RAW FILE 
Disability:IN Virtual Inclusion Works Meeting 2025 
Session 3: The future of Supplier Inclusion:  
Strategies for Increasing Disability Representation in Global Supply Chains
Thursday, February 27, 2025
11:45 a.m. EST 

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>> Recording in progress.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Good day, everyone!  It's so great to have you with us today on this journey.  And we are excited to be part of this panel discussion today.  My name is Philip DeVliegher.  I am the Vice President of Supplier Inclusion here at Disability:IN.
I am a white male with gray hair, a gray short beard.  I am wearing a gray cover‑up over a black T‑shirt.  And I am calling in from our home office here in Maryland.
So, again, great to be with you.  And I am excited to be joined with some awesome supplier inclusion leaders, really in their industries, but across the supplier inclusion landscape.
With that, we will be joined by Natalie McGrady from Cargill; Will Holmes from Novartis; and Joyce Eggers from Takeda.  And I will have each of them introduce themselves in a bit.
But before we do that, I would like to get into a few housekeeping items, if I may.
So, moving to our housekeeping slide, just so you know, we have technical assistance available.  If you do need anything, feel free to use the Q&A function on your screen to communicate to us if you are experiencing any issues.  You may have to reboot or kind of exit out of Zoom and come back in, if the issues persist.
You are welcome to ask any questions throughout our panel discussion.  Your microphones are muted.  So, we encourage you to use the Q&A function on the bottom of your screen to ask your questions throughout the panel discussion.  And we will save time at the end of our discussion to address your questions in person.
We do have CART available for you in English.  So, captions are available at the bottom of your screen.  If you do need additional languages of captioning, that will also be available via StreamText link in the chat function.
We will be recording this session, just so you know, and we will be sending out materials after the event today.
We also appreciate Nikki for being with us, providing ASL interpretation.  So, if you don't see Nikki or have a challenge, again, with technical issues, feel free to just enter in chat or Q&A, rather, and we will certainly address those.
But with that, again, welcome to our session on the future of supplier inclusion, strategies for increasing disability representation in global supply chains.
So, I would like to welcome to the platform my three esteemed panelists.  And let's start with Natalie.  Then we will follow Natalie with Will and Joyce.  So, please, Natalie, introduce yourself.
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Well, good morning.  My name is Natalie McGrady.  I am an African‑American woman in her mid‑50s, later 50s.  But mid to me.  And I have gray hair, gray curly hair.  I am wearing a headset because my microphone on my laptop doesn't work.  And I go by the pronouns she/her.  And also I have a very festive dress on today, with a black undertone, but with flecks of gold and beige.  And thank you for having me.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Thank you, Natalie.
Will, why don't you jump in.  Introduce yourself.
>> WILL HOLMES: Sure thing.  Thanks, Philip.  Hello, everybody, my name is Will Holmes, I lead supplier diversity at Novartis.  I am a ‑‑ I guess mid‑40s, dark brown skin, black male, balding head, and salt and pepper beard, wearing a solid blue shirt.  Looking forward to sharing more with you today.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Thank you, Will.  And Joyce, welcome.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Hi, everybody, so excited to be here.  Thank you so much for inviting me.  My name is Joyce Eggers and I'm the global lead of supplier diversity here at Takeda Pharmaceuticals.  My pronouns are she/her.  And I am a white woman, no age given, with brown highlighted hair wearing a black shirt and a red jacket.  Looking forward to the discussion.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Awesome.  Thank you, friends.  We are going to dig right into some questions.
So, first and foremost, again, the topic of the day is the future of supplier inclusion, right?  But I think before we get into the future, we kind of need to assess the current state of affairs.
So, Joyce, I think I would like to start with you, actually.  How can organizations assess the current state of disability or diverse supplier inclusion within their supply chain?  And where should they begin if they haven't started this journey?
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Thanks, Philip.  So the best practice is to figure out who they are.  And are people willing to share who they are?  And so I would say that, you know, one of the things that you can do is, first off, to look at how you onboard a supplier in your company.  Do you ask any of those questions in the beginning?  Are you willing to share if you are a small and/or diverse supplier, and if so, please share and put that information in.
If you don't have that or if even if you do have that, you could also hire a third party to help you do that.  They can do supplier mailings, reach out to the suppliers, all of your suppliers, to find out information about the companies.  It's also good for you to do that so that you understand who your suppliers are in general.
It's also important, the other piece is, so you have done that.  Now you know who your suppliers are.  Make sure that you have an infrastructure in your company so that people, especially in your procurement teams, can access that data, right?  Because you want to know who your current diverse suppliers are, what they do, and it's good to have some sort of platform where your internal customers can go to find those suppliers.
