Integration into your Workplace

Orientation and training is needed when any new employee comes on board. When a person with a disability is hired, some planning may be needed to ensure a good start. This section discusses several considerations with respect to integrating employees with disabilities into your workplace.

Your One Voice Network employment service provider can support you, your staff and your new employee during this transition at no cost to you.

Before the First Day

If a new hire has disclosed a disability and requests accommodations or job supports, here are some strategies to work with. Open conversations and flexibility are key.

Talk with the new hire:

• Ask all new employees what they require to be successful at their job.
• Don’t make assumptions. Let the employee educate you, as he or she is the expert.
• If an employee is unable to express what supports are needed, contact your One Voice Network employment service provider for advice.
• Feel free to ask questions when you don’t understand or require clarification. You need to understand in order to effectively support the employee.
• Be flexible and be open to new ways of doing things when necessary

Creating an Inclusive Work Environment

• Address any concerns staff may have around how to interact with the new employee or a co-worker returning to work with an acquired disability. Your One Voice Network employment service provider can assist you with managing perceptions and any awareness training. Let the new employee know that this training is being offered and ask if he/she would like to be present. The outcome of the training will assist in ensuring that the employee is supported and able to perform his or her job successfully.
• Supervisors and co-workers will need to understand how to support the employee in performing his or her job well.
• Ensure that occupational health and safety rules are being met in the workplace. This may include simple things such as keeping hallways clear of boxes and keeping wastebaskets under desks instead of in the open. This simple practice makes the workplace safer for everyone.

Orientation and Training

All employees benefit from orientation when they join a new work environment. Policies and practices vary with every workplace so orientation is needed to help new employees. Here are some things to consider.

• An experienced employee may train the new employee as well as explain the workplace culture (e.g. how people work together, unwritten rules). Ideally, this person is someone comfortable working with a variety of people.
• Explain formal policies, procedures and practices.
• Informal practices (coffee and lunch breaks, washroom breaks, cleaning up in the lunchroom, etc.)
• Filling in timesheets, who to call if you’re going to be absent, etc.
• Explain job safety and workplace security procedures.
• Discuss and put into place, if necessary, a plan for evacuating the employee with a disability during a fire or other emergency drill if different from other employee emergency evacuation plans. The local fire department may be able to give advice on your evacuation plans.
• Ensure the employee knows that questions are expected and welcome as part of the learning process and that it is important to keep open lines of communication.
• Allow for adequate training time. Some training tasks may take longer depending on the employee. (e.g. if there is a communication barrier that slows down information exchange).

Building Inclusive Relationships

Successful retention of a new employee requires an open and comfortable workplace atmosphere.

• Include all new employees when staff goes for coffee or lunch or after-work events.
• Ongoing casual conversations with all staff – whether one-on-one or chance encounters in the hallway – makes people feel included and want to identify with your business.
• See the employee with a disability as a person with interests and hobbies, not “that guy with the disability.”
  • Rob is an avid basketball fan and attends many Raptors games. He also plays wheelchair basketball every week.
  • Cindy enjoys knitting beautiful sweaters. Someone assists her in choosing wool colours. She is also a member of a blind theatre group and frequently has a major role in their annual productions.
  • Frank excels in downhill skiing and does it “his way” using adaptive ski equipment to accommodate his physical disability.
• Employees with hidden disabilities may fear consequences (being let go or treated differently) if they disclose. It’s important to build an environment of trust and support before an employee can feel safe in disclosing.
• Respect the confidentiality of employees’ personal situations.
• Performance management should focus on performance and achievements on the job, not on a disability. Identify any training needs or areas where job modifications may be needed.
• Make sure all employees have the chance for learning and personal development.
• Retain and promote staff using the same criteria for everyone. Information about new assignments or job openings should be available to all employees.
• Policies and practices should reflect the diversity of your work place and should evolve as your workplace and the people in it change.
• Use language that focuses on a person’s ability, not their disability