A Progressive Route to Diversity and Inclusion

In 2012, Vancity, a prominent Credit Union in British Columbia, wanted to reach out to people with disabilities in a more positive way. They viewed such individuals as an untapped pool of talent – a marginalized group with more to offer than was traditionally considered. Mark Gruenheid in his role as Manager of Vocational Initiatives at the BC Centre for Ability worked closely with Vancity’s People Solutions team to come up with a fresh approach to attracting, hiring and promoting persons with disabilities in Vancity’s workforce; and on a larger scale connecting with people with disabilities in the community.

At first glance, it appeared that Vancity were not hiring a representative number of employees with disabilities in their workforce. Mark suspected that this was not necessarily the case; that the issue was equally centred around the willingness of individual employees to disclose any disability for fear of negative consequences arising from such an admission. Mark and his colleague, Debra Macko, who was imbedded in the Vancity People Solutions team for a 3-year time period, changed the cultural awareness around disability at Vancity one employee at a time.

Talks were given to groups of staff; the company intranet was utilized to normalize disability and its implications; language was changed on company literature and web pages to highlight Vancity’s openness toward disability; recruiters and hiring managers were trained to conduct more inclusive interviews. In addition, qualified people with disabilities were hired into roles throughout the organization with excellent outcomes.

Upon completion of the project, Vancity’s numbers of employed persons with disabilities quadrupled. This was not only a result of increased hiring from that group, it was more a reflection of a new understanding of disability from the standpoint of diversity and inclusion.

Mark is applying these same techniques with other employers and the results are similarly impressive. The City of Surrey, the Vancouver Police Department, London Drugs, TD Bank. All have benefited from the more progressive view of finding ability in everyone and understanding that disability does not define an individual, it is merely one aspect of the entire person.

Click below to hear a great interview with Mark Gruenheid from the BC Centre for Ability and Vancity president & CEO Tamara Vrooman on employment for people with disabilities.