FINISHED FILE
MID-ATLANTIC ADA CENTER– WEBINAR
Let’s Talk Talent: Disability Inclusion Strategies
MAY 8, 2014
1:00 P.M. CST
DISCLAIMER: As this webinar had some technical difficulties, for better content flow, this transcript has been edited and does not identically match the order and content of the recorded webinar; it does, however, contain all of the information provided in the presentations.
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This is being provided in a roughdraft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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> MODERATOR: Okay. The time now is 2 o'clock and we will begin today's session. Marian, the floor is yours.
Slide 1
> MARIAN VESSELS: Good morning or good afternoon and welcome to let's talk talent, disability inclusion strategies. We are pleased to have you join us today. Before we get started we will do a little housekeeping.
Slide 2
If you are listening to the webinar online please make sure your computer speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in. You can control the audio broadcast via the audio and video panel as shown on the screen. If you have sound quality problems, please go to the audio wizard by selecting the microphone icon.
Slide 3
If you are listening to the webinar you can connect by telephone, 14434530034. And the passcode is 368564. And note, this is not a toll free number.
Slide 4
We do have captioning with us today. Realtime captioning is provided by opening the window by selecting the CC icon in the audio and video panel. You can resize the captioning window, change the font size and save the transcript.
Slide 5
We encourage you to submit questions. To do so on the webinar platform you can double click on the ADA center in the participant list in the chat panel. Type your question in the text box and hit enter. Your question will be sent to the presenters and other participants will not be able to see it. Or you can email us at . And we encourage you to submit your questions as you think of them throughout the session.
Slide 6
If you experience any technical difficulties, use the chat panel to send a message to the MidAtlantic Center or email us at or call.
Slide 7
This webinar is being archived and we will be able to access it within a few business days. You will receive an email with information on the archive.
Slide 8
We do have continuing education credits for this webinar. Please consult the reminder email that you received about this session for instructions on obtaining continuing education credits for this webinar. You will need to listen for the continuing education code which will be announced at the conclusion of this session.
Requests for continuing education credits must be received by 12 p.m. EST May 9th, 2014.
Slide 9
And now it is my pleasure to introduce today's three panelists. We have Jill Basiliere from The Hershey Company, and Marina Williams from Lockheed Martin, and Jacqueline Poquette from The Eagle Group.
Slide 10
Jill Basiliere is the equal opportunity manager at The Hershey Company since 1999 and she is responsible for the affirmative action program across the organization. Jill has worked for the company since 1976 and has been in human resources in various positions for most of her employment with the company. Jill, the floor is yours.
> JILL BASILIERE: Thank you very much. I am going to move to slide 10 and now to slide 11.
Slide 11
I am pleased to be with you today. As I was introduced, I am Jill Basiliere located at The Hershey Company at the corporate office and we are located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. What I want to do today is share a program that we implemented here at The Hershey Company back in 2012 and are still implementing it. And I want to share with you about what the program is and how it was implemented.
I am one of several team members who developed the Hershey H.E.R.O.S. program back in 2012 and I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about The Hershey Company. I hope most of you know who we are. If not, we are a candy company. And I have displayed some candy down at the bottom of my slide. We make the Y&S licorice, the Reese's peanut butter cup and the Hershey's candy bar. If you want to learn more about our company you can go out to the Internet.
Slide 12
Let's start with moving to slide 12. And let's talk about what the program is all about. Back in 2012 the executive, the senior vicepresident of the supply chain here at The Hershey Company assembled a small crossfunctional team to develop the strategy to increase the employment of individuals with a disability throughout the Hershey's manufacturing and distribution network. Our crossfunctional team included employees from our supply chain, human resources, legal, government relations and corporate communications.
We at all level of managers, professionals, VPs, directors in this functional team.
The strategy is called H.E.R.O.S. which stands for Hershey Extends Real Opportunity to Succeed and it is intended to enable a talent pipeline supporting Hershey's commitment to diversity inclusion in the workplace by employing individuals with a disability. We knew we needed to research to learn from companies that had already had programs in place. So we had to do some benchmarking first as a team so we could learn from those best practices.
