The Intercultural Workplace Program (IWP) benefits any employer with a presence in Nova Scotia, with our focus on intercultural competence in communication skills, HR practices, recruitment and retention. We help you ensure that every employee, regardless of national origin, feels accepted for their contributions and has a workplace at which they want to stay and fully contribute their talents.

About the Program

All our services come straight out of an Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) framework. We aim for workplace interactions to be respectful, mindful of barriers to success, and aligned to organizational expectations. We add our unique Intercultural expertise that makes our training relevant to every single person with whom we work. The IWP is the bridge you can cross to take you from “What do we do?” to “Now we understand.”

Staff with good intercultural skills lead to more diverse, inclusive and effective workplaces. We equip you as employers to blend immigrant and Canadian-born talent and to benefit from both. We help raise awareness, knowledge and skills, and showcase how Intercultural EDIA contributes to wide-ranging contributions to service delivery. We help you create opportunities and navigate the challenges that come with our quickly changing Nova Scotian demographic landscape.

What we do

The IWP addresses challenges such as intercultural miscommunication, stereotypes, differing working styles, and barriers due to cultural biases and misperceptions. We do this through a seasonally-delivered pathway of four foundational workshops, and deepened with customized learning programs, discussion groups and full-access consultation. We conduct ongoing research, collaborate, extensively use feedback and share best practices – all in partnership with you.

Our goal is for you to increase your ability to use the unique skills, experiences, and perspectives that ALL your employees bring to the professional environment. We help you get to higher job satisfaction and higher retention rates across the entire workforce.

Foundational Workshop Details and Registration

Our four foundational, live-virtual workshops can be accessed in any order, but we recommend the order below for you to benefit the most out of the material. These are facilitated and not recorded, as they are regularly updated and designed to be interactive. These workshops are open to any employer with a Nova Scotian presence, without charge. All workshops are 90 minutes.

You can register for any of the workshops by filling out this form. A few days before the workshop, we provide you with an MS Teams webinar link. Registration closes 30 minutes prior to the start of each workshop.

Winter 2025 Workshop Schedule

Gateway to an Intercultural Workplace

In this workshop, we dive into the foundations of intercultural challenges. We help you to understand cultures’ pivotal roles in interactions, to explore contrasting communication styles, and to utilize the benefits of “cultural add.” Within mini “learning cohorts”, we help you deepen your understanding of the many practical benefits of an interculturally diverse workplace.

January 7, 2025 Tuesday 10:00 - 11:30 am

January 14, 2025 Tuesday 10:00 - 11:30 am

January 28, 2025 Tuesday 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Skills for the Intercultural Workplace

Join us to learn about and to develop essential intercultural communication skills for an increasingly diverse work environment. We identify and unpack six key intercultural dimensions and use interactive activities to help you apply your understanding to real-world scenarios.

January 23, 2025 Thursday 10:00 - 11:30 am

January 30, 2025 Thursday 10:00 - 11:30 am

February 13, 2025 Thursday 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Recruitment & Interviews: Bridging Cultural Gaps, Part One

Bridging Cultural Gaps is a two-part focus. In part 1, we cover some best practices for recruiting and interviewing candidates from intercultural backgrounds. This is especially useful for HR professionals and hiring managers, but we welcome anyone who wants to join. Together we create more culturally inclusive and effective, workplaces!

February 4, 2025 Tuesday 10:00 - 11:30 am

February 20, 2025 Thursday 10:00 - 11:30 am

March 4, 2025 Tuesday 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Onboarding & Retention: Bridging Cultural Gaps, Part Two

Bridging cultural Gaps Part 2 covers some best practices for onboarding and retaining candidates from intercultural backgrounds. This is especially useful for HR professionals and hiring managers, but we welcome anyone who wants to join. Together we create more culturally inclusive, and effective, workplaces!

February 27, 2025 Thursday 10:00 - 11:30 am

March 6, 2025 Thursday 10:00 - 11:30 am

March 20, 2025 Thursday 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Register for any of the workshops by filling out THIS LINK. A few days before the workshop, we provide you with an MS Teams webinar link.

Registration closes 30 minutes prior to the start of each workshop.

Customize your Journey

Once you have attended our foundational workshops, we recommend our customized services. Building on the foundational knowledge awareness and skills in the workshops, you are well positioned to ask us detailed, informed questions that are specific to your situation.

For customized services, we conduct a preliminary needs analysis, identify timelines and priorities, and together determine optimal, customized services for you.

Whether live-virtual, or in person, we can create workshops for you that align our expertise and facilitation skills with your organization’s specific goals and challenges. We can also work with your teams in non-workshop settings to find solutions to easily addressable challenges, and to determine longer-term behavioral changes to benefit your workplace culture.

Whether you’re looking to figure out the magic of improved retention, address intercultural barriers, enhance communication strategies, or foster a more inclusive workplace culture, we are here to collaborate with you and to craft supports that fully suit your needs.

Impact of the IWP

We have seen this program positively impact Nova Scotia’s employers and overall workforce for the past 12 years, and we have many wonderful testimonials. Here are a few quotes we like to share:

“I found myself thinking about this material for days afterwards. VERY impactful.”

“The presenters are very knowledgeable and non-judgmental. These are great workshops!”

“We have made a wide range of organizational changes as a direct result of the IWP. Great program!”