TESLIN │ EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES ENCOUNTER UNIQUE BARRIERS

A multi-agency model is essential to support both employers and employees to overcome the barriers surrounding disability employment.

KEY CONCEPTS: FASD; readiness-to-work; multi-agency support; education; self-awareness; motivation.

In our previous post regarding the disability employment issues in Teslin, we focussed on the significant concerns arising as a function of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), which is estimated to affect a significant portion of the working population.

Depending on the severity of FASD it has far reaching and lasting implications for people affected, including, cognitive and functional disabilities which can result in poor memory, attention deficits, impulsive behaviours, and poor cause-effect reasoning. Secondary disabilities include increased risk for mental health problems and drug and alcohol addictions.

Specialist disability and FASD supports are available through agencies based in Whitehorse and by way of health and social services centres in communities. However, the connections between these supports and employment services are less clearly defined. The Yukon Disability Employment Strategy is beginning to recognize that this is key area of focus for supporting sustainable community development that includes the increased representation of people with disabilities in the workplace.

Our discussions with employers and agencies in Teslin laid the ground work down for understanding where efforts need to be focussed , but also helped us in understanding  the best practice that is presently in place and supporting disabilities employment and community growth.

Firstly, and without taking our focus off the main issue for the community, namely FASD, we must also consider the other disability employment issues identified by stakeholders.

While FASD dominated discussions regarding barriers to employment, chronic illness and injuries were also a significant factor in limiting access to work. These issues tended to be addressed by way of the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board (YWCHSB), through what might be considered more standardized methods for addressing identified disabilities issues in the workplace.

Employers identified that they were familiar with the procedures for responding to acquired disabilities in the workplace, inclusive of consultations with the local Health Centre to determine needs and prognosis.

In addition to YWCHSB referrals, one employer indicated they are innovating the human resources procedures to include consultation with medical professionals to advise on adjusting job descriptions in order to retain employees who might not otherwise be able to stay in work due to an acute or chronic disability/injury. The use of professional services to support the development of employment solutions seems an exemplar of how employers might utilize medical consultations for purposes other than simply determining if a given employee can or cannot continue in work as defined by a rigid job specification. This type of consultative model, where medical professionals work cooperatively with employers could extend to include a full range of services, including occupational, physiotherapy, social and mental health services to name a few. This was an exciting innovation, and one that is perhaps worth exploring further as a feature of a YDES.

Returning to the topic of the key disability employment issues for Teslin, which extend to workforce development and sustainable community development planning, employers worryingly identified that it is difficult to recruit staff from the local community in the first instance, partly because the barriers to employment begin with individual readiness-to-work. We have discussed this issue at length in other blog entries, as it appears to be an emerging concerning pattern for businesses. In some case, employers are forced to recruit from outside the local community, in spite of their efforts to find local area candidates to staff their businesses.

Education and training is perhaps as important, if not more important, than ensuring physical, social, emotional and mental health issues are full addressed prior to developing a return to work strategy. Effective education and training programs not only provide the skills and knowledge prospective employees require, but also the confident and self-awareness that enables one to map out ambitious yet realistic goals with a clear progression pathway to achieve personal targets.

Employers and agencies seem to be suggesting that overcoming barriers to employment can sometimes be as much about personal motivation and determination on the part of the employee as it is about the employer being open and responsive to accommodating individual needs over time. 

TESLIN │ A RESILIENT BUSINESS COMMUNITY SEEKING GROWTH

Community economic development and inclusion of people with disabilities are two sides of the same coin.

KEY CONCEPTS: barriers to community economic growth = barriers to inclusion; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD); business resiliency

The Yukon Government describes Teslin on their About Yukon page as a “Tlingit community located on the narrows of Teslin Lake at the mouth of the Nisutlin River”.  As far as communities go in Yukon, Teslin is considered relatively easy to travel to from Whitehorse, at two hours when road conditions are good. This might lead one to assume Teslin might be similar to Haines Junction in many ways, both within easy driving distance of Whitehorse and all it offers in terms of services and supports. Teslin’s population is about half that of Haines Junction, at 450, and it is economic activity is driven largely by the First Nation, the Teslin Tlingit Council and not area businesses based along the Alaska Highway as in Haines Junction.

