Immigrant? Quebecois? Newfoundlanders? Not wanted.
Dial this conversation up to 11.
FreshBooks has been looking for a web designer, UX expert, and marketing master lately. I received a cold call from a recruiter today who I presume found us through our job ads. He wanted to sell us his services to help fill this position.
I asked him what his process was. They interview candidates at their premises, and summarize their skills, personality, and communication skills for us. Communication skills were rated on a scale of 1-10.
Confused, I asked him to explain the last point. “10 is like you.” Oh, how flattering. He continued,
9 is someone with an accent. 8 is someone with a heavy accent but doesn’t have to repeat themselves. 7 is someone with a heavy accent that has to repeat themselves.
What about the Liverpudlians?
Riled, I said straight up that I didn’t believe in that since we live in Canada, and he honestly insisted on defending his position: “well, many companies only hire people with communication skills of 9 or above.”
Translation: natural-born, english-speaking North Americans only. South Asian? Quebecois? Newfoundlander? Get lost.
Some pigs are more equal than others.
In this industry, in this country, accents are par for the course because this industry and this country are global in scope. I would never have thought that an accent would mean poor communication skills; I would assume a tendency to use animated clip art in PowerPoint presentations did.
Sadly, this is no surprise to me. Immigrants in Canada have a hard time finding work because of attitudes like this. A lot of people claim to be equal opportunity employers, but really aren’t.
So, folks out there, tell me if you’ve hired someone with an accent? How’d it turn out?
Copyright © 2000-2009
3:05 pm
I’ve hired lots of people with accents. I’m the CTO at a VoIP company and we keep on getting applicants with an Indian background. Some of them have had accents and some have not, but the fact that they are Indian has always seemed like a bonus to me. They can speak another language and have another perspective when dealing with customers.
3:31 pm
In the language of recruiters the unspoken code for companies who want ‘white and bright’ candidates is often that the candidate lacked ‘comm’ (communication) skills.
You’ve touched on a dirty little Canadian secret Sunir, one that made me think of Ashok Kalle, President of Pathway.
Hiring first-generation immigrants is commonplace at Pathway – Kalle tells the story of discovering a star programmer who was stocking shelves in a hardware store.
Sorry for the self-plug, but this sort of thing needs to be read and re-read.
http://www.redcanary.ca/view/ashok-kalle
3:47 pm
Well, being a newfoundlander who currently lives in BC, I’ve seen this type of attitude quite a lot.
One thing these recruiters miss is that accents vary for everywhere. Newfoundland has a lot of different types of accents, so different areas have different accents (like everywhere).
After moving to BC 7 years ago, I’ve been hit with people who wouldn’t hire someone who has an accent.
Newfoundlanders who move to the mainland (the rest of Canada) are almost immigrants in Canada, because we have an accent, and our way of live in Newfoundland isn’t exactly as it is everywhere else (we are more friendly), but unfortunately we don’t bring another language to the table (well we do, but not one we can repeat to non-newfies), instead we bring the fact that most of us are hard-workers who just want to make a better life for ourselves and our families.
4:26 pm
Trevor, Ashok’s story ressonnates with me. I’m a second generation Canadian. My dad, who has a Kenyan accent, rose to one of the key management positions at Atomic Energy of Canada. He taught me one lesson, over and over again. Hire immigrants. Not only do they appreciate the break you give them, but they work with vigour. No one uproots their life to move half way around the world just to twiddle their thumbs.
5:17 pm
Thank you for publishing your thoughts and defending the idea that the value any person brings to an organization is in their insight, dedication, and effort rather than their birthplace.
Thanks also for a fabulous application that seriously makes my job soooooooo much easier. I don’t know if I could put a specific $ value on it, but I’m sure I’ve made a lot more money this last year due to the fact that I get paid faster and don’t waste time anymore chasing down late payers.
You FreshBookers rock! ; )
10:28 am
To me color or origin is not a huge problem, it better not be, my big black momma would get mad at me if it was.
But I have to be able to understand what you are saying.
I work with some fellows from Pakistan at times. Only one of them has made an effort to “thin out” his accent. All of them are fine sysadmins. But i prefer to talk to the one guy because I don’t have to work at understanding him.
I don’t have a problem with immigrants. I would hire one to be a tech in my shop or in the field if I was in a position to do so.
But I really couldn’t put one in any outward facing position such as sales or first contact unless they were able to speak very clearly.
I’d have the same problem with hiring a white or black american for the same type of position that had a deep “country redneck” accent as well.