So, I typically have a database which is really great for my employees here at Takeda, I have used my third party, I have used my onboarding information.  I gather all of that information and put it on a platform for all of my employees.  I call it my diversifier and that lists out our suppliers, what diversity classification they might have and what their talents are and then also provides a resource for our employees to say here's the supplier number.  If I want to engage with them, this is how I contact them.
And I also use this platform to find diverse suppliers.  So if a procurement person has an opportunity and they say, I am trying to find a diverse supplier who does ASL, we will have ‑‑ they put the request into the system and the system has three days to get back to the employees on how that ‑‑ on the list of the diverse suppliers suggested.
So, that's kind of, like, how I do it.  I'm sure other people have different ways of doing it.  But I found that that's the easiest.  And making sure that you get the information, what are you going to do with it?  Make sure it can be messaged and that your employees can know who these suppliers are.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Really great approach.
Natalie, thoughts on Joyce's approach, but also, you know, yours at Cargill.
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Yeah, at Cargill, we do a similar process.  Although, we do use a third‑party tool for engaging potential diverse suppliers.  So, if you want to work with Cargill, on our website we have the information of how you go about that process.
One thing that we implemented this year is following up with those potential suppliers.  So, if you come in, you self‑identify or you are certified, we will then follow up and let you know that we did receive the information and we will pass that information on to our category leaders.
I think one of the things that people think is that we are able to then help you get a contract.  We are really the liaison between you and the business.  So our role is to facilitate a meeting, if it makes sense, or facilitate a review.  But we are responsible to get that information.
So, how do we make sure that we know who is who?  We utilize the third party and then also once you become a supplier, we have several tools that go through the validation of that supplier, making sure that they are who they say they are.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Terrific.  And, obviously, being a partner of Disability:IN, you also have access to specifically our certified suppliers here at Disability:IN, so you can always access our database as well and the information we provide.  Will, thoughts ‑‑
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Which was very helpful, Phil, the database.  I do think sometimes we forget about the database.  But we need to validate and click in there as often as we can as well.  Thank you.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: No.  That's terrific.
Will, your thoughts on the current state and how do you move this forward?
>> WILL HOLMES: Well, one thing, great points shared already.  One thing I wanted to add to that bit of the conversation is also making sure that everybody is communicating with the same words, understanding, messaging, terminology.  One thing I have found, you know, done supplier diversity now at a few different companies and sometimes everybody is talking a different language.  So making sure that procurement is saying the same things that ‑‑ you know, supplier diversity, procurement, the business, the stakeholder side, that everybody has the same understanding of what small business means, what diverse business means.  Because how can you include everybody if we don't have a definition of what that means?
So, you know, just making sure everybody is talking the same language, even from a tier 1, tier 2, just level setting and you can do that through training or, you know, road show presentations and I have always found that every time you go out and you do presentations, you do training, you mention certain terminology, there's always somebody that says, you know, or if you asked them before, what does this mean, and you would be surprised by some of the answers that you receive.  So, I would say just adding to what has already been shared, another step is making sure everybody is on the same page with understanding who we are looking to include and how we go out and identify those resources to do it.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: No.  Absolutely.  Completely agree.  Kind of, you know, at the onset of even starting an initiative, really defining what that all looks like, right?  Who is all included, I think is incredibly important, Will.
Tell me a little bit more about maybe specific policies or practices that you have implemented at Novartis, that you found to be successful in growing your initiative, embedding it within the organization.  Can you share a little bit about those practices?
>> WILL HOLMES: Yeah, sure.  So, one thing I always mention, you know, always starts with procurement, right?  And a key thing is that usually procurement practices and policies are already geared towards inclusion, right?  Because they are going out and testing the market, going out and trying to ‑‑ they are going to do an RFP, bring in competitive bids.  How do you bring in more competition, you find out suppliers to compete with incumbents, new suppliers with new opportunity.  A lot of things we do are built into the day‑to‑day procurement strategy, procurement operation.  A lot of it is really overlaying and embedding in just the mindset around, okay, well, now we are looking to make sure that we are being very, you know, just casting that wide net, right, to make sure that we are including everybody, it's bringing in that understanding and adding to the process, so that I always kind of say, I'm not making you do any additional work than what you have to do today.  It's just doing that work with the different mindset, added understanding.
So, for example, if procurement is going out to do an RFP and if the standard idea is, hey, I'm going to go look up a market intelligence report to find new suppliers, well, I always can guarantee I'm going to be able to help you to identify suppliers that are not going to show up on that market intelligence report, because they are not going to be on the radar.
