DEA are delighted to bring together an impressive panel of employers and participants to discuss successful strategies for employing people with disability.
The panel will explore the relationship between people with disability and employers, taking into account attitudes and expectations, including those of their existing workforce.
Employer and Participant engagement strategies are one of the fundamentals to successful job placement and sustainable employment. While there are many factors that influence the availability of jobs, such as labour market conditions and the willingness of employers to hire new staff, people with disability face additional challenges in finding and keeping a job.
Presenters
Jo is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management at Deakin Business School and focuses on employment and skills and the workplace inclusion of under-leveraged talent. She has been awarded a number of grants in the UK and Australia, including most recently both an Australian Research Council Linkage and UK Research Council grant focused on employers, job quality and employment services. Jo is a Fellow of the Institute of Employability Professionals and co-chairs the UK Employment Related Services Association’s Employer Engagement Forum. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Academic Member of the Australian Human Resource Institute and Editor of the journal Work, Employment and Society.
Gken Givens commenced his 37 year career as a retail manager when just 18. He spent 10 years with Coles, 8 years with Woolworths, 13 years with Bunnings and then tried Officeworks, Spotlight and Baby Bunting before relocating from Canberra to Brisbane. Glen would take calls from Disability Groups trying to encourage him to employ a person with a disability and he would politely tell them to “apply online” – who would want to choose someone with a disability over an able bodied person?
In Queensland, Glen had to decide on whether to retire, get back into retail or trying something completely different, which is what he did.
Glen joined a Disability Employment Service company and his role was to help people with varying disabilities, both physical and mental, to overcome obstacles and find employment. Once he had helped coach them to find a suitable job, his role then was to congratulate, celebrate and support them in the new role. He helped the most passionate and hard working people there and couldn’t believe what a shmuck he had been back in his retail days!
At the beginning of this 2023 Glen left the disability sector and joined ICS – a cleaning business located throughout Australia and New Zealand. ICS had the key values of Diversity and Inclusion and as they began looking for employees their first avenue was MAX Employment.
Our team is now stronger and more diverse due to our awesome team and the relationship we have built with MAX.
Dr Brett Teale is the Safe Work and Human Resources Manager and Quality and Process Efficiency Manager at Ashton Manufacturing. His background is in Pathology, Molecular Genetics, Cancer Research and startup biotechs. He has had experience in Mining with taking companies onto the stockmarket and consulting experience to identify efficiency and strategies to grow businesses.
Josh started his business, Incentive Employment, in 2013. He launched Chapter 1 Employment in late 2022 as a brand that astutely reflects the work they do in reverse marketing DES job seekers, assisting employers to be more inclusive with hiring practices, and training employment services staff on employer engagement. Having two siblings with disabilities, Josh is particularly passionate about telling a jobseeker’s story, focusing on their strengths and placing them in a fantastic working environment. Over the last 10 years, Josh and his business has placed 1743 DES job seekers in to employment, partnered with 27 different DES organisations, and worked in all States and Territories of Australia. Josh and his team have a unique viewpoint of the job seeker market, employer market, and the needs of employment services agencies.
Josh has a team of five within Chapter 1 Employment. Three of his current employees came from APM, two that are DES participants who have been with him for two years, and one who was an employee of APM (sorry APM!). Another staff member has come from Mylestones Employment.
Josh hires his employees with the same inclusive values and mindset that he promotes to businesses every day. That is;
– To focus on a person’s story, not resume
– Identify strengths that can be mapped to value-adding activities in your business
– and, Inclusivity as standard.
Importantly, he has very low turnover and has found an excellent balance between hiring talent that is often overlooked, and meeting the needs of his business.
Kirsty Jennings is Senior Manager – Volume, D&I and Partnerships for Serco. She has been in recruitment for 7 years, and prior to thatworked in a call centre management background. Kirsty has a passion for placing people into the right role and watching them grow.