Job seekers from a refugee background experience structural barriers that make it hard for them to find jobs the usual ways. Keep reading to find out how other employers connect with and recruit refugee job seekers into their workforces.
Contact us and the Australian Employer Network for Refugee Inclusion for tailored advice.
Broaden your pipeline of candidates
Include refugee employment services in their list of recruitment companies that they use. Tell hiring managers about this extra pool of candidates that their conventional recruitment processes miss.
Establish an alternate refugee employment pathway and respond to requests from managers to use this pathway to fill vacancies, as they arise. Recruit for positions that give candidates the best chance of success, eg where they can find matching personal attributes but teach specific skills.
Run a set number of intakes each year, and seek expressions of interest from managers who can offer vacancies open at that time.
Create “launchpad” roles that match the skills of individual refugee candidates and can also be utilised in your company.
Partner with refugee employment services to help short-list refugee candidates. Join their existing program, or ask them to help develop a program.
Follow principles of inclusive recruitment to assess a candidate’s suitability for the job or placement that takes into account the barriers refugees experience when applying for jobs in Australia.
Start with a trial or pilot, and establish a continuous improvement model to incorporate feedback.
Advertise job vacancies through refugee community networks (word-of-mouth), community language radio, newspapers, refugee employment service portals and social media portals.
Translate information about job vacancies into languages of the communities they want to apply.
Advertise your vacancies nationwide on Refugee Talent’s digital platform for free.
Subscribe to DivTal to advertise your vacancies on their digital platform for free.
Advertise your vacancies in Sydney using the Connections Australia app for free.
Goulburn and Canberra
Advertise your vacancies on the MES Jobs Board for free.
Melbourne
Advertise your vacancies on the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre Jobs Board for free.
Panel discussion: Female refugee Integration: Barrier to Employment (46 mins)
Discussion of barriers and examples of good practice (UK)
WEBINAR: Diversity in the workplace: Lessons from ANZ's refugee employment program
(to watch, enter Passcode fAe32R!D)
(WeWork Lunch & Learn,
Wed 19 August 2020)
Use a more inclusive recruitment process
Assess CVs with an open mind. Look for a candidate’s potential and transferable skills. Consider whether gaps in experience can be managed. If their formal qualifications are not recognised here, see what their CV shows about their capabilities, expertise, and familiarity with your industry.
Don’t reject a person for an entry level job solely because they appear ‘overqualified’. They may have been rejected for more senior roles for not having Australian work experience, and are looking for a chance to get their foot in the door and learn on the job.
Identify jobs which could be suitable for a person with personal qualities, such as a growth mindset, adaptability, a positive attitude, resilience, a willingness to learn, and having a genuine interest in working in your industry.
If the level of English a candidate needs to talk about their personal qualities is higher than the English they need to do the actual job, consider using an interpreter during recruitment.
Give recruiters the tools to recognise and counter their own unconscious and conscious biases. Ensure recruitment procedures encourage diversity of thought when hiring decisions are made. Consider processes that de-identify applicants to some extent.
Help candidates learn, prepare and practice their interview skills. Work through social behavioural cues such as eye contact and shaking hands.
Adapt the physical setting for the interview to help the candidate feel more comfortable (eg, consider whether or not to have a table in between the interviewer and interviewee; or meet the candidate in a different environment if the person is unfamiliar with an Australian corporate workplace and might find the surroundings intimidating).
At the beginning of an interview, consider saying that the panel understands that English is not the interviewee’s first language, and that it’s OK to ask for a question to be repeated, and to take their time answering.
Some employers have a support person from their community partner organisation to sit in on the interview.
“[Employers] can review their job descriptions to make sure that they don’t require a level of English proficiency in excess of what the positions themselves may need.”
“The hiring manager had a really open mind going into the interview and focused on capability to learn rather than existing experience or required skills.”
“Some people who come into our entry level roles are really intelligent and highly qualified, but they just want a foot in the door. It’s a good soft entry and we have opportunities for people who want to move into management roles given their capabilities.”
“I spend a lot of time preparing candidates for the interview. I teach them how to shake hands. We practice until they get it right.”
Tools from Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IECBC)
How to conduct a culturally-sensitive job interview tip sheet
Culturally-Competent Communication for Interviews tool
Culturally-Competent Awareness of Body Language at Interviews
Useful articles and webinars
Moving from unconscious bias to conscious inclusion (while avoiding tokenism) (Bedi Othow and Lorna Deng, DivTal, May 2020) Powerpoint presentation
Inclusion Nudges (by Lisa Kepinski and Tinna C. Nielson, 2020)
Hiring mini-mes? How to spot similarly bias and encourage diversity at work (Sana Qadar, ABC Life, July 2019)
How leading employers are hiring and promoting for diversity (Ann Arnold, ABC Radio National, December 2019)
How job ads are worded can have a significant effect on who applies (Behaviour Works Australia, Monash University, 2016/17)
How to integrate refugees into the US economy (Gideon Maltz, Quartz at Work, 2020)
Stop Hiring for “Cultural Fit” (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Aug 2020)
“Guess Who Doesn’t Fit in at Work?” (webinar, 55 mins, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University)
Choose the person best suited to the job
“Lead with your head, not your heart”
Recruit for a real job, with genuine responsibilities.
Retain those parts of your standard recruitment process that are focussed on assessing someone’s skills, behaviour, learning ability, temperament and potential to do the job.
Use a specialist refugee employment service to pre-screen and provide a short-list of candidates.
Test for any technical skills that are a pre-requisite for doing the job (for example, numeracy, computer skills, experience operating heavy machinery, business-level written English). However, consider translating the material so that you evaluate them on their ability to do the actual job, not their ability to succeed in a recruitment process.
Manage expectations about the nature of the work. Give a workplace tour as part of the recruitment process, to make sure each applicant understands what the job entails.
Conduct standard risk assessments and background checks. However, talk to the candidate about any risks that contacting organisations in their home country may pose for their safety or the safety of family members who remain in that country. The Commonwealth government does an international police check as part of a person’s visa application. Be aware that when background checks require cooperation from other countries, there may be delays or other obstacles to obtaining the information you require.
“Getting the right fit is critical.”
How to check an applicant’s work rights
Refugees generally have the right to work and study in Australia.
The conditions on a person’s visa will show if they are allowed to work. Verify those conditions using the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO), which is free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Many people seeking asylum are issued with photo identification known as an ‘immicard’, a small plastic card not unlike a driver’s licence. You’ll need a person’s passport or immicard details to request a VEVO check.