So, a key piece to add to the existing process is, oh, we need to take that step to do a market intelligence report, also reach out to supplier diversity, to your small business team to find out, oh, what are some other areas or advocacy organizations or external databases that I can search to add to this list of potential suppliers that I have, and then a key piece of it is, again, communication, right?  It's so important.  But even as a part of the process, because a lot of times a small business is not going to be talking the same language as a large business, you know, procurement representative, right?
So, same thing for driving disability inclusion, making sure that, hey, you can't just send what you would typically send to a business and expect to receive what you typically receive from your large incumbent suppliers.  You have to take it another step, get some feedback, get some additional insights.  Why did they not meet your requirements initially?  Maybe they didn't understand what the requirements were.  Whereas the other competitors already had full understanding.  
So, it's really just kind of adding layers to the existing process in procurement so that we can drive a more inclusive process.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: That's so important, especially, you know, businesses that are relatively newer, right?  They may not have the experience that your prime suppliers have had.  So helping them navigate your processes is really important.
>> WILL HOLMES: Exactly.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Joyce, Natalie, any additional thoughts?
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Sure.  One of the things that I did was to create a toolkit so that everybody in procurement can understand, you know, as Will said before, making sure everybody has the same mindset of what does, you know, diversity mean at Takeda?  What does diversity, equity and inclusion mean, what does inclusion mean when we say, are you including ‑‑ are you being inclusive on your opportunity that you are sharing with everyone.
So, I have created a toolkit so that if people have questions on how do I go about doing this from a procurement perspective, you know, I lay it out for them.  And I also provide them all of the resources that they could use.  And I think that's one of the helpful things, and just reinforcing that, again, your messaging has to be clear and concise and repetitive.  You say the same thing all the time.  In general you answer the questions, this is what diversity means to us.  Diversity, equity and inclusion is.
At Takeda it's everyone should get a seat at the table to compete for our business.  That's how it goes.  But it's also making sure that, as Will said, the suppliers are ready to step up and be part of that.
So, it's really important as a supplier diversity professional to make sure that the procurement people know that they can reach out to you and that you can help them achieve the goals that they have.  And I think when you are reviewed as a partner, that is the most essential thing.  And, you know, that's what I try to do at my company.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: It's terrific.  So important to build that coalition among the procurement professionals that you work with, your sourcing managers, and really all of your employees at Takeda that can be a part of this, right, helping to drive this forward.
Natalie, any thoughts from you?
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Yeah.  We at Cargill have a scorecard.  We developed a tactical scorecard for our category leaders so that they understand where they fall when it comes to supplier diversity.  We have an overarching goal that we strive to spend a billion dollars with small and diverse businesses or a billion dollars with diverse businesses and $10 billion with small businesses, as we are a federal contractor.
So, that we have the spend goal.  And then we also have a goal around inclusion, and I think Will was hitting on that as well, around the inclusion of diverse suppliers.  And diverse suppliers at Cargill are minority, ethnic minorities, women, disabled business owners, as well as LGBTQ business owners and we have veterans.
So, we look at the entire swath of all the different types of diverse suppliers.  And so part of that inclusion is we are saying to the groups, you need to make sure that you are including us.  And we also have a way for them to get to us through a SharePoint link that as a list and they can ask us any question around a category or what they are looking to buy and we can put in that information of those suppliers.  And so we have a team of folks that do that research for us.  And that's a team over in Bangalore that is actually pulling those names of those suppliers.
The other piece of it is, is advocacy.  And we also, and I will get back to that in a minute.  But top to top reviews with the top diverse suppliers.  We have a top 30 list that we actually kicked off yesterday, with all of the different types of diversity, all the different characteristics of diversity are represented in that top 30 list.  Those are current suppliers with Cargill.  And that gives us an opportunity to build that relationship with those suppliers and hopefully grow their business within Cargill based on that relationship.  So they are aligned with their category.  They will meet with their category leader.  And we hope to see business increase there.
And so the other piece is advocacy.  So, we participated in the mentor process through Disability:IN.  And we continue to do that with other groups as well.  You think that's very important.
But we give the scorecard quarterly in the procurement and transportation teams at Cargill.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: I love that approach.  And I think an important thing that you said, Natalie, was really around helping that supplier grow their business.  So it's not just around providing a contract to that supplier, but really making procurement more sustainable.  And by doing that, by helping your suppliers grow their business, by developing them, you are creating a more sustainable supply chain, right?  And I think that's everyone's goal, really, in this world.
