For newcomers and Canadian-born citizens alike, familiarizing yourself with the expectations of Canadian work culture is essential for succeeding in your career. When you demonstrate an alignment with the local work culture, employers will be more likely to hire you and potentially promote you. Adapting well to a company’s organizational culture can help you collaborate effectively with your team, develop a strong reputation, and can enhance your career.
Canadian Communication Style
In most Canadian workplaces – regardless of industry – respectful, clear, and concise communication is highly valued. Ensuring you possess all three will help you at work and in your personal life.
Canadian communication style within the workplace strikes a fine balance between low-context communication and high-context communication. In personal settings, low-context communication may be more apparent than in the workplace.
High-context communication requires attention to nuance, body language, social status, and understanding indirect expression. It is expected that the listener figures out the meaning of the message by taking the context into account. Communicators in high-context cultures talk around the point, often using symbolism, metaphors, hints, and implications.
Low-context communication is much more direct, where messages are to be interpreted literally, with a lower consideration for fine intricacies and nuance. Language is often precise and specific, where information is sequential and ideas are compartmentalized. In low-context communication, silence is viewed as a weakness – silent people are perceived as lacking in confidence and competence. In these situations, people who do not speak up tend to be ignored and sometimes taken advantage of.
Politeness is valued above all else and will take you very far in Canada. The general goal in Canadian work culture is to build consensus and do what is best for the greater good of the team. When communicating, it is important to be direct and concise, while also avoiding being aggressive, arrogant, or confrontational in your delivery. It is recommended you use active listening techniques, like maintaining eye contact and asking appropriate questions with tact. Using phrases like “thank you” and “pardon me” are commonly used and expected.
Because Canadian work culture contains a mix of both low-context and high-context communication, knowing how and when to communicate can sometimes be tricky, but with enough practice and acclimation, you can easily adapt and thrive.
Workplace Etiquette
Being aware of proper etiquette is absolutely essential for your success in any workplace.
Canadian work culture prides itself on values of inclusivity and equality. The greater goal within a workplace is to do what is best for the greater good of the team, where every individual is treated fairly and equally. Discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, or race is illegal and is legislated accordingly. Respect is assumed, and generally not determined by position or role, with younger professionals being included in meetings and encouraged to share their perspectives. Workplaces in Canada are often diverse and respecting cultural differences is seen as essential to fostering the success of a team.
Punctuality is highly important in Canadian work culture. Arriving on time (or early) demonstrates you possess time management skills, care about your work, and shows respect for your colleagues.
Understanding the dress code is another necessary piece of information you must know for succeeding at work. If you are unsure, ask your manager and human resources representative to clarify.
Body language can play a role in adapting to Canadian work culture. Be aware of how you are perceived by others – make sure to maintain eye contact, smile when necessary, and stand up straight with a confident posture.
Be prepared for meetings. This means arrive prepared to meetings with the appropriate questions, if contextually appropriate. Make sure to take notes if you need to remember important information.
It is also important to understand that most Canadians adhere to strict working and non-working hours, as work-life balance is highly valued. This means it is important to schedule meetings and send communications during scheduled working hours. Sending emails or messages during off-work hours can be seen as a sign of disrespect for both individuals and the team.
While being direct and precise is valued to a certain extent in Canadian work culture, it is considered impolite to ask direct personal questions about someone’s salary, wealth, weight, marital status, or age.
Canadian Management
Management in Canadian work culture can vary, depending on the organization, but the general trend in most modern organizations leans towards that of a collaborative and transparent management style.
Increasingly more and more organizations in Canada are managed with a mindset of including employee feedback, where management involves employees in group decision-making processes, and information about the company’s success or setbacks are openly shared in meetings. This allows for the company’s growth to be received as a shared success amongst everyone in the organization.
When your job requires you to be direct, it should be delivered with grace, tact, and respect. When giving criticism or feedback, it is generally done privately, not publicly, as to avoid embarrassing the receiver, and should be delivered with a positive and constructive attitude. It is a common practice to deliver criticism with a positive piece of praise afterwards, so as to not personally offend the receiver.
Networking and Building Relationships
Approaching the job market and your career in Canada takes a unique set of strategies. Within Canadian work culture, networking and relationship building are very important to thriving in your career. Many professionals end up landing jobs from former colleagues, friends, and peers in their field from networking and fostering professional relationships.
