How general counsel can improve foreign worker strategies by prioritizing the “S” in ESG

Proactively factoring ESG into your foreign worker and mobility strategy ensures that you’re working in ways that support your people.

When thinking about corporate immigration overall, we may immediately think of local talent shortages, work permits and compliance regimes. However, corporate immigration, or talent mobility, has always been far bigger than any one line item or priority.

Having the right people doing the right work at the right place and time requires a proactive and holistic strategy, one capable of mitigating a much wider range of potential business risks, costs and disruptions than in the past. Such considerations should also include a focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities. This is particularly relevant when it comes to social priorities.

Why?

Just as people and work culture continue to evolve, so does mobility and the need for foreign talent. The drivers that have typically shaped decisions around business travel, international transfers and new hires have transformed over the last few years.

Making mobility programs fit for purpose must now mean connecting them to the broader talent strategy as well as the overarching goals, plans and objectives of the business itself. Doing so effectively must account for major global shifts — including stakeholders’ increasing interest in the ESG agenda — creating additional layers of complexity in the mobility agenda and raising new questions.

For example, as part of the broader ESG implications of operations, external stakeholders are increasingly interested in understanding the experience a company creates for its people and impacted communities. Changing investor expectations around ESG priorities have become instrumental in influencing ESG fund flows over the last few years. Failing to fully integrate a long-term, value-based business strategy now puts businesses at risk of losing access to capital and markets, their customer base and their very ability or licence to operate.

On the upside, investments like these are beginning to bear fruit. At EY, the  latest sustainable value study shows the perceived trade-off between delivering on planetary goals and meeting business objectives is often a false choice. In fact, a value-led sustainability approach is driving actual financial impacts. Seven in 10 survey respondents said they’ve achieved higher-than-expected financial value from doubling down on ESG. Companies leading on action take a broader approach to ESG — and they’re 2.4 times more likely to report significantly higher financial value than expected.

What really stands out is the fact that non-financial value is being created at the same time. Investing in climate change initiatives is helping these businesses improve resilience against future disruptions, improve ESG ratings by external agencies, meet key stakeholder demands, respond with scientific certainty on the need to act on climate change and create nonfinancial value tied to everything that generates — from trust and loyalty to brand.

A clear correlation emerges when thinking of the social considerations of ESG and foreign talent strategies and mobility. Where and how talent moves, and the broader social implications of that movement, must be studied.

For instance:

• Are you integrating humanitarian immigration programs into your foreign worker strategy?
• Does your foreign worker strategy contemplate long-term retention objectives that may include opportunities for skill enhancement and advancement?
• Do you provide immigration support for foreign workers to enable them to gain permanent status?
• Does your diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policy include the objective of integrating and supporting new immigrants?
• How are you evaluating emerging ESG regulations and legislation to facilitate strategic decision-making from the mobility perspective?
• What kind of environmental impact is the organization creating through talent mobility? Are policies being adopted to reduce the environmental impact of business travel?
• Do you have a framework to measure and govern the ways your foreign worker strategy and mobility policy affect ESG?

These are just some examples of how your foreign worker strategy and overall mobility planning can be aligned with the issues the business faces in real time. Corporate policies should not be reactive, compliance based or static, but should strive to be forward looking based on opportunities to improve company performance.

How can you get there now? Start by reframing your foreign talent and mobility strategy with these steps in mind:

1.    Shift thinking from compliance to leadership. Hiring foreign workers and facilitating mobile talent should not simply be about meeting short-term labour shortages. It’s a strategic priority and value driver capable of bolstering top- and bottom-line results. Layering foreign talent into the overall business strategy is to everyone’s advantage. It is a key pillar to support multiple priorities, including ESG.

2.    Assess where your foreign worker strategy stands today. Reflect on the current state of your strategy to set clear goals for the future. Walk through the existing plan and begin to flag areas that represent ESG opportunities and beyond.

3.    Bake governance into the plan itself. Every ESG priority embedded in your overall foreign worker and mobility strategy should be measurable. No organization can track and report progress without accurate data. It’s important to ensure you have the right digital tools to gather metrics.

What’s the bottom line?

Proactively factoring ESG into your foreign worker and mobility strategy sets the stage for you to work in ways that support your people, and this key business priority, in equal measure. Doing so now, with the support of experienced immigration counsel, may carve out new opportunities, fostering long-term benefits, while creating a competitive edge among stakeholders in Canada and beyond.