WorkBC encourages employers in the Central Okanagan to be more inclusive – Okanagan | 24CA News
Businesses within the Central Okanagan are being inspired to make their workplaces extra numerous, by hiring workers with totally different talents.
On Thursday afternoon, a job honest in Kelowna, B.C. was held designed to be extra inclusive.
Dale Froese has Down syndrome and has been working at Starbucks in Kelowna for almost 15 years. He’s glad that an employer gave him a possibility all these years in the past.
“We’re just people of our community, we just want to get out and be a part of that,” stated Dale.
“The skills that we have just get to know us, sit down with us like — you never know, that person can be hired.”
His spouse Leanne Froese additionally works at Starbucks and he or she’s additionally nearing her fifteenth work anniversary. She says employers want to alter their view of disabled folks within the office.
“There’s a word going around and it’s (about) people are afraid of people with disabilities because they think we’re not the same but we are,” stated Leanne.
A job honest hosted by WorkBC Thursday goals to offer extra inclusive alternatives.
“We want to make people feel comfortable no matter their background, no matter factors like neurodiversity or physical disability,” stated WorkBC employer and neighborhood coordinator
Joel Gunther.
“Everyone is welcome and employers are here to promote equal employment opportunities.”
Gunther says there’s at present an untapped useful resource in job seekers in the neighborhood, although they could want some further lodging and coaching.
“Some employers and some job postings are not inclusive and not everyone has adapted to have that inclusive hiring practices within their organizations. We’re trying to bridge that gap and we’re trying to educate employers,” Gunther stated.
One native employer says companies within the Central Okanagan ought to take the time to determine what folks with disabilities can do, in comparison with what they will’t.
“I think everybody has abilities and we can teach the skills that are there. We just need to know how to work with people and be willing to bring them in and put that investment in, because what you’re going to get back, just pays off tenfold,” stated Starbucks Canada expertise acquisition specialist Trina Zacharias.
WorkBC says the occasion Thursday was simply one of many many inclusive job festivals it would host this yr.
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