Increasing employment through inclusive workplaces - Interim report - JULY 2022

The project also aims to increase the proportion of small and medium-size enterprise (SME) representation.1 As this iteration of the BC WiN model explores and tests a more comprehensive suite of supports and services with project partners, the project will also examine how such an initiative can be sustained and expanded as more employers and other stakeholders realize the benefits of the approach. [...] The evaluators worked with the IWC team to design and deliver standardized assessments for employer partners to capture their commitment to inclusive hiring practices, the extent to which people with disabilities are included within their recruitment and retention strategies, and the extent to which their organizations engage in inclusive training and supports for both management and employees. [...] SRDC established partnership agreements with MacLeod Silver HR Business Partners and the Pacific Autism Family Network (PAFN),3 creating the Inclusive Workforce Consulting team to engage employer partners in the BC WiN initiative, lead the development of employer training and supports, and deliver the job matching process to connect job seekers with disabilities to the available employment opportu. [...] Journey maps, which are a visual representation of the user’s service experiences, illustrate the story of the user as a sequence of steps to capture multiple observations that include the characteristics of each interaction (touchpoints), the actions/steps taken both by the user and by the service provider, and the thoughts and feelings experienced by the user (Strickdorn et al., 2018). [...] In the debrief of the journey mapping exercise with the IWC team, it was noted that there are opportunities to work with employer partners to ensure that organizations continue to build DEI capacity across the organization, and that more work can be done with respect to the training and capacity building of direct supervisors and managers.