Much More Than a New Job

Welcoming international talent means understanding that behind every hire, there’s also a life-changing decision.

For an employer, the story may begin with a new hire.

A position to fill, specific expertise to find, a start date. Then comes onboarding: setting up access, introducing tools, meeting the team, and settling into the first few weeks on the job.

For someone arriving from another country, that same start date is part of a much bigger story.

Yes, they’re starting a new job. But they’re also adjusting to a new daily routine, finding their bearings, and sometimes learning a new language. They need to understand how the healthcare system works, enrol their children in school, figure out transportation, get settled, and build a network. Even seemingly simple things, like how often they get paid, an expression they hear at the office, or how to interact with their manager, may be unfamiliar.

They made this choice themselves, driven by their ambitions, motivations, and personal life goals. So it’s not about taking care of everything for them or assuming they’re more vulnerable than anyone else. Quite the opposite. Choosing to pursue a career in another country requires a great deal of independence, determination, adaptability, and resilience.

But for employers, understanding everything that’s happening beyond the first day on the job can change how they welcome someone.

We asked Maud Pinard Fréchette, Director of International Mobility at Sourcinc, a few questions to explore what makes professional onboarding different from welcoming someone who’s arriving from another country.

Onboarding or Welcoming?

Maud makes a simple distinction:

“Onboarding is a process. Welcoming is a human approach.”

Professional onboarding remains essential. It introduces the organization, the role, the ways of working, and the people the new employee will be collaborating with.

Welcoming someone requires something a little different. It doesn’t necessarily mean doing more. It means remembering that what seems obvious to us may not be obvious to someone discovering a new environment.

It means making room for questions, explaining certain workplace norms rather than assuming they’re universal, naturally including the new person in informal conversations, and showing an interest in their background and what they’re discovering.

These small, often spontaneous gestures can mean a great deal during a time when someone is finding their bearings.

When the Workplace Becomes a Point of Reference

This is probably one of the things employers underestimate most.

When someone arrives in a new country, their list of things to understand and organize doesn’t end on their first day of work. Internet, phone service, transportation, school, healthcare, groceries. None of these things is particularly overwhelming on its own. It’s the accumulation of them that can create a significant mental load.

Meanwhile, work quickly becomes one of the most structured parts of their new daily life.

Colleagues and managers are among the first people they interact with regularly. Almost without realizing it, these people can become familiar points of reference: someone to ask a simple question, someone who helps them learn a Quebec expression, or someone who explains a custom they haven’t encountered before.

This role isn’t official. And it doesn’t need to be.

It’s not about making managers responsible for helping new employees settle into their personal lives. It’s simply about recognizing that, for a while, the workplace may play a particularly important role in helping someone navigate their new environment.

And sometimes, the most helpful conversations are the most ordinary ones.

A word that means something different, an unfamiliar Quebec expression, an office habit that seems perfectly normal here… Any of these can lead to a question, an explanation, or simply a good laugh.

Giving someone the freedom not to know everything right away, without judgment or making a big deal out of it, is also part of making them feel welcome.

One Hire, Three Perspectives

A successful international transition isn’t measured solely by performance in a new role.

For the organization, there’s a business need, a hiring decision, and an onboarding process to get right.

For the manager, there’s a new employee to integrate into the team, support in their role, and help develop.

And for the individual, this new job is part of a much broader life plan.

These realities aren’t in conflict. They simply exist at the same time.

Understanding this distinction doesn’t necessarily mean adding more processes or responsibilities. Instead, it means paying attention to certain details, offering a little more explanation when needed, and making more room for conversations to happen naturally.

Recognizing all three perspectives simply helps us welcome people better.