Webinar Series for Business 09/13/12 1
Webinar Series for Business: ESTABLISHING LINKAGES TO PROMOTE THE RECRUITMENT AND HIRING OF CANDIDATES WITH DISABILITIES
Event Date: September 13, 2011Presenter: Beth Butler & Kathy West-EvabsFacilitator: Pamela Williamson & Jill Houghton
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Okay, this is Pam, we are going to get started today. And I would like to welcome every one to Establishing Linkages to Promote Recruitment and Hiring of Candidates With Disabilities. This is part of the webinar series for business. And I will be serving as the co moderator with Jill for today's session and I'm to director for the southeast ADA center and hosted by the Burton Blatt University and it's a partnership between the southeast ADA center, a member of the ADA national network and the southeast TASE of region four. Before we get started I just want to share some information with you and answer some of the frequently asked questions that we receive about the webinars. And today's webinar is being conducted using blackboard collaborate and if you are using the phone connection you are on mute. And we will be unable to trouble shoot individual technical issues during the webinar today. So this session is being captioned. And if you need captioning, please click on the CC link located in the tool bar at the top and information will also be placed in the chat area. So a window will open for captioning and you can put the window for captioning and the webinar piece side by side in order to be able to see that. The session today is also being recorded and will be archived for future use and we will send you a link to the session and feel free this with colleagues who may have missed the opportunity. Question also be answered at the end of today's session and you can submit the questions by typing them in the chat area. At the appropriate time the questions will be read a loud for the benefit of all participants, the captions and the transcript. I would like to turn the session over to Jill Houghten, the specialist for the southeast TASE. Jill.
Thank you, Pam. And thank you to each of you for joining us today for this really important and awesome topic. We are joined today by two of my all time most favorite people, Kathy West Evans who is the director of the business relations program for the Council of state administrators of vocational rehabilitation and she leads the national employment team. Kathy has an amazing extensive background and nobody knows the dual customer model better than Kathy West Evans and we have so excited about this partnership and the opportunity to hear from Kathy today. She has got an extensive background weather it's working in the vocational rehabilitation program or working at the Federal level through the rehabilitative administration or working hands on, she is known for her follow through and is there are not enough words to describe how awesome she is. And then, secondly, we are also joined by Beth Butler who there are not enough words to describe how awesome she is either She leads the accommodations team at Lowe's companies and has an extensive background working in corporate America, leading disability inclusion efforts She also is the former chair of the U.S. business leadership network and continues to serve on the board as well as she is the chair of the state rehabilitation Council for the North Carolina division of blind services and is in a leadership position for the North Carolina business leadership network as well. She is a person with a disability and she is an attorney and again not enough nice words to say how awesome she is. So without further adieu we will turn it over to Kathy and Beth Ann thank you so much for joining us today as our guest speakers
Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Perfect. All right. Thank you so much. And I appreciate all the kind words and we have been partners in crime for quite some time, so you know me well. So I appreciate you not sharing everything that you know. But we are thrilled to be here. Kathy and I have worked together for many years. As I think about this, this topic, it is it's amazing to me when I look back as to really the specifics on when this conversation, this whole concept of dual customer approach and this whole mindset around the billing the effective partnership with the dual customer model. It takes me back to 2004 actually when this conversation was first kind of ignited during a spring conference with the rehabilitation or the employment conference with the CSAVR spring conference where for the first time employers were invited to participate in that conference. And at that time, back in 2004, I was actually working for a bank that was headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama at that time. And it made sense then and that is a company that at that time had 22000 employees. But the idea of having a community partner that was thinking about business and hiring people with disabilities and really stopping to ask the businesses what they think and what their needs are as it relates to maneuvering through the candidates and the qualifications and the assessments and all of the pieces that go into a corporate type of hiring process. And they for the first time stopped and said, wow, here we are, all about employment. And skilling folks up to meet the needs of business but have we asked business what they think and how what we are doing is meaningful or perhaps in some instances is not so meaningful to their current processes. That was an exciting time back in 2004. And, again, lots of energy, lots of employers that began to say, well, here is what