Employers’ Lessons Learned in Hiring, Retaining and Advancing Employees

For many employers, the pandemic was a crucible of assessing the status quo of working arrangements and culture, including the gaps and effectiveness of existing initiatives and business acumen related to accessibility and employee equity. [...] Our approach leans on definitions of disability established by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; the Canadian Human Rights Act; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and provincial legislation and standards, especially the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. [...] This definition is intended to capture a wide scope of employer activity that may affect organizational inclusion, and to recognize the complex and evolving nature of disability and how it is experienced and perceived both individually and socially. [...] Leaders’ and managers’ valid questions and concerns about how to support employees effectively and set achievable goals for inclusion are often implicitly answered by these myths and assumptions, contributing to the persistence of discrimination and exclusions.24 It is crucial that these misconceptions be addressed and that everyone at the organization possess a strong understanding of the diverse. [...] To enable employees to co-create disability inclusion strategies and goals, leaders should provide some background of universal or human-centred design and principles connected to “designing for the margins.” Encouraging employees who are designing initiatives and measurements to concentrate on the experiences of those in the margins should result in the creation of equity-supporting actions that.