Why & How
The World is Changing & Your Company Needs to Change With It!
Whether it’s employment, procurement, marketing or customer service, it’s now more important than ever for your business processes to be inclusive to people with disabilities.
Why?
With so much uncertainty right now around when people will be able to return to working at the office, your team would significantly benefit from having staff on hand who are fully equiped for, and already confident & experienced at working from home.
Many people with disabilities have been productive online for up to 20 years already at this point. They are well-versed with web-based technology, remote learning and some even with team collaboration strategies.
The opportunity here is clear: people with disabilities are a huge untapped talent resource. For example, here in Ontario, the employment rate for people with disabilities is only 58 per cent, compared to 81 per cent (pre-COVID-19) for people without disabilities.
The extent of that disparity is echoed globally. Whether you’re in Canada, the US, Australia, the UK, India or any other coutries across the globe, people with disabilities have staggering rates of unemployment as well as rampant underemployment for those who are employed.
But the reality is that an average of 50% of people with disabilities are qualified candidates with post-secondary credentials, amounting to over 1/2 a million people in Ontario alone!
Click on images to enlarge
Studies have shown that companies that embrace disability inclusion experience 28% higher revenue, double their net income and a 30 percent higher profit margin than those that don’t. Plus they enjoy elevated company culture, social impact creds, lower absenteeism, reduced health & safety costs and steller customer & employee loyalty.
Finally, there’s the fact that people with disabilities represent purchasing power worth a whopping $55 billion annually in Canada and $1 trillion globally. And in addition, we influence the buying habits of family, friends & neighbours.
If you’re not recruiting from and marketing to this massive untapped population, you’re losing out on manpower, suppliers, sales and revenue. Can you afford to leave that much business on the table?
I’m Trish Robichaud, CEO, and Founder of Changing Paces, and I’m here to tell you that making your business accessible to people with disabilities is simply good business. Accessibility and inclusion ARE the law, but here’s what you may not realize:
Disability inclusion is an opportunity, not an obstacle
In fact, organizations that embrace disability inclusion enjoy the following financial benefits:
Identifying The Knowledge Gap
A new report on workplace disability inclusion from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation and the Workplace Initiative by Understood, found many HR professionals and hiring managers are ill-prepared to hire, retain, or advance individuals with disabilities. The report traced this knowledge gap back to a lack of workplace training on disability inclusion programs and low awareness of the value that people with disabilities add to the workplace. And then of course, there are preconceived notions that people have based on stereotypes, misconceptions, biases and stigma.
Ready to Get Started?
If you’re motivated and prepared to invest in your business’ profitability potential and get ahead of your competitors while we’re all in lockdown mode, click the button below to begin your ProfitAbility Assessment. Completion time will be about 2 minutes and it’s FREE with no further obligation.
You Are FAR From Alone!
“It seems that many organizations have been on autopilot when it comes to disability recruitment,” and that needs to change, says Alex Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP SHRM’s chief knowledge officer. Only about 25 percent of organizations have explicit goals for recruiting and hiring people with disabilities, he noted.
There’s also a lack of training in this area. Only about one-third of organizations offer disability-awareness or sensitivity training to all managers and supervisors. Among people managers and HR professionals, 61 percent and 51 percent, respectively, have not participated in any disability-inclusion training, the Foundation found.
25%
of organizations have explicit goals for recruiting and hiring people with disabilities
1/3
of organizations offer disability-awareness or sensitivity training to all managers and supervisors
61%
of people managers have not participated in any disability-inclusion training
51%
of HR professionals have not participated in any disability-inclusion training
Disability Inclusion Pays For Itself
“We’ve all seen the news, and we know: The world is as divided as it’s ever been. We need a new way, and it starts with inclusion. By finding what unites us, rather than divides us, we can make workplaces where employees – of every kind – can come together and thrive.”
~ SHRM President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr
We Can Help
At Changing Paces, we can help you make that transformation happen for your business. Our experts have decades of real-life AND professional experience with a disability that will help your team gain insight and best practices they won’t get anywhere else.
Among other solutions, we can help you create a customized & branded training program to bring your organization into compliance with local and industry regulations – ie: The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), here in Ontario, Canada or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the USA.
This topic is a very personal one for me. Dealing with the challenges of multiple sclerosis and mental health for the past 25+ years, disability discrimination in the workplace, and having lost my job as a result of my eventual diagnosis, I’ve made it my mission to bring disability out of the darkness and create a more inclusive world for people of all abilities.
Our Signature Group Coaching Program
Untapped ProfitAbility
Starting Wed, Sep 16th, 2020 / Running to Wed, Nov 18th, 2021
HOW IT WORKS
#1 - ProfitAbility ASSESSMENT
You start this process by completing our ProfitAbility Assessment. The assessment poses 10 (non-financial) questions that will help to determine your eligibility for our Untapped ProfitAbility Program.
#2 - STRATEGY SESSION
Once we've reviewed your assessment and confirmed your eligibility, you'll receive an email with a link to book a ProfitAbility Strategy Session. During your session we'll identify your accessibility opportunities & you'll set some goals.
#3 - CUSTOM COURSE BUILD
With your accessibility goals for the year established, we will assemble a customized Untapped ProfitAbility Program to teach you about and support your implementation of a series of accessibility initiatives that compliment what you've already acheived.
#4 - TRAINING SESSIONS
You will attend up to 5 bi-weekly 60-90 minute training sessions (based on your goals) delivered online by webinar. Each session will require the completion of homework and will provide you with the knowledge necessary to take action within 7 days.
#5 - IMPLEMENTATION SESSIONS
The week following each training session, you will attend a 60-90 minute guided implementation session. During that session we will review the training with an eye to implementing the learnings. Document templates and best practices will be provided.
#6 - COURSE QUIZ
Once your training & implementation sessions are finished, you'll be required to complete the program's 25-question quiz. Questions will be multiple choice, true or false and fill-in-the-blanks format. Your results will highlight topics that require further attention.
#7 - FOLLOWUP SUPPORT
Optional futher support to help you acheive success with those topics that still require attention will be available every other week from Wed, Jan 6th, 2021 to Wed, Mar 31st in group implementation sessions. One-on-one support will also be available once per month. Group & individual sessions will be held on Zoom. Email support is also included.
COMMUNICATIONS
All communications between you and the trainer will happen virturally, by phone, text, email, video or web chat. You'll have a student dashboard to log into to course content as it's delivered. You'll receive weekly session reminders, notice of playback videos & homework assignments. All training and implementation sessions will happen on Zoom.
INVESTMENT OPTIONS
We're all in this covid crisis together, so we know that your revenue is compromised and you're trying to keep expenses down. In response, we will be providing custom payment arrangements for every new client during COVID-19. Total cost is $7,997 for the 10-week program. Generous payment arrangements are available; 1, 3, 6 or 12 payments accepted.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The anticipated outcome from your program will be that you'll have completed the vast majority of your necessary disability inclusion initiatives within 90 days. That of course assumes that you fully participate in the program. With the balance of efforts to be done within 12 months, an ROI (return on investment) should be seen within 24 months, assuming we're out of the woods with COVID-19 by Sep 2020.