works for me, here is what I wish. Over and over again it was related to getting to know our business. What are the needs of corporate America when it comes to hiring people with disabilities? And that really started a conversation that continues today. And I just it blows my mind when I think back as to how far we have come And sometimes it feels long, nine years is not that long In terms of the mindset and the shift of thinking that I see out there among the VR agencies and the development of the national employment team that Kathy leads. One of the things that I like to emphasize in terms of why this makes sense for me as a business and as a leader in a company is that the adaptability of the vocational team and the national employment team and Kathy will kind of walk you through the pieces of the national employment team and kind of what that looks like. But the network itself is there when you need it. And as I said when I first started this I was in a smaller company, smaller bank in Birmingham, but what I knew from that experience and my level of engagement with VR and the support services that they were able to provide, whether, again, whether that was sourcing candidates or if it was a retention opportunity for some of our employees that perhaps didn't have disabilities when we hired them but they developed them at some point in their career. Being able to leverage the support services and the expertise that is available through our master's level vocational rehabilitation counselors was critical so I took that with me. So as I grew, as I changed, employers, as we observe laugh when we present to folks, I learned very quickly as did Kathy and the national employment team that smaller banks typically melt into larger banks and that is what happened. I later became a part of Wachovia that became a part of wells Fargo and each time the workforce grew but our national employment team was right there behind me as a practitioner of disability and accommodations to ensure that they were following me, our foot print never stepped out of the path of where the national employment team members were there to support. So and I'll never forget the amount of energy and excitement that was there when we met with a group of state directors, VR directors, when I knew that Wachovia was moving west and we were going out to places like California and Oregon and New Mexico and areas like that, our business was growing that way One called Kathy and the team and coordinated a meeting so that I could have that point of contact right there in each one of those states and sit down face to face with the directors and say, okay, here is what Wachovia is all about, here is what we think, here is our mission, this is what we believe in And I need your help because I'm one or two people, three people in an organization that helps to support this work across the foot print, but you guys are everywhere. So how do we educate you on what our needs are? And that is real partnership and that is the dual customer approach because we cannot do this, we cannot do this alone. We have to have meaningful partnerships And what is one of the things as well that now, as I'm with Lowe's, is the carry over of that partnership. It doesn't matter that it's no longer in the financial services industry. We have tremendous opportunities now on the retail side, I'm with Lowe's now and have been for the last year and a half. And what an amazing environment this is. We have a tremendous program through our distribution centers and I was just there last week visiting with our business relations representative and our unit manager, here from the Charlotte area that made the trip up What was most exciting is that it wasn't just the North Carolina team. But we were actually meeting and hosting the team from Rome, Georgia, which is where we are going to be opening a distribution center in the not so dis about future. And Greco battles and his team is out there so shout out to you, I think you are on the phone today, but his team coordinated a visit to Statesville, why? Because they wanted to learn about what Lowe's is doing and they want to collaborate with us and learn from their partners in Statesville VR of what is working And that is huge because we are sharing information and sharing experiences so that we are learning and we can more appropriately and efficiently get folks employed, and why should Rome, Georgia have to go through the application process and kind of re invent what Statesville is already doing, let's learn from each other That is a huge shift. In where we have been before. I want to share that with businesses of all sizes, of all industries because this is the transformation that we need to see, I think, in the disability employment phase is it is exciting when we can start really working together and being really deliberate in how we engage the services and what we're doing. One other point that and then I'm going to hush so Kathy can jump into the slides is one of the stories that I learned last week, which really just pin points exactly why we do what we do, and I think why a lot of businesses are out there seeking partnerships and growing and transforming their cultures to include people with disabilities and their employment pipelines. We had an in working with vocational rehab of course we have a model that we source candidates through, through VR. And the beautiful thing about a training program and a formalized program is the idea that at the end of the day it may be that that individual, consumer comes to us and says you know I appreciate the opportunity Lowe's but I don't want to work this disability. And that is absolutely okay.