Businesses owners have an image to maintain. While my thoughts may be discriminatory, i don’t believe it’s racist in the least bit.
If a potential client cannot understand what is being said to them they aren’t going to spend any more time considering your company.
12:16 pm
Leon, I think we both agree that communication skills are everything. However, communication skills are much more than enunciation. They are presentation skills, listening skills, facilitation skills, negotiation skills, teaching skills, and leadership skills. After all, they are *skills*!
So, as the only dimension of measuring communication skills is how thick the candidate’s accent is, the underlying story of this recruiter is that he wasn’t *really* measuring communication skills… he was measuring ‘foreignness’, which is discriminatory.
9:38 pm
my comprehension “skills” need some work it seems.
I didn’t realize that “communication” was a euphemism up there for “not for you darky” until the second reading.
6:13 pm
Its all very well to get all politically correct and offended (how noble and Canadian of you) when someone refers to accents when recruiting people but the fact of the matter is that it is really annoying trying to transact business with people who have poor language skills.
Billions of dollars are lost in the North American economy due to businesses hiring ESL staffers in an attempt to drive down labour costs.
What’s the problem with accent reduction classes? I say “good on” the recruiter for keeping it real.
12:35 pm
If he were “keeping it real,” why the euphemism? To normal, non-xenophobic human beings, “communication skills” means communication skills. If that’s not what he was ranking, then why didn’t he just call it what it was?
And why stop at accents… I’ve got a minor lisp, shouldn’t that bring me down to at least a nine? And then there’s that awful Canadian accent I’m sporting. Nothing I can do aboot that, either.
There’s nothing wrong with “accent reduction,” and Leon, I can certainly feel for your point about the one Pakistani administrator. The point is that it’s invalid to judge communication purely on the accent. In fact, it’s ridiculous. I’d say the majority of people without an accent remain completely unhireable in a customer service position, yet they’d rank a 10? Poppycock.
Now, I’ll admit it can get a little frustrating living here in Toronto. It’s wonderful being surrounded by so much culture and language, but it gets to be a bit much when it becomes impossible to communicate with others; there are many people who simply don’t bother to learn to speak English. I’m very much in the “when in Rome” camp, so I don’t see any supposed “beauty” in moving to a land of opportunity, and then only associating with your own culture and refusing to learn the native language. If I moved to Japan, or China, or Italy or France or Brazil or Mexico, you’d better believe I’d learn the language, ASAP.
But to those people who are making the effort and learning the language, it’s ridiculous to knock them down because they haven’t nailed down the nuances of our pronunciations. It’s even more ridiculous to rank them below the Georges of the world.
At least attitudes like this are on the decline. Here’s hoping they’ll eventually dissipate… you know, when we’re all inevitably speaking Mandarin.
10:21 pm
Alas, since the days of Babel, communication skills have resulted in “many” conflicts and all out war. I have spoken to many clients who absolutely cannot stand the fact that when they call tech support (Dell, for example) they are talking to someone “in” India. Myself personally, I could care less “where” somone lives or how they speak as long as they can “solve” my problem. THAT should be the primary SKILL a prospective employee should be graded on. If that person, however smart or educated, cannot properly “communicate” the solution… they will not get the job. That is the bottom line, in my opinion.
9:36 am
It’s bad enough; we have to put up with all the tribalism between the so called God fearing Muslims, Christians, and Jews; and any other so called spiritual group; disturbing the peace of the world.
Such disparaging actions only serve to weaken the fabric of society as a whole. What next rakes and shovels over the fence between our neighbours…
7:09 pm
I recently moved to Toronto from Australia and am shocked by the number of people working in service professions with unintelligible accents. The worse was the YMCA where NOONE spoke standard Canadian English. I was told that Canadians don’t like to impose their culture on immigrants but what has happened in Toronto is a tragedy. There is now an underclass of fastfood workers, street vendors etc. who speak a pidgin English. Children have been born and raised in the city without acquiring a Canadian English accent. Is this Canada?
11:42 am
Fernella, it’s not surprising that the YMCA as a charitable non-profit organization is helping recent immigrants get a foothold, and it’s not surprising that recent immigrants are working minimum wage service jobs. It’s not that different than Australia.
Anyway, since you’re wondering if “is this Canada?”, I strongly recommend reading the novel, “In the Skin of the Lion” by Michael Ondaatje. It talks about the lives of recently immigrated Italians in Toronto, who as a community we now take for granted as ‘English speaking’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Skin_of_a_Lion