Networking can be difficult, and isn’t always easy. The best way to approach networking is with an educational and learning-oriented mindset. If you are looking for your first role in Canada, networking with other newcomers to Canada can be greatly beneficial to your job search. When you have established a network of professionals at different stages in their careers, you can take advantage of your network by learning how different kinds of people have entered into their careers and how they rose to various levels of success.
A coffee chat is a common networking tool in Canadian work culture that can be used to your advantage. It is a meeting that you organize with the intention of gathering information about a specific industry, organization, or job role. These kinds of interviews can help you learn about the Canadian job market and industries before you decide to move forward in your career.
Creating a list of companies and roles you would like to ideally work with is a great way to begin in the networking process. Once you have an idea of where you’d like to work and what role, you can begin connecting with people working in those companies and ask directly for a coffee chat, or informational interview. Coffee chats can help you attain more skills, polish your resume, and help you in job interviews.
Skill Building and Lifelong Learning
In Canadian work culture, continuous learning and skill development are markers of professional growth and career advancement. Most employers value employees who find new ways to independently build upon their skill sets, as it shows a level of commitment of adapting to new industry and technological demands.
Lifelong learning is not just about staying employable, it’s also about driving innovation within an organization and industry, and helps contribute to your personal growth. Building new skills can help you have greater job security, advance your career, and can help you build more confidence at work.
Skill building can come from a variety of sources. Many companies offer employer-sponsored training or tuition reimbursement, so if you are already employed, ask your manager or human resources representative for more information. Utilizing online resources like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, and Udemy are great ways to develop new skills at an affordable rate, and some employers will cover the cost of these courses.
Short-term certifications and micro-credentials from community colleges and universities are another great option and are widely available across the country. Micro-credentials are targeted courses designed to deliver specific skill competencies in a short period of time, and be of great value to professionals on their skill building and career growth journey.
Attending industry events, both online and in person, is a great way to learn new skills. A conference, a webinar, or a workshop can help you to learn new skills and network with other professionals in your field.
If applicable to your role and industry, choose a recognized certification that will enhance your credibility in your field. This can include the PMP (Project Management Professional), CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant), CFP (Certified Financial Planner), or other industry-specific certifications.
Legal Rights and Responsibilities
Understanding your legal rights and responsibilities as an employee or employer in Canada is necessary for maintaining a fair, safe, and productive work environment. Employment laws vary across provinces and territories, but they share common principles to protect everyone.
In many countries worldwide, long work hours and working on weekends are a normal expectation of many jobs and careers. However, in Canada, work-life balance is generally valued and upheld. The typical Canadian workweek begins on Monday and ends on Friday, beginning at 9 am and ending at 5 pm each day. Sometimes exceptions do occur depending on the industry and role, but it is not a widespread practice.
In a province like Ontario, there is a law that stipulates employees have the right to disconnect. This legislation allows workers the legal right and ability to disengage from work and not perform any work related communications or tasks outside of designated working hours. An organization with 25 or more employees must have an official written policy on disconnecting from work in place and must abide by this policy in practice.
While this legislation only pertains to employees in Ontario, progress is being made federally and in other provinces towards similar legislation. You will find that generally in Canada, people are devoted to their work-life balance, where work communication is typically conducted within the 9 am to 5 pm window, and it is considered appropriate to reply to emails or messages only within this time frame. It is generally recommended that you schedule your correspondence with colleagues and stakeholders during this window of time during the work day.
It is important to familiarize yourself with employment standards in your province or territory, like minimum wage, salary, overtime, bonuses, severance, and workplace safety regulations. It is also recommended you fully understand your job requirements, including the entirety of your job description and deliverables so you can perform well at your job and reach performance expectations.
Conclusion
Acclimating to Canadian work culture requires embracing its unique values, practices, and expectations. By understanding specific communication styles, practicing workplace etiquette, networking, and committing to building new skills, newcomers can establish themselves within Canada and become effective contributors to their jobs and organizations.
Educating yourself on your legal rights and responsibilities will help ensure you can contribute to a fair and balanced work environment. Understanding the emphasis on inclusivity, collaboration, and work-life balance will set you up for success in your personal and professional life in Canada.
Patience, dedication, and a willingness to learn will take you very far in your career and personal life in Canada. With these values and skills in mind, you can easily integrate into Canadian society and meaningfully contribute to your organization and community.