Will, you have mentioned in a previous conversation around your approach to connecting the dots within Novartis.  Can you kind of elaborate on that and why that's so important?
>> WILL HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely.  You took the words out of my mouth when you mentioned about the business growth piece because when Natalie mentioned that, I got excited because I was like, oh, my gosh, I forgot to mention that part of, when you think about the process, right, and Joyce talked to it a little bit as well, too, but just to highlight it is I think the main thing that we do, as far as a process around supplier diversity is the development, right, the development of suppliers that lead towards the growth.  It's like we have our procurement practices, our business policies and things like that.  But at the end of the day, the heart of it all is the development, whether it's the mentoring, the coaching, the identifying the gaps, helping to facilitate opportunities, et cetera.  But the important piece and going to your question of connecting the dots, is what's the business value and the business outcome going to be as well, right?
So, when I think about the framework that we put in place in Novartis, it's, you know, it's kind of like a four‑piece framework.  So it's one is identify, which is identify the business need and identify the suppliers that could fit that business need.  It's the development piece.  You know, the development of the suppliers to prepare them for these opportunities, or to further help them to build and grow into other areas of the company, to grow their footprint and ultimately grow their business.
The accountability.  You know, accountability in reporting.  How are we tracking, how are we driving the metrics?
And what's that business value creation.  How is it leading towards the business value?
When I think about connecting the dots in Novartis, one of the great things that I have the opportunity to do is, so my role doesn't report into procurement.  I report into our DEI office, and then I am like ape partner to procurement.  Now, for ‑‑ I know it's different at every company, but what it allows me to do at Novartis is be closer to the business need from a kind of corporate priority perspective so that now I'm talking to the talent area.  Okay, how can I find suppliers that can support your talent recruitment needs, talent development, training, tying into clinical trial diversity.  So, how can I support clinical trial diversity efforts, marketing, whether it's trying to find, you know, kind of new disruptive agencies to bring in new innovative ways of working or new methods, new solutions, new strategies or supporting kind of multicultural or community engagement efforts.
So, it's being able to connect the dots across the company to say, how can we both impact, you know, the small and diverse businesses to be able to grow and drive that economic impact, but also how can we get that full understanding across the business to say, oh, wow, like, if we use these small and diversity businesses, it's actually going to benefit our overall, you know, top line and bottom line growth potential and support a more competitive supplier base at the same time.
So, yeah.  I have a lot of ‑‑ as you can tell by the smile on my face, I enjoy being able to connect the dots and get people to understand, and we have some great examples of how that has happened over the course of the last year or two here.  So, things are developing.  We are constantly trying to make it grow and we are still on the journey.  But have some really great examples so far.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: So, important, such a terrific approach, because I know in our audience today, we have HR folks, we have D&I folks, we have talent acquisition folks, accessibility folks.  And it's so important to be able to connect with all of those different business areas and leaders to, again, kind of help drive this, you know, embed this within the organization's culture.
And a big part of ‑‑
>> WILL HOLMES: Can I give a quick message to all of those folks that are on the line?
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Absolutely.
>> WILL HOLMES: Any time you think about any product initiative that you are going to do, if you are trying to audit your site accessibility, if you are trying to bring in new IT accessibility features into your networks, if you are trying to figure out, how do we hire ‑‑ or make sure that we are open to more hiring of employees with disabilities or how do we support?  First up is small and diverse business community (laughter).  That's where all the best ideas and innovations are.  You know, but it's funny that, you know, businesses, we just always think so big and high level, that we sometimes just miss what's right in front of us by going to our supplier diversity offices and small business offices and asking, you know, hey, do you know any companies that we haven't looked at before that could support these X, Y and Z efforts.  So please, to everybody, take that step.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Absolutely.  And I know that Natalie and Joyce, they are all nodding their heads.  Like, absolutely.  This is the key point that needs to be made across the organization.
You know, part of the dots, right, are ERGs or Business Resource Groups.  And Joyce, I know that you have been involved with your ERGs at Takeda.  Do you want to share just a little bit about kind of how you connect those dots within those organizations?
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Sure.  I do it in a number of ways.  So, we have 200 ERGs at this point all over the globe.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Wow.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: So, that's a lot of people to reach out to.  But what I do is I reach out to the leadership, and I ask for an opportunity to help them understand what we are doing at Takeda for diversity, equity and inclusion and a lot of them get excited about that.  Typically what I do is we talking about right now Black History Month, right?  That's ‑‑ and I will say, look, I have a really great supplier who could come and speak at your next big event, or, you know, I have a great supplier who can ‑‑ I recently brought in a disabled‑owned business to speak about, to our ENABLEs group, what does a disability mean.  And disability etiquette.
