CONSIDERING SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT

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by Taylor Louis0 views·Updated Mar 1, 2021
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  1. I service King Collision Services.
  2. My name is Taylor Lewis, and I am an employment
  3. consultant through At Work, a nonprofit organization that supports individuals
  4. with different abilities and obtaining and maintaining employment in the
  5. workplace. So I'm going to briefly be talking to you
  6. today about why you should consider, um, supported employment in
  7. the workplace through at work.
  8. So we're gonna go ahead and get started now.
  9. Why Hire at work is a highly supportive partner Helping
  10. employers like you leverage the real economic value of employing
  11. people with disabilities.
  12. So we prioritize diversity, economic value in a more positive
  13. workplace and what this actually can look like in, uh,
  14. bullet points.
  15. Yes. Lower rates of absenteeism and turnover, improved revenues and
  16. market share, decreased labor costs, happier employers and customers tax
  17. savings through the work opportunity tax credit.
  18. So at work, we recognize that we are here to
  19. support the individual that we serve in obtaining and maintaining
  20. employment. But we're also here to make sure that the
  21. employment of this individual benefits not only the individual themselves,
  22. but in addition, it benefits the employers, the co workers,
  23. supervisors, the managers, um, we believe that the individuals we
  24. serve are an asset or should be an asset to
  25. the team.
  26. Therefore, they should be there.
  27. Charity case to hire supported employee but rather it should
  28. be seen as a benefit because of you know, the
  29. things that I listed previously.
  30. So now we're just going to quickly talk about what
  31. supported employment looks like, um, in the next couple of
  32. sides. So here we go, supported employment at work, supports
  33. employers and job seekers every step of the way, with
  34. free personalized training, job coaching and guidance.
  35. We find highly capable workers for your open positions or
  36. help structure a job to fit one of our job
  37. seekers to benefit both your business and the employee.
  38. So, essentially, what at work believes in is support for
  39. employers and job seekers.
  40. It's a team effort in order for our job coach
  41. to support the support an employee in maintaining employment, we
  42. need to make sure that we're regularly checking in with
  43. the employers to make sure that their needs are getting
  44. met. So how it works.
  45. So we're gonna start with this first bubble here and
  46. the job coach partners with local businesses to find a
  47. job match for a job candidate.
  48. They bring businesses together for interviews, assist in the decision
  49. to accept or reject the offer and negotiate the employment
  50. offer and pay rate.
  51. So there are different ways that we do this, and
  52. under typical non covid circumstances, we like to schedule a
  53. time to meet with recruitment managers or store owners in
  54. person to kind of give this whole spiel about why
  55. hiring a supported employment employee is a benefit to them
  56. as a company.
  57. However, with Covid, we've had become creative and try different
  58. ways of reaching out to employers to spread the word
  59. about supported employment.
  60. So with Service King collision, I simply just filled out
  61. an application for an individual on indeed and then heard
  62. back from the recruitment manager.
  63. And we talked over the phone very briefly about what
  64. supported employment looks like.
  65. But it didn't necessarily bring on the full picture of
  66. why hiring a supported employee is a benefit to you
  67. guys. So that's kind of what I am trying a
  68. different route of creating this presentation here.
  69. Yeah, once the employer is on board, would support an
  70. employment, and they support an employee.
  71. We do the interview Um, and then I, as a
  72. job coach, assist the individual with negotiating their their contract,
  73. their job contract, employment offer, whatever you would call it.
  74. Um, typically, this isn't a huge cordial.
  75. It's pretty standard, pretty straightforward.
  76. We get the job offer and, you know, get the
  77. okay from the individual we serve.
  78. And then and that's that we get onto the on
  79. boarding process for this supporting individual.
  80. So next we have number two, which is, um, while
  81. the supported employee works on mastering the new job job
  82. coaches provide on the job training and support for the
  83. employee, their coworkers and their circle of support.
  84. So there.
  85. This can look different depending on the individual, depending on
  86. the level of independence, depending on the level, depending on
  87. their ability to pick up new tasks.
  88. Um, easily.
  89. So for some individuals, job coaches will actually go in
  90. before the individual starts and observe another coworker and how
  91. they do the job so that the job coach is
  92. able to absorb and take in what they're observing and
  93. help apply what they've observed in teaching and training the
  94. individual. Once they get on the job and are learning
  95. their job tasks.
  96. This can also look like simply showing up with the
  97. individual during their first week or so of employment and
  98. just being there to guide or remind the individual of
  99. what they need to do in order to get their
  100. tasks done completely and successfully.
  101. And then, lastly, there are also individuals that don't want
  102. support from their job coach during the first couple of
  103. weeks of training.
  104. These are typically the individuals that went through majority of
  105. the first step by themselves and didn't need that additional
  106. support. So they're a bit more independent.
  107. So last but not least, we've got number three.
  108. The job coach will support the employee through job coaching,
  109. advocating through any problems that arise and check ins as
  110. needed to ensure considered success.
  111. So, depending on the level of support needed, the job
  112. coach will check in with the individual either once a
  113. week, once a month or once a day, Um, through
  114. the entire duration of the shift, Um, usually we start
  115. to quote unquote fade out, which means, as the individual
  116. we serve becomes accustomed to the job tasks that they're
  117. doing, we slowly start to back away and become less
  118. of a queue for the individual.
  119. Um, let's have a less of a guidance.
  120. Um, while they do their tasks and more of an
  121. observer just to kind of make sure everything is kosher
  122. once the job coach feels comfortable and confident that the
  123. individual is able to perform their task and the work
  124. duties the routine of getting to work clocking in clocking
  125. out, um, independently, The job coach will check in with
  126. the individual once a week or once a month at
  127. this point.
  128. So you can see in this picture.
  129. And this is actually an individual I worked with.
  130. Um, we were starting to fade with him over at
  131. r E.
  132. I, um and so you can see in this picture
  133. I'm kind of got a bit of distance, but I've
  134. actually even further back when I'm not taking the picture.
  135. I'm just kind of observing him, watching him do his
  136. tasks until complete.
  137. At this point, we were still working on having him
  138. come in and do the whole pre screening with covid
  139. checking temperature and signing and all that.
  140. But unfortunately, because of budget cuts, they had to let
  141. him go after a couple of months.
  142. So, um yeah, but the point is that we were
  143. slowly starting to fade out the presence of the job
  144. coach so that the individual could be just like any
  145. other co worker enmeshed in the environment.
  146. So, lastly, I'm just going to give you my contact
  147. info. And before I do that, I just wanted to
  148. give a quick thank you for taking the time to
  149. read and listen to this little, uh, snapshot of what
  150. supported employment looks like through at work.
  151. Hopefully, you'll be able to consider this in the future
  152. when it makes sense for your company.
  153. Um, and if not, hopefully it just gives you an
  154. idea of the fact that inclusivity is the future is
  155. the way of the future.
  156. And, you know, supported employment is allowing individuals with different
  157. abilities to step into the workplace and contribute to their
  158. community. And, um, you know, if you're not on board
  159. now, you know, I hope eventually you'll get onboard because
  160. again, it's just it's where we're headed.
  161. It's the direction that our society is headed.
  162. So I contacted them.
  163. Okay,