It seems relevant to consider these two communities together based on their proximity to Whitehorse, given employers and agencies in the communities are indicating that limited access to resources and services in Whitehorse is a significant barrier economic activity and community supports. Both these Yukon communities have good access to Whitehorse, have community campuses of Yukon College, established Health and Social Services and a core economy that includes seasonal opportunities from tourism and year-round economic activity underpinned by the larger regional employer, the First Nation.  It would seem that with a clear pattern in economic activity, established over decades, both these communities might be expanding opportunities through strategic community and business planning to capitalize on this level of predictability. Both communities also indicated there are significant barriers standing in the way of opportunities for community and economic growth, namely, the significant and deleterious effects associated with addictions issues and its consequent knock-on effects.

FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders) has consistently been identified as the number 1 factor limiting employment, business development and sustainable community growth.  To be clear, this issue is not just a community problem, or even a northern problem. FASD appears to be associated communities with a history of economic and social deprivation – the kind of deprivation that limits individual opportunities in education and social mobility, and can result in an increased risk for drug and alcohol abuse. By no means are we identifying an issue that hasn’t been discussed before. However, within the context of working towards improving accessibility in the workplace for people with disabilities, we find that at key barrier that must be overcome to achieve this goal is supporting employers in effectively accommodating employees with FASD. Other communities have indicated that at the very least, 50% of the working-age population has some kind of learning or social-emotional-behavioural disability associated with FASD. For the YDES to be a success, we must successfully address the barriers to employment for people affected by FASD.

 Like the other communities in Yukon, Teslin has business leader and entrepreneurs who remain ever hopeful and open to making progress within their community. This includes developing strategies to support people with disabilities within their employment, even if they are working towards this goal without the direct support of key disabilities and employment agencies and service providers.

What we found in Teslin was a resiliency amongst employers to work with and support their family, friends, community members to find and stay in their jobs – in spite of personal, social, and health issues that might present barriers to employment on a daily basis.

We will share more on the thoughts, vision, and concerns of employers and agencies in Teslin in our next blog entry, to follow. 

HAINES JUNCTION │ A COMMUNITY WITH A VISION

Patience is not only a virtue, it is best practice for business management.

KEY CONCEPTS: disability is contextual; patience is best practice for effective management; motivation matters

Haines Junction is one of those rare places in the world, where the approach to the community is nothing short of breathtaking. Arrive from the south, Alaska, and you travel through 4 ecosystems, from temperate rain forest through sub-alpine, alpine and on the tree line, then down from the pass onto the extensive Yukon plateau of boreal forest stretching as far as one can imagine. If you arrive by the Alaska Highway from the east, your first view of the mountain backdrop to Haines Junction appears an hour before your arrival, building the anticipation for your arrival at this last stop before turning north to skirt the glacial fed Kluane Lake on the northern route to Alaska. All this is made the more spectacular by mountains that rise up as a sheer rock faces to dizzying snow-capped heights. It’s no wonder Haines Junction can draw a crowd, to include more than its fair share of entrepreneurial minded free spirits.

Like other communities we have visited on our consultation trail, Haines Junction is experiencing a labour market problem – notably,  a shortage of qualified, ready-to-work employees that can effectively adapt to the peaks and troughs of a seasonal economy, as visitors begin to arrive each spring from around the world to visit Kluane National park and travel the Alaska Highway north.

Here are some of the ideas and issues regarding disabilities and employment we identified in our discussions with employers and agencies in the area.

Employers say they are open to recruiting and retaining staff with an identified disability. Barriers to employment tend to be rooted in goodness-of-fit between what a potential employee can do and what the job requires.

 Employers tended to not rely on outside support from agencies or services to address potential disabilities issues. This was in part because employers are not aware of the kinds of service available, but also because small to medium sized businesses in the communities don’t have the time to go looking for the support in the first place.

Employers tended to imply that a disability was only a DISability when it prevented a person from getting a job done.

One employer talked about how certain disabilities might present a barrier to employment only in some sectors. For example, in the building and construction industry, much of the work is undertaken on, at times, chaotic and constantly changing building sites – where heavy machinery are working, the footing is precarious, and the work of individuals on a crew are largely unsupervised. This same employer suggested it might be possible to hire on tradespeople and labourers with disabilities, but that the conditions of their employment would have to be carefully tailored to ensure both their safety and productivity. If these things could be addressed, then a disability would be no barrier to employment. The secondary problem for employers is time it might take to coordinate a hire that includes arranging or managing a disability employment network for a employee.