So, what I have been able to do is to collaborate with each one of the employee resource groups.  But I have gone even a step further within my company, I have reached out to everybody in the company through the business group ‑‑ various business groups.
So, at Takeda we have a sustainability group, because I tie into the big picture of, there are suppliers out there that we have who, number one, are diverse, who provide a lot of services as it relates to sustainability.
And number two is, all of our suppliers can contribute to our goals.  And we need to understand that diverse suppliers, you are not just going to go to the large suppliers or your top suppliers to get their scope 3 commitments.  You are going to go to all of our suppliers to get scope 3.  And you are going to educate the suppliers on that.
So, there's all these ways that we can do that.  And I have always reached out to our health equity team.  I'm a member of our health equity team at Takeda because we are showing what we can do when we invest in the communities where we live and work, that's a ripple effect.  And so that can ultimately lead to positive health equity outcomes in the community.
We do that by, I went to those people and I said, look, I can help you measure that by our, through our spend.  So I have done things like that where I have gotten groups throughout the company to know about me because I show up.  And I say, I'm a resource for you.  I can help you do many things.  And I can come and speak to you about what diversity, equity and inclusion of our supply base means to Takeda.
And in having those champions, especially in the employee resource groups, has been really valuable for me, because I have people reaching out to me now, asking me for help.  But it's not just as it relates to that Employee Resource Group.  It's a business stakeholder who said, oh, my God, I realized, I just connected the dots.  I realize that I need something and I realize I could reach out to you and you could help me find the right supplier.  So, it's a win‑win, right, for everybody.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: And you are so just great at what you do, Joyce.  So, I can only imagine how everyone kind of perceives you at Takeda as that terrific resource.
And you mentioned something that I'd like to kind of circle back on in a bit, but I want to give Natalie an opportunity.  If you have anything else to add.  I know Joyce kind of mentioned sustainability, and that's certainly part of your world at Cargill.  So, you know, feel free, if you'd like to share additional insights.
>> NATALIE McGRADY: The insight I received from Joyce is great because we are trying to do the same thing.  So several years ago we started to align more effectively not only with our Business Resource Groups, but also with our government affairs organization and our, what we call, global engagement at Cargill.  So, they are responsible for, the global engagement team is responsible for all the grants that go out to help support the work around sustainability and we really needed to understand how they manage, and they manage NGO partnerships.
So, I started to align myself to understand how I should manage my NGO partnerships.  You know, we have all these groups and we want to make sure that we are doing the best work for Cargill.
The other piece is, and I always tell supplier diversity people this, is when you are looking at, like Joyce said, aligning with your Business Resource Groups, aligning means making sure that they are aligned with suppliers that are part of the affinity that they are supporting.
In this case, we are given names of promotional item suppliers, so disabled veterans or DOBEs in general who supply promotional items so we have been able to buy from those groups.
We have also, when we did our office center, and we are in the middle of doing that, one of the suppliers I met at Disability:IN, who actually is from the Twin Cities came in and did an assessment of our layout.  And that was a huge win because I had introduced them several years ago, I think it's when we were in Dallas, that we had not been able to do anything with them until this past year.
So, that's been really helpful in making sure that, like Joyce said, the organization knows that there's opportunity to include disabled suppliers in the bidding process or introductions.  So, that's what we have been trying to do to make sure.  And aligning with those groups are DEI which the BRGs report into, our government affairs, very important when we think about how we present and talk to different districts around who is there, what suppliers we have, et cetera.
And then our global engagement team as well.  So, that's it.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Kudos to you.  I mean, such great work that you are all doing.  I am just so incredibly impressed and grateful for the work that you are doing with Disability:IN as well and our suppliers.
Joyce, you mentioned metrics, right?  And typically in the supplier diversity world, the main metric is around how much money do we spend with diverse suppliers.
But let's talk beyond that.  What are some other metrics that you use at Takeda to kind of measure the success of the work that you are doing?
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Yeah.  So I look at ‑‑ pend is one way to do it.  But you want to understand what your impact is, you know, as a result of that.
So, you mentioned at one point, I think someone mentioned the economic impacts.  So you can do an economic impact study which will tell you where you spend, what kind of economic impact that you have made in the areas in which you spend.
But you could go a little bit further than that, and if you have the right dataset, and you have to have that infrastructure beforehand, you can also analyze health equity, for example, a lot of pharma companies want to do that.  People in the medical fields.
So, you can measure on health equity.  But I also measure on the impact that we had from a supplier perspective as far as what their journey was at our company.  So what was their journey at our company when we first met them, did they ‑‑ did we engage with them?  When they engaged with them, were they part of our mentoring program?  What was the result of that?
