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Many employers have a strong track record of supporting workers with disabilities. Others, however, are not only reluctant to hire workers with disabilities – they really don’t understand disabilities in the first place.
According to the Accessible Canada Directorate, 72% of people without disabilities surveyed reported understanding what a disability is, but only 47% said they had a good understanding of the barriers people with disabilities may face.
This isn’t just a concern for job developers who work exclusively with people with disabilities. With 27% of Canadians aged 15 and older reporting a disability, we have an opportunity to develop a strategy to support these jobseekers and help employers better understand the benefits.
With that in mind, it helps to take a two-pronged approach to engaging employers. We need to help employers understand, first, the nature of disabilities and, second, the benefits of hiring someone with a disability.
This article was originally published on Canadian Job Development Network and has been republished with permission.
We often note that workers with disabilities are more loyal or experience less absenteeism than workers without disabilities. While there is data to support this, it helps to look at a real example.
Take, for instance, Megleen Inc., which operated six Tim Hortons stores in Toronto until 2017 and included people with disabilities in all aspects of its business. The company reported employee turnover of 35% at its stores, compared to an industry average of 75%.
In one year alone, absenteeism among Megleen’s 35 employees with disabilities (17% of the workforce) was zero.
The company also found its employees with disabilities to be extremely productive. In one case, hiring an employee with a disability led to a 20% increase in productivity.
While I believe we should focus primarily on our clients’ strengths and minimize their challenges, when a disability is readily apparent or needs to be disclosed, we should be ready with strategies and discussion about how it can be accommodated. This is often an area where employers have little knowledge but strong assumptions about cost and about what the employee will be able to do.
Across Canada, there are organizations that support employers in providing accommodations for employees with disabilities.
One example is the Neil Squire Society, which operates across Canada. Its team of occupational therapists and assistive technology specialists conducts workplace assessments and equipment evaluations, and provides workstation accommodations and environment and equipment improvements to reduce pain and fatigue.
Quite often, it is the provinces and territories that fund these supports.
Helping employers find the right candidate often requires creating a larger pool of both employers and candidates.
The Employ Ability Project, operated by the Ontario Disability Employment Network, offers supports in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba. It connects employer partners to a talent pool of post-secondary students and recent graduates who have disabilities.
The project is looking to work with employment service providers that may have employers in their networks who could be a good match for these jobseekers. Service providers are also welcome to join as employer partners themselves to fill their own internal vacancies.
One benefit of Employ Ability for employers is a 12-month licence to Jobs Ability Canada at no cost. Valued at up to $10,000, the licence grants access to a recruitment platform driven by artificial intelligence, with over 1,700 qualified candidates across the country.
The Employ Ability Project also provides practical training and resources for inclusive recruitment and assists in identifying potential grants to cover a portion of candidates’ wages.
To help employers understand the benefits of hiring workers with disabilities, job developers need a complete picture of the supports available in the community. These might include technology, counselling and supports to thrive in the workplace, as well as wage subsidies, training and self-employment supports.
Between the 2017 and 2022 editions of the Canadian Survey on Disability, the national disability rate rose from 22.3% to 27.0%. While many factors contribute to this rise, a core consideration is that “disability” is becoming increasingly normalized in society.
Employers who’ve been struggling with a skills shortage for more than a decade have become far more open to accommodating disabilities.
A study released earlier this year by the Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE) and the Centre for Community Based Research found that many barriers to employment for persons experiencing disability centred on stigma, lack of knowledge about disability and rigid workplace policies.
In gathering this research, the authors found that system-level changes were needed. Rather than focusing on individual accommodation, study participants suggested system-level adjustments to improve employment access and inclusion – which would benefit all workers. To this end, they recommended the following approaches for career professionals (among others) to undertake with employers:
- Normalize flexibility: Flexible hours and hybrid/remote options allow people to manage appointments, health and pain without sacrificing productivity.
- Create safer, clearer disclosure processes: Disclosure should be optional, supported and framed around access needs. Managers and supervisors should be familiar with disclosure processes and relevant legislation.
- Improve recruitment practices: Ensure hiring processes are clear and accessible. Consider candidates with employment gaps and transferable skills, and offer trial periods.
- Strengthen communication and trust: Ongoing communication, regular check-ins and being believed about barriers create a sense of safety and trust that are foundational to success.
- Move from tokenistic to meaningful inclusion: Equity statements should be backed by policies, practices and training co-designed with people who experience disability.
- Work with employment service providers: In a huge endorsement of the career development sector, CASE Executive Director Joanna Goode echoed participants’ comments that employment service providers can significantly improve outcomes.
As we all know, it’s Disability Employment Awareness Month. Well, at least it is in most of Canada. British Columbia, not playing well with others, marks September as Disability Employment Month.
You can’t just decide when something is happening when everyone else acknowledges something else. We can’t call Lake Ontario Lake America, and I’m sorry, The Brick, but there’s no such thing as Christmas in July. Christmas is in December – unless, of course, you’re Russian Orthodox – and I suddenly realize I’m losing the train of my logic.
The key is that it’s Disability Employment Awareness Month for most people in Canada, and this is our opportunity to sell employers not on their “responsibility to hire people with disabilities” but on the idea that hiring people with disabilities is the best thing they can do for their business.
I’ve often said that I would never walk in to see an employer and say, “I’d like to tell you about a disabled client I’m working with…” Saying it that way leads with the challenge and leaves an employer with all sorts of preconceived notions.
I would instead say, “Let me tell you about this amazing client I’m working with,” and let the employer learn about the disability, if necessary, in the normal course of hiring. A disability is just one facet of who a person is and what they can contribute. That is one of the most important things we need employers to understand during Disability Employment Awareness Month.
