4to40 Interview with Rene, RHSAA Employee — Celebrating Inclusive Employers!

Work.

Work pays the bills.

Work helps create identity and gives meaning to our day.

Often overlooked is the less obvious face of work which is connection. Work connects us to people that we often wouldn’t have the opportunity to rub shoulders with, and work is often the soil of which great friendships and relationships are nourished. For Rene, work is opportunity! Not only does he get to earn a fair wage and paycheck, but he gets to be involved in sport. Which is something that Rene also truly values.

Rene is a field judge and yard stick holder for the Regina High School Football League (RHSAA), which not only puts him right in the middle of the action, but it allows him to be active as well. When asked about his favorite part of his job and being part of a team, Rene jovially laughed and said, ‘running back and forth and getting lots of exercise!’

Rene 4to40

In addition to getting exercise and being part of the action, Rene noted that ‘[he is] lucky to get to work with [his best friend] and some new people too.’ Also highlighted here are the social aspects of the job where he gets to eat pizza with his boss, and hang out with new colleagues and friends.

Rene and his best friend Patrick were given the opportunity to face the challenges of a new work place beside one another. Together they are learning to count on each other and together they are teaching each other how to be accountable. These skills are not only great to have in friendship, but they are also foundational in the work place.

I asked Rene what he planned to do with all of the money he was making from his new job, to which he replied, ‘I dunno. Save up for my trip to Calgary, or a new guitar. Even go out on the weekends to meet up with my friends.’

For Rene, working one or two nights a week affords him the ability to dream for himself and write his own life story. Having a steady paycheck changes a trip with friends to Calgary from being a fleeting thought in conversation and empty promise to one’s self, to an attainable goal. Thanks to the equal opportunities provided by the RHSAA, both Rene and the organization have benefited significantly.

To learn more about Inclusive Employment, visit: www.4to40.ca.

 

Ben Morris,

Community Education and Outreach

 

4to40 Featured in 2016 Vital Signs Report: Economic Belonging — Building an Inclusive Workforce

Vital Signs ReleaseVital Signs Executive SummaryClick here to view the full report.

Click here to view CTV News coverage of the report.

 

Giving Patrick Independence – A Video by The Saskatchewanderer

The Saskatchewanderer spent some time this spring hanging out around COR capturing some footage of Patrick and his friends! Here is what he had to say:

“No two people are the same. That is the philosophy behind Creative Options Regina (COR), an organization that provides personalized support services for people with disabilities. The staff at COR tailor supports for each individual to help them discover their talents and interests and to help them reach their personal goals. COR has helped Patrick find full time work, develop an active social life and live independently in his own home. I first had the pleasure of meeting Patrick during a sports night at the Core Ritchie Community Centre in Regina, and I immediately understood his nickname — Energizer Bunny.”

A special thanks to the Government of Saskatchewan (Ministry of the Economy) and Neil Fisher (The Saskatchewanderer) for making this video possible!

Click here to learn more about The Saskatchewanderer.

-Michael

The Al McGuire Award Winner for Transition to Employment 2015 – Patrick Flaman

Creative Options Regina (COR) is very happy to annouce that our very own Patrick Flaman is the winner of the Al McGuire Award for Transition to Employment 2015. His work ethic and attitude are like no one else, Patrick is an exemplary employee and just an all around great guy. We’re proud to have Patrick a part of the COR family.

Patrick Flaman-Al mcguire Award winner

The Bakers Dozen, my 13 key expectations of a service agency recruiting people with disabilities into my business. – Mark Wafer

Jan 12, 2016

As private sector companies begin to realize that there are sound economic reasons to be fully inclusive of employees with disabilities in their workplace we see an increase in demand. In Canada there are approx. 447,000 recent grads from the past five years who have a disability and have never worked. Of those, 270,000 hold a post-secondary degree or diploma. One would assume then that with this massive supply the demand would easily be met but one would be wrong. The unemployment rate and the participation rate for people with disabilities in meaningful and competitively paid jobs remains at the same level as a decade ago and indeed two decades ago. There are numerous reasons for this such as the attitude of private sector employers towards people with disabilities, the funding formula’s around disability benefits and of course the approach taken by Canada’s many service agencies who’s recruiter’s and job developers are tasked with finding jobs for the agencies clients. I have publish many articles about the former and will continue to do so as corporations slowly wake up to the potential contributions of this vast untapped talent pool. There is no doubt that real inclusion is a competitive advantage, those companies who get it, win, those who don’t will pay dearly. For this article however I want to focus on the supply side of the equation or rather, the supply chain. We don’t have a supply problem, we have a supply chain problem.

I have significant expectations of community agencies who represent candidates who have disabilities. These expectations are written into my accessibility policy and unless an agency can demonstrate their ability and effectiveness to follow these 13 expectations we simply don’t do business with them. This is no different to how we would treat any other vendor. In the past however, social service agencies have often operated to a rather low common denominator, this affects outcomes and does little in terms of representing societies more vulnerable people. The focus from agencies has been one of two approaches, altruism or compliance, both are guaranteed to lead to failure.

Here therefore is Wafer’s baker’s Dozen, my expectations of a social service agency.

