Guidelines for Recruiting Graduates with Self-Declared Disabilities
Introduction:
This document sets out Guidelines for Recruiting Graduates with Self-Declared Disabilities at post secondary educational institutions. These guidelines build on the framework and specific activities developed in the CACEE Ethical Recruitment Guidelines document for the professional relationships between employers, students, third party recruiters and career educators.
These guidelines outline specific challenges and opportunities associated with the recruitment of graduates with self-declared disabilities that should be considered by the three key stakeholders:employers, students and career educators during all recruitment activities. These considerations, on their own, are not unique to recruiting graduates with disabilities; identifying and addressing these considerations effectively, efficiently and proactively will support the overall recruitment process for all students, including those with disabilities.
In addition to the identification and dialogue associated with the specific considerations, these guidelines will also provide examples of resource materials and sources available to employers, students and career educators.
The guidelines are based on industry research, have been generally agreed upon by employers and educators, and are advocated by CACEE for national implementation.
Challenges and Opportunities
The Issue: Implications associated with federal and provincial legislative requirements
Points to Consider – All Key Stakeholders:
- Human rights considerations
- Legal definitions of persons with disabilities
- Rights of the Student as a person with disabilities
- Rights of the Employer
- Definition and implications of Disclosure and Reasonable Accommodation
Resources Available:
- Human Rights legislation related to recruitment and hiring available on federal and all provincial websites.
Points to Consider - For Employers:
- Job posting requirements and best practices
- Initial screening and interviewing processes
- Audit existing recruitment and selection process to ensure compliancy
- Review key recruitment messages provided to students and career educators to ensure compliant, consistent and inclusive
- Implement education, calibration and coaching activities to ensure corporate recruiters, third party recruitment agents and hiring managers understand and adhere to standardized and compliant recruitment policies and processes.
Points to Consider - For Students:
- Understand personal rights as well as the rights of employers
- Assess personal application against the legal definition of a person with disabilities
Points to Consider - For Career Educators:
- Understand both federal and provincial legislative considerations related to recruiting persons with disabilities
- Understand legal definition for person with disabilities
- Audit internal student counseling processes and job search information/coaching to ensure compliancy
- Understand and convey to students their personal rights as well as the rights of employers related to recruiting persons with disabilities (disclosure, interviewing, etc)
- Provide support for student self assessment related to determining personal disclosure option
The Issue: Disclosure
Definition: The point at which the student communicates to the employer any disability status or limitation that would require accommodation in order to perform the required work as per standards developed by the employer.
Points to Consider - All Key Stakeholders
- Rights of the Student
- Rights of the Employer
- Readiness assessment for all stakeholders to effectively prepare and support disclosure
Resources Available:
http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/plcy-pltq/guides/assessment-evaluation/apwd-eph/ch2-eng.htm - Federal Public Service Commission best practice example and Legislation Information
http://alis.alberta.ca/ep/eps/tips/tips.html?EK=163 – Alberta.ca Tip Sheet – What to say about your disability and when
Points to Consider - For Employers:
- Determine organizational readiness for addressing disclosure when:
- Assessing job applications and reviewing student resumes
- Conducting initial screening
- Conducting interviews
- Providing verbal job offers
- Providing final job offers
- Communication to existing employees related to new hires with disabilities
- Audit recruitment and interviewing processes and tools to ensure compliance, dignity and respect
- Consider asking ALL students if there is any accommodation required during interview process – Assume that everyone needs some accommodation!
- Create ability-based role and responsibility descriptors in job postings
- Ensure interview guides and questions are ability-based
- Ensure inclusive recruitment information provided to Career Educators and Students
- Consider partnerships with Career Educators and other community-based organizations that provide targeted support and programs to students and graduates with disabilities to ensure innovative recruitment outreach efforts in place to attract students with disabilities
- Understand student rights associated with disclosure and as a result of careful reflection and guidance may not chose to disclose until required
- do not assume that by not disclosing initially that the student is trying to hide anything
Points to Consider - For Students:
Note: Includes points that should be considered BEFORE deciding when and how it is best for you personally to disclose
- Understand personal and employer rights and responsibilities throughout the recruitment and selection process
- Weigh considerations and determine personal approach to disclosure
- Inclusion in resume and cover letter
- During initial screening process with employer
- During face to face interview process with employer
- Assess employer information and interest in recruiting persons with disabilities from recruitment collateral materials, participation and behaviours demonstrated on campus during activities and events, diversity, inclusion and value statements on corporate websites, etc. to assist in determining when to disclose
- Assess personal comfort level
- Conduct personal ability-based skills self assessment
- Identify ability-based major accomplishments on resumes in cover letters versus stressing limitations associated with disability
- During interviews ensure demonstrating and describing abilities during interviews ad versus disabilities
- Seek out support from Career Educators and other sources to:
- validate assumptions related to rights and responsibilities,
- review ability-based self assessment, and
- assess what adaptive equipment or other accommodations are in place currently that ensure your success as a student in preparation for disclosure and potential reasonable accommodation discussion with employers during transition to the workplace
Points to Consider - for Career Educators:
- Assess readiness of staff to address disclosure options with students
- Counselling implications around disclosure as it relates to 1) resume and cover letter writing options (add in full disclosure or information that could be interpreted as potentially having a disability, 2) interview process preparation including initial screening by telephone, 3) point of disclosure.
