Study recruitment

Does your business employ, or want to employ, newcomers to Canada?
Tell us about your experiences in a research interview!

Employers play an important role in both hiring and subsequently providing safe work environments for recent immigrants. Researchers at the Institute for Work & Health want to understand the opportunities and challenges employers experience regarding work integration of newcomers, and their resource needs to help newcomers stay safe at work. We invite you to help by participating in a research study that examines the experiences and expectations of employers in relation to hiring and training recent immigrants and refugees in Ontario.

Who is doing the study?

This study is being conducted by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH). IWH is an independent, not-for-profit research organization whose mission is to promote, protect and improve the safety and health of working people. IWH operates with core funding from the Province of Ontario, with the Ontario Ministry of Labour holding the stewardship for this funding. IWH has an arm's-length relationship with the Ministry to ensure the independence and impartiality of our research. More information on IWH is available on our website (www.iwh.on.ca).

What is involved?

As a participant in this study, you will be interviewed by a researcher from the Institute for Work & Health. The interviews will be confidential and approximately one hour in length. During the interview, you will be asked about your experiences and thoughts on the process of hiring and training newcomers, your resource needs, and your perspectives on how this process can be improved. Most of the questions are open-ended, so it will be up to you to share what you want.

Interviews will be tape-recorded and transcribed. All of the information obtained from you during the interview will be kept confidential by the researchers. No participant identifiers (e.g., names, specific job titles) will be used. Your name, your organization’s name and any other identifying information will not appear in any final reports or papers produced from this study.

Why should I participate?

This study provides participants with the opportunity to share their experiences and talk about the challenges that businesses face in hiring, training and providing safe workplaces for recent immigrants. You represent the voice of many employers in the province who play a very important role in helping recent immigrants and refugees integrate into the labour force. This interview is a unique opportunity for you to share your experiences.

An important outcome of this project will be the Employer Research and Knowledge Exchange Forum that will be organized at the end of the study to bring together employers, industry associations, researchers, policy-makers and settlement agencies from across Ontario to discuss findings and identify future research priorities. The forum will be a platform for sharing results from the interviews with employers and will be planned jointly with our partners. During the forum, we will discuss the employment preparation process, gaps in knowledge, and the challenges of providing work and health resources and training to newcomers. The forum will discuss these issues from the perspectives of employers, and it will result in recommendations for important future areas of research, as well as the identification of knowledge, policy and service gaps. This project will provide a valuable knowledge base for those working in the settlement, education and employment arena.

Remuneration

You will be given a $50 gift card as a thank-you for your time. If you choose to withdraw from the study or decline to answer certain questions, the gift card is still yours.

Voluntary participation

Participation in this study is voluntary. You may decline to participate or decline to answer specific questions during the interview.

Possible risks

There are no anticipated risks to this study. There is a small chance that some of the questions may make you feel uncomfortable. You are free to decline answering certain questions during the interview if you are not comfortable in doing so. All information collected about you and your organization, current programs, policies and organizational activities will be presented in a way that preserves participant anonymity. However, if someone from your organization referred you to us, they may know that you have participated.

Rights of research participants

You may withdraw your consent and discontinue participation at any point. You are free to decline answering certain questions during the interview if you are not comfortable in doing so. Nobody within your organization (i.e. your superiors, colleagues and other employees) will be informed if you decide not to participate or if you choose to withdraw your information. If you wish to withdraw from the study, you may do so at any time by contacting the research team directly through an e-mail address only accessible to the members of the research team or by phone. Withdrawal will have no consequences; no data from participants who withdraw from the study will be retained.

Privacy & confidentiality

All of the information obtained from you during the interview will be kept confidential by the researchers. No participant identifiers (e.g., names, initials, specific job titles) will be used. Your name, your organization’s name and any other identifying information will not appear in any final reports or papers produced from this study. The information you provide in the interview will be used only in ways that ensure you cannot be individually identified. However, it is important to note that if someone from your organization referred you to us, they may know that you have participated in the study.

Only researchers directly working on this study will have access to the data. Recordings of the interviews will be transcribed by a professional transcription service. All persons involved in this process will sign the Institute for Work & Health's confidentiality agreement. All hard-copy information will be stored in locked cabinets in a locked office at IWH. All electronic data will be stored in a restricted access folder on a secure server at the Institute. Data will be retained and securely archived for seven years. Final disposal of the data will be done by confidential shredding (for paper) and secure electronic erasing of electronic data.

Ethics review

This study has been reviewed and has received ethics clearance through the University of Toronto Research Ethics Board.

This research study may be reviewed for quality assurance to make sure that required laws and guidelines are being followed. If this study is chosen for review, one or more representatives of the Human Research Ethics Program (HREP) may access study-related data and/or consent materials as part of the review. All information accessed by the HREP will be held to the same confidentiality standards that have been stated by the research team here. If you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant, you may contact:

University of Toronto
Office of Research Ethics
(416) 946-3273
ethics.review@utoronto.ca

Enquiries

If you have questions regarding the study, please contact:

Basak Yanar
Co-Principal Investigator
byanar@iwh.on.ca

or

Kay Nasir
Project Coordinator
knasir@iwh.on.ca
416.927.2027 (ext. 2101).