We speak with the supplier.  We look at those kind of areas to see what did success look like for the supplier.
A lot of times, and we do that with most of our suppliers.  When we bring in a supplier into our company, we want to make sure that it's a successful relationship.  So, we make sure that when they step in the door, they understand our culture, that they understand, you know, why did we hire them.  We want to make sure that the relationship ends up being successful.
If there is something that they need, we ask them to speak up.  So, we have a big speak‑up culture.  And we say, well, you know, we had one supplier who came to us and said, I'm so excited to be working for you.  This is so wonderful.  I did notice one thing.  And I was kind of afraid to mention it.  And we all said, even the business team said, please tell us.  What are we ‑‑ what could we do better?  Better, faster, cheaper, whatever you have to tell us, let's figure it out.
They told us a thought that they had, and we said, well, we didn't think you were capable of doing that.  And the supplier came back and said, oh, I can do this.  Let me show you.
Ended up being saving the company millions of dollars just by coming up with this great idea.  So, we make sure that we have the relationship is right.  And when the relationship is right and the supplier is capable to what to do, what they need to do for us, it's a win‑win.  And we look at it that way.
So, we track our success stories.  And I think if you think of a best practice for supplier diversity, sharing those success stories are essential, you know.  And you can do that through so many ways, whether it's through your mentoring program that you have.  Takeda has a really robust mentoring program, especially for diverse suppliers.  And making sure that the relationship is successful.  And when you have that success, tout it.  Because when people hear a story, they love the story.  So in my experience, when you're able to tell a story like that, it just resonates with other people.  And it's really impactful.  And that's your impact, right?
So, that's my biggest suggestion is make sure you tell your story.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Absolutely, so important.  Make it personal, right?  I think we are always telling our DOBEs to be open about who they are, their experiences and tell their stories.  So, it engages that client or that coworker around, you know, the work that you are doing.  I love that.
Will, any thoughts around storytelling or anything that's been mentioned?
>> WILL HOLMES: Yeah, sure.  Well, another metric that we are actually about to put a little more, I guess, little more diligence around, going into 2025 here, is, like, RFX Inclusion and it's interesting, when you look at it, you go a little bit more higher level, again, going back to, you know, good procurement practice, is that you have three or more vendors at least on RFP.  So even procurement itself wants to measure itself to say, hey, when these five, 10, 15, whatever, RFPs went out the door, how many vendors were on those RFPs?  Well, then we can layer into that and say, well, out of those vendors, how many of those were small businesses that were added?  We can even track to see, hey, how many RFPs have we added a disability business to.  How many ‑‑ we can get very specific or go high level with it.
And I think it will be a great opportunity for us to be able to better understand, looking at all the opportunities that come out and seeing especially if we know that there are certain categories that are heavy for, let's say, like disability‑owned businesses, hey, were we reaching those categories to be able to share the right fit businesses to them?  Because if there's a certain category that ‑‑ especially, let's say if there was an RFP for accessibility audit, right, and then there's no disability‑owned business.  Then it's like, whoa, that was a big miss, right?  We didn't even consider anybody?
Doing that kind of RFP inclusion tracking is something that we want to add to our metrics.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: It's so important, and, Joyce, I know you had mentioned this earlier around, you know, ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table, right?  And that's really, Will, what this metric is all about, ensuring that you have people represented at the RFP table that may not typically be represented.  And honestly, that's what supplier inclusion is all about.  It's not about awarding a diverse supplier a contract.  It's about making sure, first and foremost that they are at the table to even compete.
>> WILL HOLMES: The opportunity, yeah.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Right?  For that opportunity.  So I really love that.
And I know we are kind of almost near time before we open it up for questions and answers.  So, I will pose this question to each of you and, perhaps, Natalie, you would like to kind of start with your answer.
Looking ahead, what do you envision for the future of supplier inclusion?  And kind of what are the next big steps we need to take to actually achieve a truly inclusive supply chain ecosystem?
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Yeah, I would say, when we think about what is happening today in the U.S. around our general environment around DE&I we need to as practitioners in this space be clear on what is happening and making sure that we are representing the values of our company.
My personal beliefs are one thing or not, the values of the company is what drives what we do.  We wouldn't have these jobs if the corporation did not believe in an inclusive supply chain or an inclusive sustainable supply chain.  So, I think that is one thing I always say to people.
