JOINing forces to employ the disabled

Desrine, left, a deaf woman who works in the Royal Ontario Museum’s food studio found her job through JOIN member agency The Canadian Hearing Society.

TORONTO—It’s no secret that the Ontario hospitality industry is facing a labour shortage, but the numbers may come as a surprise. The tourism industry in Ontario employs over 415,000 people today. And projections for the sector by the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council forecast a labour shortage of 119,000 people in Ontario by 2025—that’s a shortage equal to the population of Thunder Bay, ON or Moncton, NB.

At the same time, there’s a year-old organization called Job Opportunity Information Network (JOIN) Toronto Region, which has brought together 24 organizations with more than 50 job developers for the sole purpose of providing job opportunities, education and placement information for individuals with disabilities and employers.

Last month, The Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association (ORHMA) and the Greater Toronto Hotel Association (GTHA) announced that they have combined forces with JOIN to diversify their workforce recruitment efforts through the more aggressive pursuit of people with disabilities.

Together, they will work to better identify potential employees among the 15 per cent of Ontario residents with disabilities.

“Like most sectors, we are in competition for good people,” said Tony Elenis, president & CEO of ORHMA. “We believe one of the real untapped pools of well-educated and highly skilled employees is persons living with disabilities. Research shows that when given the opportunity, people with disabilities excel in their roles, have equal or better attendance records and are most often extremely loyal to their employers.”

ORHMA has hired David Holman, who has a wealth of experience both as an adult educator and in development of programs and services for individuals with barriers to employment, as its diversity recruitment specialist.

“We recognize that meaningful efforts are needed to hire more people with disabilities,” said Terry Mundell, president of GTHA. “Our businesses are often the first points of contact for visitors to our province. We’ve long recognized that a diverse workforce helps make our businesses stronger. ”

JOIN is a one-year old association with more than 50 members, mostly from the non-profit sector, but also including some for-profit companies, who have come together to provide job opportunity information, education and placement information for individuals with disabilities and employers, JOIN spokesperson Anne Marie Cole told CLN. “It’s a one-stop shop for employers and applicants alike to connect for jobs.”

In its first year, JOIN has already placed over 1,150 people.

Their clients include a wide variety of individuals including people with both visible and invisible disabilities, both chronic and episodic.  “We have people who are learning disabled, visually impaired, deaf, people with mental health issues, paraplegics, intellectual disabilities, acquired brain injuries, epilepsy, HIV, addictions and other physical disabilities.” They include someone with a Masters in Computer Science who had an accident and is in a wheelchair, and people with intellectual disabilities who could do a completely different type of job.

“The partnership [with ORHMA and GTHA] is good because the need for workers in the hospitality industry is substantial. And because they are such a diverse industry themselves, they are much more receptive to hiring people with disabilities,” she said.
There are already a number of companies that have made inroads in hiring the disabled—including Starbucks, Compass Group and Marriott International in the hospitality sector,  she added.

Hiring employees with disabilities could also help companies meet the needs of their clients.  “For example, there are more than half a million hard of hearing people who can access good and services in the hospitality industry.  It would help to have a person who signs on the front desk.”

And the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) states that its goal is to achieve accessibility for all Ontarians with disabilities by 2025.  All of which points to a need to hire employees who know the needs of customers with disabilities.

“Our people have a great attitude and because of that they are trainable,” said Cole.  And at JOIN you have more than 50 job developers working with you—that’s much easier than [approaching them] yourself.”

BMO (Bank of Montreal) Financial Group and JOIN will be hosting a conference titled, “The Value of Accessibility; The Bottom Line,” on Oct. 16 at the Intercontinental Hotel, 225 Front Street, in the heart of downtown Toronto For more information, e-mail sharon@joininfo.ca or call 416-241-5646.