- Guidance related to ability-based assessment counseling, in general as well as for specific job opportunities
- Counselling on how to approach personal disclosure issue with employers including mock interview option if required
- Counsel students to assess what proven adaptive devises and/or other accommodations including various supports have been in place during educational study to encourage student success for consideration in workplace
- Provide conscious opportunities to create more accessible environments during career fairs; be ready to adequately support both employer and student requirements during school-sponsored job fairs
The Issue: Reasonable Accommodation
Definition: Adaptations that need to be made to the work environment, tools, or processes that enables a person with a disability to successfully meet the requirements of the job
Points to Consider - All Key Stakeholders
- Understand rights and responsibilities of the student and the employer related to reasonable accommodation
- Accommodation has to “reasonable”, balance the needs of the student and the employer and support ability to perform essential responsibilities to a specific standard
- Specific accommodations in the workplace are NOT required for all persons with disabilities
- Accommodations for physical as well as intellectual disabilities should be assessed as required and include adaptive equipment as well as revisions to practices, procedures and support structures in the workplace to ensure successful performance on the job
- Most students can identify workplace accommodations required in whatever form based on any accommodations required to have a successful student experience
Resources Available:
Points to Consider - For Employers:
- Assess organizational readiness for addressing reasonable accommodation requirements
- Proactively assess what accommodation is reasonable for specific positions
- Proactively assess critical versus (non critical) responsibilities and deliverables on job postings to encourage job applications from students with disabilities
- Audit recruitment and interview processes to ensure reasonable accommodation during interviews
- Educate recruiters and hiring managers to ensure compliance and support ability-based recruitment practices
- Debunk myths associated with accommodation
- Must be reasonable – absolutely
- Not all persons with disabilities required workplace accommodations
- Not all workplace accommodations involve adaptive equipment requirements so a review of accommodations associated with initial on boarding including initial training and orientation as well as ongoing coaching activities should be assessed to ensure successful reasonable accommodation plan
- No general reporting of increases in incidental and short term disability absence rates on the job from graduates with disabilities
- Research available to support impressive retention rates for employees with disabilities when appropriate reasonable accommodations in place
- Consider corporate or departmental funding for potential accommodation requests to support hiring manager decisions to recruit students with disabilities
- Encourage existing employees to support successful integration of graduate with disabilities
- No acknowledgement of employee’s disability status if no reasonable accommodation required
- Awareness training for employees and managers to highlight the benefits of a supportive work place for all employees
- Establish peer or buddy structure for all new graduate hires
- Establish team goals as well as individual goals to encourage inclusion
Points to Consider - For Students:
- Prior to an interview with an employer, conduct Personal Accommodation Self Assessment
- Determine what adaptive devises or other accommodations were required at the educational institution and during studies to ensure successful performance
- Be realistic regarding ability to perform jobs posted or specifically main responsibilities listed in the job posting
- Assess personal abilities, strengths and interests against job posted
- Assess challenges related to job posting and what clarifications are required from the employer to determine all barriers
- Assess realistic solutions to overcome barriers including reasonable accommodations
- Determine how required accommodations would improve or ensure performance as per the job posting and in turn benefit the organization
- During the interview process with an employer, whether disclosing at this point or not, ensure that you establish the critical job responsibilities and how performance will be measures so that you can personally determine your ability to perform to the employer’s standards and what accommodations, if any would be required.
- When disclosing and identifying need for reasonable accommodation, if any, to the employer, be prepared to clearly and concisely provide your information related personal abilities, perceived barriers and solutions to overcome barriers including any reasonable accommodation
- Ensure full disclosure if required before accepting employer’s job offer to ensure legal compliance as well as on the job success
Points to Consider - For Career Educators:
- Adapt and implement strategies identified under Disclosure section
- Counsel students on determining a balance that accommodates both t he student and employee needs and access to resources
The Issue: Building Professional Network of Contacts
Definition: Developing processes to establish effective network of Employers, Students, Career Educators and other external partners to facilitate ease of entry and effective recruitment of students with disabilities.
Points to Consider - All Key Stakeholders
- Understand and align with the CACEE Ethical Recruitment Guidelines
- Identify resources that support students with disabilities within various educational institutions
- Identify employers with specific recruitment strategies for hiring students with disabilities
- Share research related to employability of persons with disabilities
- Share best practices across educational institutions and employers
Resources Available:
http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario/http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/factsheets/workplace
Points to Consider - For Employers:
- Consider creating roundtable discussion opportunities with employer compensation resources to discuss challenges, solutions and learnings to share compensation and benefit-related issues and to establish best practices
Points to Consider - For Students:
- Get involved in on campus clubs and associations to both develop confidence, general skills, public speaking abilities and to effectively promote understanding about student with disabilities challenges as well as opportunities to contribute
Points to Consider - For Career Educators:
- Identify other offices or departments at the individual educational institution that can support students with disabilities and to communicate ways in which these various groups can “blend: resources and provide consistent messaging to students
- Create seamless, coordinated processes, contact points and mandates between career centre and ability/disability primes to support both student and employer networking, information seeking and to establish partnership opportunities
For additional information about these Guidelines; or to discuss recruitment activities that may be unethical, please contact the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers, Executive Director, www.cacee.com.
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