Transcript AT@Work

AT @ Work
Time is Money:
What is Your VALUE to Business?
Part 2
National Assistive Technology Technical Assistance
Partnership
August 24, 2009 Webinar
Presented by,
Joan Kester
The George Washington University
Center for Rehabilitation Counseling Research & Education
Mid-Atlantic Technical Assistance & Continuing Education
Center
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AT @ Work: What is YOUR
Value to Business?
• In today’s climate, it is essential to view
employers as customers and to paint a
clear picture of what AT professionals
offer business partners. Learn about the
landscape of employment affecting
people with disabilities and how analyze
the needs of employers in your area.
During the webinar, participants will also
have an opportunity to discuss strategies
to expand their employer base and define
their value to business.
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Interactive Topics of the Day
• Part 1:
– Employment: Understanding the Landscape
– Who are Your Primary Customers?
– What Do Employers Need?
– Expanding Your Employer Base
– Adding Value to Business
• Part 2: (Today)
– Building Sustainable Partnerships
– Customizing Your Approach
– Working Smarter…Not Harder
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Building Sustainable Partnerships
What is the impact of your behavior?
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Building Strong & Sustainable
Partnerships with Employers Depends
on…
•
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•
•
•
•
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Trust
Reliability
Deliverability
Responsiveness
Consistency
Quality
Sustainability
Flexibility
32nd IRI, "The VR-Business Network: Charting Your Course“ located
at http://www.rcep6.org/IRI/tmpt/publications.htm#32nd
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Building Partnerships with
Businesses: Person-to-Person
• TRUST
– Respect for each business partnership
– Shares information with trusted
colleagues as needed
• RESPONSIVENESS
– Timely response to partners, business,
and individuals with disabilities
– Respects sense of urgency for requests
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Building Partnerships with
Businesses: Person-to-Person
• DELIVERABILITY
– Delivers what is promised
– Accurately defines services for
customers within capacity to deliver
• CONSISTENCY
– Maintains comparable level of
deliverability with all customers
– Ensures quality and consistency in
services to business
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Building Partnerships with
Businesses: Person-to-Person
• QUALITY
– Ensures services meet or exceed
expressed needs and standards of
customer
• SUSTAINABILITY
– Ensures staff are prepared to meet
changing needs of dual customer
– Ensures smooth & seamless transition if
contact changes
– Ensures the framework to build effective
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networks is strong
Council for Corporate & School
Partnerships: Checklist for
Partnering
The following steps provide a road map for
creating, implementing, sustaining and
evaluating partnerships between schools,
community partners and businesses. The
recommendations are designed to help leaders
respond to the many opportunities – and
challenges – that arise through long-term
relationships.
Source: A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR SCHOOL-BUSINESS
PARTNERSHIPS, Council for Corporate & School Partnerships
(http://www.corpschoolpartners.org/guide.shtml)
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Highlights of the
Checklist for Partnering
• PRELIMINARY PLANNING
– Determine how a partnership could enhance the
student experience.
– Identify potential partners.
• LAYING THE FOUNDATION
– Develop an understanding of each partner’s
desired level of involvement.
– Assess the impact of the partnership on students.
– Ensure that students and members of the
community are engaged.
– Collaborate with partner to identify partnership
activities.
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Highlights of the
Checklist for Partnering
• IMPLEMENTATION
– Ensure that activities provide an opportunity for
students, teachers, and business employees to
interact with each other and the community.
• SUSTAINING THE PARTNERSHIP
– Secure explicit support and concurrence for the
partnership at all levels of the school and business.
– Communicate regularly about intended and actual
outcomes.
– Ensure both partners are publicly and privately
recognized.
• EVALUATION
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Building Partnerships with
Employers
• Share your experiences (positive
and challenging) in building
sustainable partnerships with
employers.
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Customizing Your Approach
Targeting your audience
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Targeting your Audience within
Businesses
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•
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•
•
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•
Personnel Management
Diversity Staff
Risk Management Department
EEO Initiative
Health & Safety Office
Training & Development Area
Many others…
What audiences have you targeted?
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Be Clear on Your Purpose
• What is that you hope to
achieve? What is your
motivation?
–Short-Term
–Long-Term
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Communicating with Employers
• Be clear on your deliverables
– Demonstrate the value of your
information
• State your interest and purpose up front
• Produce and share clear and concise
materials and documents
• Offer a menu of options, cover the
basics, and let the employer direct you to
his/her needs/interests. Build on the
employers’ ideas.
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Communicating with Employers
• Keep your descriptions simple.
• Focus on the benefits rather than the
features of your program.
• Speak the employer’s language
– No lingo!
• Share some AT jargon and translate it
into business language.
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Defining your Service Options
• Information sharing
– Written and/or electronic media
• Self paced training opportunities
– Web based
• Length of training
– Once and done
– Realistic length of training module
• Capability of offering professional
certification credits
• Other options you have defined?
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Defining your Methods of Delivery
• What is the timeliest means to deliver
your message?
– In Person Meetings
– Webinars
– Teleconferencing
– Other
• What methods of delivery have you
attempted and how has it worked?
What is the length of your program?
How often, if ever, is it repeated?