Slide 13
Moving to slide 13. So what we did was we benchmarked with Walgreens. A few years ago prior to 2012 the senior vicepresident of our supply chain asked Randy Lewis and Randy Lewis is the he was he has since retired. He was the senior vicepresident of supply chain and logistics of the Walgreens Company, to speak to our senior vice president and group of leaders and they wanted him to share about what they did at the Walgreens distribution center that was built in Anderson, South Carolina and opened in 2007. Randy Lewis wanted to create a way to give job opportunities to people with disabilities. Over 40 percent of the facilities workforce has a physical or cognitive disability. Walgreens is open to offering tours of the work environment and explaining systems and processes.
The company hopes by sharing this information it can help shape future efforts by other retailers and Hershey jumped on this opportunity. The senior vicepresident of the supply chain was one of many several companies that were interested in following in Walgreens' footprints. After the leaders heard Randy Lewis describe what Walgreens did the senior vicepresident took a group of his leaders down to the distribution center in South Carolina so they could not only tour the distribution center but more importantly see for themselves what was accomplished and what are being accomplished by hiring individuals with a disability.
Then, The Hershey Company created its crossfunctional team and did its benchmarking with Walgreens and also with Lowe's to learn from them. Lowe's also has a similar program at their distribution center which is actually located just a few hours north of Hershey in Pittston, Pennsylvania. They, too, opened a facility up for us to bring several people up there to see what they also had accomplished. It was decided that instead of a distribution center like Walgreens and Lowe's did that The Hershey Company was going to begin in one of our manufacturing facilities located in Pennsylvania in Lancaster about 40 miles away from Hershey.
Slide 14
I am going to now move forward to 14. So, Hershey decided to pioneer this initiative in manufacturing at the Y&S Twizzler plant in spring of 2012. What we did was we developed the manufacturing apprenticeship program for individuals with a disability. The foundation of the program is the same work, same pay, same expectations as all the other employees.
We were not going to create jobs, carve out jobs for individuals with a disability. We weren't going to put them in a special area. What we were doing is, we were bringing them on board and having them work side by side with our other employees. And unlike some companies who go with using temporary employees and then bringing them on as hires into the company, what Hershey wanted to do was to hire individuals from Day One as Hershey employees. So as soon as they were went through the interview process and we made the offer they were Hershey employees making the same pay, performing the same job duties and getting the same benefits as all other employees. The program is actually a sixmonth program and with performance evaluations every 30 days. Some employees actually don't need the entire six months of the training training program to learn the job.
When they complete the program the employees transition into the workforce and can bid on other jobs. If needed the employees are provided a job coach. The job coach actually learns the job and then teaches the employee. Again, not all individuals need a job coach but those who do, we provide or we have the job coaches come in house and they are provided by local agencies.
Slide 15
In August 2012 the first H.E.R.O.S. started employees at the Y&S plant and we were thrilled. That was the beginning. So what do we do next? Well, what we decided to do was we wanted to expand, expand the program to other manufacturing sites. We started with some plants in Robinson, Illinois, Stuarts Draft, Virginia and Memphis, Tennessee and right here, in Hershey, we have the Reese's plant where we produce the peanut butter cups and the KitKat bars, and also up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which is actually 70 miles north of Hershey, which is where the Cadbury, Hershey bars and Reese's pieces are made. So have the program now extended to all of our plant facilities except two. To date there are approximately 25 employees in the program.
Slide 16
Let's move to the next slide. There is the map that shows you where our plants are located, some of them. Not all of them. But that shows the plants that we have implemented the H.E.R.O.S. program. And to the next slide, slide 16, okay. Now let me talk to you about how we did this, how we implemented this program.
When the idea of the H.E.R.O.S. program came about the team knew that the company already had a strategic initiative to win with talent and the development of an outreach program for the H.E.R.O.S. certainly fit in to this initiative. And with that initiative as Walgreens did The Hershey Company would provide meaningful work with the same performance expectations and the same pay to individuals with a disability.