And then another piece is live your data.  Your data will tell you what's happening within your supply chain.  So, we have the ability at Cargill to break down our data by diversity characteristic.  We run that information through Dun & Bradstreet, they bring that back to us.  And I can tell you the percent of diverse suppliers by each characteristic.  So you want to be able to have that data so when you are in these conversations around, should we continue to do this, bring the data and say, hey, we have been doing this for 30 years and we haven't peaked.  We are still at 3 or 4% of our spend goes to diverse suppliers.  That is not keeping anyone else out of the supply chain, right?  So, you have to have those conversations, but you have to have the data to have that conversation.
And then the other piece I would say is, let's continue to tell our stories.  I saw a question around, are you publicizing or are you saying these things externally?  At Cargill, we have a website, Cargill.com, that talks about all of our activities around diversity, equity, inclusion, and we have a supplier diversity website, and we have been featured in our sustainability report several times around the work that we are doing.  And we are part of the Diversity Equity Index.  So, these are the types of things that if you can get your company on board by living the values that the company says, that is going to help your program be a sustainable program that you have to root it in what the company says first and then what is your data telling you about how your program is doing.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Love that.
Joyce, any additional thoughts beyond that?  Because I know, knowing your company and knowing your values is important to you at Takeda.  You want to share a little bit more?
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Yeah.  In keeping with what Natalie said, in general, make sure I think that everybody needs to understand your company values and how diversity, equity and inclusion is tied into what your company values are.
And then the other thing is making sure that people understand what the definition of diversity, equity and inclusion in your supply base means.  It seems like people are not quite getting that, especially in the United States.  It's actually, for me, we as a global company, I'm consistently amazed when I talk to people in other countries, how much they have embraced this and this is becoming a really big thing, more so outside of the United States.  So, it's a very interesting time that we have right now.
But, you know, at the end of the day, we make sure that we have our messaging right and making sure that it's consistent, I think it's going to get us through this experience, such as it is.  And it's all part of the ecosystem of your supply chain and your business, and it's good for your business and we all have that.
And reinforcing what Natalie said, get your data right.  Making sure that you have the right data, both internally and externally, of what supplier diversity means and inclusion means, and you should be fine.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Great advice from our expert Joyce.
Will, any additional advice or thoughts around what this is going to look like in the future, what do we need to do?
>> WILL HOLMES: Yeah, just a couple of quick things.  One thing I would love to do and it's important to us, here at Novartis, when I talk to our colleagues in our diversity, equity and inclusion team, what's the supplier's experience.  And Joyce was talking about that earlier.  But how can we improve that continuously every day, every year, right?
And one thing, we are actually working with a Disability:IN certified vendor to help us with this.  But we want to track our supplier journey, right?  So that when we meet the supplier, we know, hey, we can track that, hey, we met them on this day at this conference.  If a year goes by and they haven't heard anything and they run into a colleague of mine at another conference and they say, hey, I met this guy.  He was wearing a blue shirt but I don't remember what his name was.  And I never heard anything back.  And then that person can say, what's your company name and look you up in the system and say, oh, yeah, you met Will.  He's our supplier diversity guy.  But it looks like he had an RFP that was pending that he was trying to put you on.  And looks like the RFP got canceled so maybe that's why you didn't hear back, because, you know, this person moved on or something like that.
Or the flip side of it, to be able to say, hey, we met you here.  We had a meeting two weeks later.  You got added to an RFP two months later and you got awarded business or if you didn't get awarded the business, have a rating system that we can track it, have little notes.  Everything goes towards a way that we can have a better engagement so that anytime anybody at the company is meeting a supplier anywhere or a supplier reaches out, that we can actually have this wealth of information to say, hey, I know exactly what's going on with your situation, or I can tell that you are really liked and have brought value to the company at work with the UMI area.
So, it's ‑‑ we are just getting started with it.  We piloted it a little bit.  A shout‑out to some of the vendors that have dealt with me at a meet‑and‑greet table, putting your information into an iPad, I thank you.  Because it went towards us building into this new solution.
But that's something that if we get that working right it's going to be a potential game changer to add to that relationship building and growing the awareness of the suppliers that are out there and what their capabilities are.
And also want to say just for those that, again, don't really have that full knowledge of the work that we do and who we work with, when you really think about it, the U.S., 99% of all the businesses are small businesses.  99%.  When we talk about, hey, this small business, all the myths, what they can't do, what they are limited to doing.  99% of the companies are small businesses.  When you work with small businesses, you are feeling the economy, the economic engine of this country.  60%, I think it is, is the number of, you know, net new jobs, is because of small businesses hiring.
So, when small businesses get work, it leads to job growth.  It leads to economic growth.  It leads to wealth building in communities.  And, by the way, usually those companies are the hungriest and want to do the most and have the most innovative ideas and solutions.  So you bring in new value to your company.