This employer identified the two key strands to successful employment, namely: (1) goodness-of-fit between job skills and demands, and (2) cost effective HR solutions. Within each of these two elements there is cascading set of parameters and solutions – all of which we must address as we embark on deriving an effective disability employment strategy.

Defining disability – when something is or isn’t a disability, or when someone has or does not have a disability – was a repeating issue for employers.  Employers were quick to jump to the social constructivist idea of disability – that is, a disability is only a disability in the workplace when it prevents someone from doing their job. With this as the pretext to most discussions, it is perhaps not surprising that one employer suggested that speaking a foreign language could also be considered a kind of disability. The example was given of foreign workers arriving in Yukon, and the struggle of overcoming the language barrier, and the problems this initially presented for securing and retaining employment. This employer emphasized that a key to success in business is patience – patience with staff, and a lasting support for staff development when motivation is not a barrier. The implication was, a highly motivated employee can overcome nearly any potential barrier to employment given the right conditions at work: most importantly perhaps is a patient and supportive employer. The reciprocal benefits to both are measurable and lasting. 

HAINES JUNCTION │ AGENCY X

Geography as a barrier to equity for rural Yukon

KEY CONCEPTS: access to services and resources, resiliency, transportation and basic needs

This agency suggested that even though Haines Junction is considered to be a larger centre (with a population just under 900) and close to Whitehorse at just under two hours drive, it shares many of the same issues as the smaller, more isolated communities. This agency representative had the benefit of having worked in various communities across the territory, providing references points for discussing comparative differences regarding key issues for people with disabilities.

Disability can presents a barrier to employment for some, but where one person might be able to overcome an identified barrier and secure employment, others struggle. The reason for this variation was unclear. This agency representative suggested that there are various possible reasons why some people seem to manage issues arising from a disability while others cannot. Possible sources of this variation could be related to inconsistency of services and supports as well as personal issues. Personal resiliency factors where suggested as the most likely driver of this variation – the source of which has been identified elsewhere in family and community supports. This question regarding the essential components needed to ensure people with disabilities in Yukon are able to secure employment appears to be an area worth further investigation within the YDES project.

When asked about what this agency worker might choose to include in a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy, the suggestion centred on increased access to the type and quality of services located in Whitehorse – to include everything from health, education and employment services right on through to access to basic needs and supplies through quality local transportation, grocery and clothing retail options. This comment was particularly timely with the recent closure of the only general store in Haines Junction.

 A final suggestion included the development of a public transportation network between communities and Whitehorse, enabling those people who might otherwise be able to travel by car, access to services available to the majority of Yukoners in Whitehorse. Here the barrier to equity is defined by a significant geographical and financial barriers for some, simply as a function of the location in which one lives. This was a unique and very pointed statement about equity for Yukon communities, and worthy of further discussion. 

BURWASH LANDING │ BUSINESS F

Working together to Address Underlying 

Community Issues as Barriers to Employment

KEY CONCEPTS: community autonomy, drug and alcohol, FASD

This employer shared the views of other area employers, noting that while there were not many people with what are traditionally thought of as disabilities, such as physical and cognitive disabilities, issues arising as a result of drug and alcohol abuse were the source of a number of community and employment concerns. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) create a number of barriers to employment that include cognitive, social and emotional issues.

This employer indicated that rural Yukon employers are responsive to community needs, working to develop work projects that are adaptable enough to accommodate the various needs arising from the effects of FASD and associated learning and social-emotional-behavioural disabilities.

When asked what a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy might do to support communities and employers when dealing with issues arising from drug and alcohol abuse and the deleterious effects associated with FASD, the suggestions focussed on ensuring communities had the support needed to create jobs and provide the kinds of accommodations, including education and social supports needed by employees to sustain their employment situations.

We find this issue regarding drug and alcohol abuse, and the deleterious effects of FASD is a repeating and concerning theme across our community consultations on the YDES project trail. Employers express a shared interest in expanding business and hiring locally, but face concerns regarding reliability and capability of prospective employees who might suffer from drug and alcohol related disabilities. 