Slide 17
Now let's move on to slide 17. We knew that we needed help. We knew that there were agencies that we could call on. But we had to learn how many and how many individuals that they knew of that they could assess to see if they could do the job at Y&S. So we worked with the OVRs, AHEAD and several other agencies in the Lancaster area and again we could not have done it without them. What we decided to do was to have a kickoff meeting where we brought the agencies to the Y&S plant and had them go through an actual tour of the facility, of the plant itself, saw what products we produced, the size of the operation. We gave them an overview of the plant that -- actually the plant manager did that. And the staffing was staffed the staff department was there and they explained the recruiting procedure, the training and on-boarding. And the importance of coming to the plant to tour the facility was so that they could see the work conditions.
I don't know if you have ever been in to a manufacturing environment but there are forklift trucks going back and forth. The space is narrow. There is a lot of noise. And people are working side by side and not everyone can do that type of job. So we thought it was important for the agencies to come in and actually see the job performed and also the working environment, which they did. And also think of it, when you see candy going across a belt it is very tempting to reach out and grab some of that candy but, of course, for quality and safety we aren't able to do that. So we had to make sure that the agencies knew that that was not possible and if there were going to be any issues with any employees, they need to be aware of that.
So we knew that we had the agencies. We needed their support and at that time after they toured the facilities and heard what Y&S had in the means of jobs and the conditions, we asked them if they thought that they had clients that they were going to be able to perform the job. Some people some agencies said no. Some agencies said yes, but we felt we had enough commitment that we could move forward with the program at the Y&S plant. So what we needed to do next was engage the employees because, of course, we needed their support as well as management.
Slide 18
So let's go to slide 18. So how did we engage the employees? What we did was we knew that we were going to have the agencies in for a tour. So what the plant manager did was he talked to the employees, brought them together and shared the initiative, shared the idea with them and they were informed before they saw the agencies walking throughout the plant. I had supplied awareness and sensitivity training for all the employees, and to inform the rest of the company about the program an article was written and posted on the company's Internet site and there was a video created and shared with the employees and the kickoff was at noontime today. It just actually I just returned from it and it was a great kickoff.
Slide 19
Let's move to slide 19 and you can learn what the mission of the HR business group is and some companies call it affinity groups, but let me tell you the H.E.R.O.S. initiative also facilitated the establishment of the abilities first business resource group. It made its debut in August last year but the kickoff was today. The abilities first resource group supports The Hershey Company in becoming an industry leader and providing opportunities for people with diverse abilities and unique needs by educating, awareness, workforce and community, cultivating a support network and advocating for a welcoming culture that is inclusive of people with disabilities.
Slide 20
Now let's move on to slide 20 and I will share with you how we addressed managers' concerns because there were some. So I am moving on to slide 20. It was helpful because we had the support from the top. The senior vicepresident of the supply chain as I alluded to earlier was definitely on board and wanted to have this program. And when we told the managers that it was the same job, same performance, same pay they were agreeable with that and also they knew that we were going to provide awareness training for the managers and also for the employees. And we listened to their concerns and we addressed them. And then, of course, we wanted to share the successes.
Slide 21
They saw it for themselves right there at the plant. Let me move on to the next slide which is slide 21 and Hershey had and has an accommodation process policy and procedures. We also have what is called the Americans with Disabilities Interactive Process which all our HR staff are trained in, and we review this with them prior to interviewing for the H.E.R.O.S. program. Also the application is has in it, we started this back in 2010, we indicate that if someone needs an accommodation to apply or search for a job, we give them a telephone number and an email where they can contact HR.
And we are currently working on job coach guidelines for the job coach so that they can be successful in working with The Hershey Company. Let's go to slide actually I have a lessons learned that I wanted to very quickly because we are running out of time, but the lessons learned I don't have a slide for but I can give it to anybody who would like to have it. One of the many lessons learned was to have one contact person at the facility and one contact person at the agency. We were finding that different we had different names at the same agency and it was just better if we just had one agency that we could work through. Timely communication between the contacts, the supervisors and the employee and the job coach is absolutely critical. Support from the top certainly helps. Have an inhouse champion at all levels. From the top to the plants at all levels is very helpful so that we can take keep the motivation going. Have training, sensitivity awareness, interview skills and just a place where people can talk about their feelings and how to handle certain situations. Conduct a lessons learned session after 90 days with the internal team and also the external agencies. We did that and it was very good that we did do that. So we need so we can make changes where needed. And if you don't have all the answers in the beginning, which we learned that's okay, you are going to learn as you go along move through the program.
Thank you.