Revera Health Services Receives 2010 Employer
Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement

Integrating Skilled Immigrants a Key Element to Success

Ottawa, Ontario – March 24, 2010 – The Ottawa branch of Revera Health Services (RHS), a home care service provider, received the 2010 Employer Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement in recognition of its forward-thinking and innovative practices to retain highly skilled immigrant workers at the Employers Council of Champions Summit held on March 24, 2010. The Summit, which took place at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, recognized both public and private sector employers that demonstrate leading practices around the integration of skilled immigrants into their organizations.

“Recruiting, training and retaining skilled immigrants is a key element to the success of RHS,” said Joanne Tapp, Human Resources Manager for Revera Health Services Ottawa; “over 50% of our staff in the National Capital Region are immigrants, so we rely on their expertise to maintain our high standards of excellence in providing in-home health care services to our clients.”

RHS has implemented a number of best practices to enhance the integration and retention of skilled immigrants.  For example, whenever possible, new immigrants are paired with team members who speak their language during in-house training programs to ensure a high level of understanding; RHS maintains an electronic database of languages spoken by employees and clients so that immigrant employees may be matched with clients that speak their native language; and new immigrants are provided with flexible working hours so they can attend language training or other skills development training when required. In addition, RHS has implemented a multi-year Employment Equity Plan approved by the Federal government that promotes consistent and fair HR practices across the organization.

“Our operational philosophy is that we are a stronger organization because of the varied and unique backgrounds of our people,” said Emily Molina, Executive Director of RHS Ottawa, “as such, our business model is designed to ensure immigrant employees have an equal opportunity to succeed.”

Recipients of the Employer Excellence Awards are rated on four dimensions – awareness and leadership; planning and sources; developing; and creating an inclusive climate – and are grouped based on the size of their workforce. RHS was recognized in the small-size employer category (i.e. less than 100 employees) in the broad award category of Retention of Skilled Immigrants.