1) Create business champions in your community and let them do the heavy lifting for you. You may fully understand the business case yourself but when speaking with a potential employer they are perhaps suspicious of your motives, they believe you will tell them what they need to hear in order to hire your client. Business champions are easy to find, they are employers who have hired successfully from you in the past. Acknowledge them, support them and reward them. Once you have developed this relationship ask the champion to go with you to a potential employer’s office and watch the two business owners speak to each other in their own language and peer to peer. This is scalable. I as a small business owner have sat across the table speaking to the CEO of an auto manufacturer, we still speak the same language, and we have the same concerns and stresses, pressures and desires only on a different scale.

2) Have increased expectations of your client. I have hired 125 people with disabilities in meaningful and competitively paid jobs over the past twenty years. As a typical employer I thought i knew the capacity and capability of each employee as they came on board. I was wrong 125 times. Recruiter’s therefore must be aware that workers with disabilities are likely to outperform expectations. Don’t make excuses for what they might not be able to do.

3) View the business as your most important client. The individual who you represent will be well served if you can position yourself as a problem solver for local business owners. Act as a conduit for talent, the company will appreciate and respect you and your agency.

4) Encourage families and stakeholder groups to speak with children early in life about work. Regardless of the severity of the disability. Work must be an expectation rather than a wish or “hope for”. We will concern ourselves later on solutions should work not be possible but too often the subject of work begins at about 17 years of age, this is far too late and places addition pressure on an employer as they deal with a lack of soft skills normally developed by holding part time jobs, summer jobs or even volunteering in the volunteer community.

5) The approach to business must be at all times the “business case”. Know your facts and use them often. I have published articles on the business case but briefly it means once a company has built some capacity they will see increased overall employee morale, decreased absenteeism, greater safety records, greater innovation, lower sick time, less supervision, greatly reduced employee turnover and more. Not only should you memorize these facts but back these up with data and numbers, this is language business owners understand.

6) Develop relationships with business before approaching them to hire your clients. Make an appointment to meet with them, understand their needs, understand what the business does, and show them what your agency does. Visit often and engage them, take coffee and especially Timbit’s.
7) Apply for jobs where jobs exist. This is an important step because agencies have a habit of creating jobs. Job creation is pointless as it serves only to increase the payroll of a company even if the employee is good at their job. Almost all people with disabilities can and should fill jobs that are advertised. The sole exception to this is those with significant intellectual disabilities who may need a created job but even then it should be carved from other employee’s responsibilities rather than a pure creation. Employers do not see value in a worker who is an extra burden on the company’s payroll.

8) Avoid wage subsidies at all costs. These are very dangerous as employees are on boarded with a time limited subsidy. The employer does not value subsidized employees nor do operations managers who see an “us” and “them”. More important though is what can happen when the subsidy runs out especially if the worker has an intellectual disability. They often are kept on without pay in job training exercises with no parameters and no end date. Good employers in serious business do not want subsidies, they want good employees and they are willing to pay fairly.

9) Never take a client on a cold call. This is uncomfortable for the employer and for the client and can show a lack of professionalism.

10) Understand the wants and wishes of your client. Don’t assume everyone with an intellectual disability wants to work at Tim Hortons. Ensure that your intake procedures cover this area. A wrong fit is a guaranteed failure and all of us want to do jobs that we enjoy.
11) It is critical that your initial approach to a business be with the companies owner or if it is a corporation, the CEO. It is perfectly acceptable to have a day to day and ongoing relationship with company managers but the tone and intent of a company is set by the CEO. He or she must be aware that new employees might have a disability and must be supportive of this otherwise failure is guaranteed. One might ask me that approaching a CEO is an impossible task but one needs only to refer to item #1, your business champion.

12) Consider yourself and your agency as a major force in town. Do not as often happens downplay your significance in the community. Agencies often place business and business owners on a pedestal making an approach to them more daunting. There is no business in town more important than your agency.

13) Dress for success. Too often I am approached by a recruiter in the service sector who may be the 8th or 9th vendor to meet with me that day. All other suppliers who met with me wore business attire but when the recruiter arrives it’s often jeans, flip flops and a Grateful dead T shirt. To be taken seriously, dress seriously.

As demand increases let’s ensure the supply is ready. Following these 13 steps will provide the outcomes we need and expect.

 

The Business Case For Inclusive Employment

Inclusive Employment-Creative options regina

When: November 5, 2015 2-3pm

Where: Saskatchewan Science Centre Theatre

Cost: $25

RSVP: jeff@creativeoptionsregina.ca

Mark Wafer is the owner of six Tim Hortons franchises  in Ontario. Over the past 20 years, Mark and his wife Valerie have hired 118 people with disabilities and currently employ 46 people with disabilities from a work force of 250.

Mark believes there is a clear business case for inclusive employment. 

4to40 featured in Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce Newsletter

Well 4to40 is at it again! This time it was the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce writing about the impact the program is having at the University.

University of Regina Supports students with disabilities 4to40 making a dent in Saskatchewan

To download the Saskatchewan Chamber Newsletter, click here –> Jan 2015 Edition