providing skills and expertise to expand the business and meet client needs.

SMTC has found that diverse experience can result in diverse and innovative ideas. Their employees have experience in manufacturing environments around the world and they have brought new ideas and methods that have helped improve quality standards and processes at SMTC.

Similarly, the cultural know-how and language skills of immigrant employees are also a great advantage. Whether negotiating with suppliers in Asia, or transferring projects to their facility in Mexico or China, SMTC’s skilled immigrant workforce has the language skills and cultural know-how to get it done efficiently and effectively.

SMTC values the cultural competencies of its workforce and strives to provide a supportive work environment. For example, the company organizes training programs for its new immigrants that are both in English and in their native language. The satisfaction of the workforce with their employment is evident through low turnover rate and opportunities for advancement.

Looking forward, SMTC is transforming their Markham operations into an innovation centre, known as the ‘Technical services group,’ a transformation made possible in large part due to their diverse workforce. This group provides intelligent technical services to new and existing customers through their global facilities. The strong, diverse skilled immigrant workforce at the Markham facility are at the forefront of this groups plans to better serve SMTC customers globally.

 

Find solutions to better integrate skilled immigrants into your workplace or contact TRIEC for more details.