And, boy, is that a cool place for us to be in the place of disability employment because everybody is an individual. And they may or may not like the experience of working in a distribution center. But a very, very key story that I'll share with you is one individual came to us and, again, came through VR and worked in over three years, had not worked, and he had a double hip replacement as I understand it. And he was determined to make it work And he came in and, you know, it was just a fighter and was really trying to work. And those that are familiar with the distribution center, they are huge facilities. And they are cement floors and a lot of walking is required, a ton of walking. And he worked for a period of time and then decided, you know, I just, it's too much. It's just too much But he had the experience of working in our out reach, in our training program at Lowe's And with that experience, he was able to go out and find another distribution center locally here, a much smaller distribution center, but when they looked on the resume and they were able to find out he had spent time with Lowe's distribution it meant something to the employer and he is there today and found his niche and he is employed and making his mark on a career and it's not about Lowe's and it's not about what we get, and we get some fantastic employees, and we retain fantastic employees, but it's about opening the door and educating other people and giving folks an opportunity to come into our organization and make a decision for themselves as to what they want to do. At the end of the day, that is the success is they can leave us and move on to another career of their choice and be successful there as well. So with that, that is kinds of very high level. I know we will take questions at the end, but I do want to pass it on to Kathy who can walk you through in greater detail about the CSAVR national employment team. So Kathy.
Thank you, Beth, and with you and Jill on the phone it's like a love fest. True of the woman that I have absolute respect for and we know when we face tough things together we will be honest and work it out and we will talk about the importance of relationships. So I learn a lot everyday and I'm going to share some information and invite you to provide feedback. So I don't think I'm advancing the slides I think there is a magic person that knows that I shouldn't touch the computer, so if you could move the slides through to the first slide, look, there is magic happening, I love it. So I work for CSAVA and that is administrators of vocation and this is a national organization of the corporate rehab directors. We have 80 agencies and 25,000 staff. We are in every state, territory and District of Columbia and serve to a million people with disabilities a year And in this initiative with business we are also partnered with two Federal partnerships with the Veterans administration, voc rehab and employment services and also our American Indian rehabilitation partners where we have 85 programs on or near native American reservations and Alaskan villages so I want you to know about the big talent pool. Not only are we backed by leadership and partnership with key members like the USVLN and partners in the other Federal re happen programs, but we also have a network of 10,000 community partners which I think there are many on the phone. So we have a large number of people And when we talked with business and Beth talked with you about what happened in 2004, we had 35 businesses come together and they said we really don't know the difference between all of you, all we know is that we have a need that needs to be met and we want to be able to reach out to you. So we are going to tell you what we need. But that is really what we are building this on and we are building on the big vision. So when business thinks about that talent pool, they have access from a lot of different points and our goal is really to understand the business, make them match with the candidates and make this a more efficient process for both of the customers. Next slide. I want to talk about because I saw a question popping up on the dual customers. So the key thing that business said is look, you are national in scope, start working like it You have 80 VR agencies and operate at the state level but do you know what we don't know your regions and we have a multi state foot print, we want you to build your team around us. And I want to give a shout out to our team in the southeast and I know there are several people on, I see Darlene and Trish and Laudia and we spent time with them in Atlanta recently and they are doing a fabulous job of working together in their region but on the national level we get a lot of information from this region that we share national ly. Southeast region is the home to our first partnership Walgreen's in South Carolina, we have Beth there in the North Carolina area. So this is a key part of our network. But it doesn't stop with the southeast We are sharing like Beth had talked about between states, but this next week we also have a person from Pennsylvania traveling to South Carolina to do a tour of the Walgreen's distribution center there and look at what Darlene and the team in South Carolina had developed and learn from that Walgreen's model, so it does not stop at regional borders and we have a great team in the southeast. Dual customer, why is this important to understand? We help people with disabilities but our employment outcomes are tied with those businesses So the more we know about what business needs the better job we can do on planning the careers for people with disabilities. So it's that real time information that makes the most sense for individuals with disabilities. And I think Beth had on a really great point, there is a person who maybe wasn't the fit with the Lowe's distribution center, what are these, a million square feet, right.