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Determining your Modes of
Communication
• How do you plan to contact employers with
your outreach materials? How might this
vary, depending upon your targeted
audience?
– Telephone
– Written Materials
– Electronic Communication
– Website Advertisements
– Other
• What modes of communication have you
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used and how has it worked for you?
Designing your Outreach
Materials
• What is it that you have to offer
employers that they may value?
• Create your outreach materials to reflect
these “values”
– Be clear and concise
– Introduce your organization
– Describe your purpose
– Define your deliverables
• Describe and share your outreach
materials.
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Working Smarter…Not Harder
Collaborating with other organizations
with a common purpose
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Vocational Rehabilitation
Partners
• Public VR Agency
(http://www.rehabnetwork.org/).
• Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment (VR&E) Program for
Veterans (http://www.vetsuccess.gov/).
What are your successes and
challenges in outreaching to
employers through VR?
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One Stop System
• State Workforce Investment Boards
• Local Workforce Investment Boards
(http://www.dol.gov/)
• What are your successes and
challenges in outreaching to
employers through one-stops?
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Additional State & Local
Government Agencies
• Examples of other agencies with a focus
on employment:
– Developmental Programs
(http://www.nacdd.org/)
– Mental Health
(http://www.samhsa.gov/)
– Health and human services
(http://www.hhs.gov/)
– Education (http://www.ed.gov)
– Economic Development
(http://www.eda.gov/)
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Additional State & Local
Government Agencies
• State Employment Initiatives to increase
the number of individuals with disabilities
employed
• What are your successes and
challenges in outreaching to
employers through state & local
government agencies?
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State Initiatives to Address
Employment Barriers in your State
• Do you know if there are initiatives to
promote the employment of people
with disabilities in your state?
• (http://www.dol.gov/odep/state/directry.h
tm)
– Federal, State and/or Local
Government Employment
– Governor’s Committee
– Task Forces
• Are you connected? If you don’t know, how
can you find out?
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Professional Associations
Just to name a few!
• National Rehabilitation Association
(http://www.nationalrehab.org/)
• American Association of Occupational Therapist
(http://www.aota.org/)
• American Physical Therapy Association
(http://www.apta.org)
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
(http://www.asha.org/)
• Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society
of America (RESNA) (http://www.resna.org/)
• National Career Development Association
(http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/Home_Pa
ge)
• Many others…
• What professional associations do you have an
affiliation and how might this help you outreach to
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employers?
Connecting our efforts
EXAMPLES OF NATIONAL
INITIATIVES
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US Business Leadership Network
• The US Business Leadership Network
(USBLN®) is the national business
organization currently representing BLN
chapters in 32 states and more than
5000 employers using a “business to
business” strategy to promote the
business imperative of including people
with disabilities in the workforce.
(www.usbln.org/)
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Employer Assistance & Recruiting
Network (EARN)
• The Employer Assistance & Recruiting
Network (EARN) is a free service that
connects employers looking for quality
employees with skilled job candidates.
Discover what employers across the
nation have learned: hiring people with
disabilities is a great business strategy!
(http://www.earnworks.com/wrp/)
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Dept. of Labor, Office of Disability
Employment Policy Alliance
• Enables organizations committed to improving
disability workplace practices to work with
ODEP to develop and implement model
policies, initiatives and strategies that increase
recruiting, hiring, advancing, and retaining
workers with disabilities (e.g. trade and
professional associations, businesses, labor
unions, educational institutions, Federal, state
and local government agencies)
(http://www.dol.gov/odep/alliances/index.htm)
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National Organization on Disability:
National EmployAbility Partnership
• Army’s Wounded Warriors (AW2) Careers,
a collaboration between NEP and the U.S.
Army to ensure that the most severely
injured soldiers returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan are productively engaged in
pursuing their careers after they return
home from active combat.
• The national replication of NOD’s highly
successful Start on Success (SOS) program
that helps high school students with
disabilities transition into the workforce.
http://www.nod.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID
=1556
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National Telecommuting Institute
• National Telecommuting Institute (NTI) is
a unique educational/job-matching
organization pioneering the development
of telework jobs for Americans with
disabilities. NTI staff bring together
employers who have agreed to "go
virtual," advanced communications
technology, and vocational rehabilitation
agencies to enable individuals with
disabilities to train for and work online in
environments that are more easily
accessible to them.
http://www.nticentral.org/about/n0001.shtm
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National Initiatives
• What are your successes and
challenges in outreaching to
employers through these and other
national initiatives to educate
employers about the benefits of job
accommodations and assistive
technology?
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Who are your Partners that have a
Common Stake?
1. Who are the partners in your
community that share this common
goal and have a stake?
2. How can you connect or strengthen
your connection with these
partners to build strong,
sustainable business partnerships?
3. Share your successes and
challenges.
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Recap of the Topics of the Day
• Building Sustainable Partnerships
• Customizing Your Approach
• Working Smarter…Not Harder
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Take Away
What ideas may be helpful to you in
your future efforts?
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AT @ Work
Joan Kester, M.A., CRC
Human Resource Development Specialist/Senior
Research Associate
Center for Rehabilitation Counseling Research &
Education
Technical Assistance & Continuing Education
Center, Region 3
The George Washington University
202-489-7112
[email protected]
www.gwcrcre.org
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