BEAVER CREEK │ BUSINESS Y

Community Development Requires Cooperation of Business, Education, Health and Social Services

KEY CONCEPTS: challenges facing rural northern communities, drug and alcohol abuse, costs of high staff turnover, coordinated community development planning

Employers consistently expressed interest in discussing the barriers to business success, be it disability employment issues or otherwise. This employer extended the social constructivist discourse of disabilities to include drug and alcohol abuse. For this employer, anything that prevents employees from getting the job done is a potential disability.

If we consider drug and alcohol abuse/addiction to be a type of disability, then this employer identified that the barriers to employment start before the employee arrives to work. That is, when it comes to drug and alcohol abuse, the barrier to employment begins with the start of the each new day and getting out the door on time and suitably ready for a full day’s work. This employer suggested that it is much simpler accommodating what one might more traditionally identify as a disability (i.e., the employer gave the example of a friend with a prosthetic limb) than the uncertainty of the day-to-day consequence and longer term affects of drug and alcohol abuse.

Drug and alcohol abuse is a catalyst for a whole host of negative consequences for small business, including the high costs of training staff repeatedly given a high turnover resulting from a termination of employment arising from problem behaviours on the job. For a small seasonally-driven business, the loss of key staff during peak season due to drug and alcohol issues presents a significant problem for ensuring they can deliver a quality and timely product to clients.

Another repeating theme for employers in rural Yukon is the very small pool of available staff. Hiring someone from outside the Yukon is often not a solution, given outsiders don’t fully understand what they are taking on when they live and work in the rural north.

When asked about key issues to include in a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy, this employer stated that core social and employment issues need to be addressed through a wider employment and community development strategy – with disability as the umbrella them for developing the health and welfare of the community and its businesses, sharing the view that strong businesses needs strong communities and vice versa.

The theme underpinning all our consultations/discussions with employers is that that government and the bureaucrats in Whitehorse could do a better job a listening to community needs and sourcing the solutions to the problems in the communities themselves.

Business owners like this one want the government and the communities they serve to recognize their investment in the community for the long term. Employers and rural Yukon are ready to work together. What they need now is a framework around which to rally community momentum, and the resources and supports to ensure core issues are addressed now, over the longer term.  

BURWASH LANDING │ BUSINESS E

Adaptability and Willingness to Change = Sustainable Business in Rural Communities

KEY CONCEPTS: adaptation, motivation, life-long learning, necessity is the mother of invention

This small business employs 10+ people during peak season and provides services ranging from hotel, food, to adventure tourism to guests from travelling along the Alaska Highway as well as destination travellers from overseas.

The employers indicated that the nature of their work required that staff worked independently and were able to be self sufficient over extended periods of time, serving customers but also when they are between shifts in staff housing.  

Asthma was identified as one type of disability that they have accommodated in the past. Both employers have themselves experienced challenges arising from partial paralysis in recent years, forcing them to both on separate occasions rethink how they themselves conducted their work. This adaptation included learning to write with the opposing hand, and altering the way overhead tasks were completed.

Disability was discussed by the employer in terms of the relationship between the person with disability and the environment in which s/he worked/lived. The suggestion was that a disability was only present when a person encountered a barrier that limited their ability to complete the work as required. This is the social constructivist view of disability. In short, this employers suggested that a person is disabled only if they are unable to do a certain job.

Back to the example of his own personal experience, this employer had to retrain himself to write and do various tasks given paralysis down his right side, given there are tasks he has had to do differently given his condition – but as long as he is ultimately able to do the task, then he does not consider it a disability.  

These employers were open to hiring people with disabilities given the prospective employee both wanted and was able to do the job. This sounds like a given, but the employer went on to discuss the importance of finding work that is enjoyable, given additional impediments encountered over the course of employment arising from a potential disability would only make things difficult for both the employee and employer if there wasn’t an underlying desire to work.

Key to overcoming the barriers that disabilities present is a drive and determination to succeed, rooted in self-determination and aspirations to achieve life goals. This employer cited the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention - similarly, necessity is the key to overcoming barriers in work and life given a disability.

When asked about what they believe an effective Yukon Disability Employment Strategy might include, these employers indicated that that government should not be overly interfering with business, but should offer supports employers through resources, information and potential funding to accommodate people with disabilities.  This employer finished with a warning; warning the government to not make things too easy for employers or employees – ostensibly removing the essential business and community ingredient for innovation and social responsibility, namely, necessity.