Tapping immigrant talent

Pitney Bowes Canada benefits from hiring skilled immigrants from around the world in keeping abreast in technology and coping with competition

June 2010
Canadian Immigrant Magazine

Rola Hodeib came to Canada in 2006 for higher studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Falling in love with the country, she decided to make Canada her permanent home and began applying for jobs. The Lebanese-born business analyst was welcomed with open arms by Pitney Bowes Canada.

“Pitney Bowes has a definite culture of inclusion that is evident as soon as you walk into the office,” she observes. “Throughout the office, you see diversity in different ways – from ethnicity to ages to gender, throughout all levels of talent.”

The company believes in hiring immigrant talent like Hodeib, having found them able to secure new business opportunities with the diversifying local communities in which the company operates. In fact, more than half of Pitney Bowes Canada’s high potential leaders are diverse employees, while 15 per cent of senior leaders, including president Deepak Chopra, are skilled immigrants.

“Pitney Bowes strives to be positioned as an employer of choice for diverse and skilled talent,” says Chopra, who heads the company’s Canada and Latin America operations. “Attracting new talent is integral to the success and competitiveness of our company, and in future we see a workforce that is increasingly comprised of skilled immigrants.”

Pitney Bowes was recently honoured with the RBC Immigrant Advantage Award by Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council’s Immigrant Success Awards “for its steadfast commitment to recruiting and integrating skilled immigrants into its workforce and senior leadership team.” It was also recognized for the development of a “talent and inclusion plan,” which positions it as a diversity employer of choice and embeds skilled immigrants into its succession planning.

The subsidiary of U.S.-based Pitney Bowes Inc. currently has more than 1,550 Canadian employees, working in more than 20 branches in major city centres across the country. Chopra says the company has realigned its industry-leading technologies under four key pillars: create, produce, distribute and manage. “We now create hardware and software
solutions that scan, print, copy, fax, fold, insert and seal, in addition to leading the way in digital mailing technology.”

Adapting to what business communication really means in the digital age – electronic and physical mail, documents and packages that flow between an organization and its customers – Pitney Bowes, which has been synonymous with postage meters for several decades, has transformed itself to the needs of the day.

Today, Pitney Bowes Management Services (PBMS) is the world’s leading integrated mail and document management services provider, functioning as the in-house mailing, printing, digitizing and copying centre for companies around the world.

Reference: Canadian Immigrant Magazine