So, just having the understanding I think is important to know that, whether it's our small and diverse owned businesses and obviously this is not a fact but in my mind probably 90% of diverse owned businesses are small businesses, but just having the knowledge of awareness that these companies out here are very much capable.  It's just a matter of finding them and talking to them and understanding where they fit into your ecosystem. 
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: And building those relationships one step at a time. 
We did receive a question in the Q&A and I will open this up for anyone to answer.  We struggle to have people open up and share stories.  Do you have any suggestions around how you have approached this within your own organizations.
>> NATALIE McGRADY: I think you have to, like someone said, are you publishing any of this information?  If you look at a company's annual report or their sustainability report and they are not talking about the stories of suppliers, how people help them or how we have engaged with different suppliers, then you probably know that that company is not one of the companies that's going to care about your story.  Maybe they won't listen to it.
Find the ones you think are open to your story and make sure that you try to tell your story.  It's part of who you are, it's part of your business.  What Will was saying, a lot of these businesses are small and it may be one to three people and now I have grown to 25 people.  Tell that story, tell how you went from one to three to 25 and you actually are helping, like you said, build community and build the next generation of whatever your business is.
So, I think that's important that you do tell your story.  And you find someone who cares about your story.  Everybody won't care about your story.  So, it's up to you to find the right folks that will care.  And I think going to Disability:IN's event and doing matchmakers helps you to hone that skill of telling your story.  And then you can tell quickly by the interest level if they are someone that you want to even continue to have to tell your story to.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: That's awesome.
>> WILL HOLMES: And practice is important.
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Yes.
>> WILL HOLMES: I can literally picture several business owners in my head that I have had similar conversations with around, you know, just they are new and they are like, you know, I can't do this sales thing and I can't hire a sales staff right now, I'm small, I'm just getting started out.  Not everybody is ‑‑ just steps onto the stage and talk it up type of person, right?  But I think you just practice.  If you are sitting at lunch with somebody at an event and they ask who are you with, what do you do, just tell your story.  Tell your story then.
That one person at the lunch table.  And then it builds the confidence, right, and then when you get the reactions from people like, oh, wow, like, that's amazing or, you know, you tell ‑‑ then you tell it to a small group of people and you gauge their reactions.  I think you slowly build up your confidence so that you get to the point where you could be presenting your deck somewhere and tell your story as a part of that presentation.  So, just continue practicing and believing in yourself.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Also from the supplier diversity perspective, ask the supplier.  I oftentimes, when I am in matchmaking meetings, I will say to the supplier, tell me your story.  Why did you name your company this?  You know, how did you come to becoming an entrepreneur?  Because it's not something that I could have the courage to do sometimes.  Some of the things that I see and the stories that I hear, those are the stories that I repeat throughout the company.
My mentoring sessions with one DOBE that now has the most incredible company, you know, just because he was a one‑person shop and now he's hired all these people and he's extremely successful and has the most incredible website that he just launched.  Those are the stories.  You just have to ask them.
And people always want to tell their stories.  I think that's something you should always remember as well.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Absolutely.  I love that.  And also don't forget, you can share your story, right?  And that helps encourage others to share theirs, right?  So, I think the more open and authentic we are around ourselves, I think that gives license to others to be just as open and authentic and to tell their story, too,.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Yeah, as supplier diversity professionals, we are connectors.  We are the ones who make the connections.  And so, that's part of the whole journey that you have as a supplier diversity professional.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: That's why we love what we do, right?  That's why this is so important to us.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Right.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: I think we are almost out of time.  I did want to, you know, throw out one more question, really around, and this has been asked a lot from our corporate partners here at Disability:IN, to better understand kind of how to navigate the legal complexities around what's happening and what we need to be doing.  And I know someone kind of alluded to that around, you know, publicly putting this out there.  But any thoughts around what companies should do from a legal standpoint?
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Yeah.  If you are not as a supplier diversity person in those conversations today with your current HR structure that focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion, your government affairs team that is actually going on the Hill on a regular basis, you are making sure that your sustainability team that is out there working with groups like CARE USA and USAID, find out who those people are because they are having conversations, and your legal team.  They are having conversations.  If you are not in that room, you will not be able to advocate disabled vendors or your minority vendors you are not going to be able to do it.  You have to be in that room and you have to have a voice.  Build those relationships, start to have one‑on‑ones with those folks, and ask them where those meetings and when they are being held.
So be aggressive here, because I think if you are not, we are going to be caught flat‑footed at some of our companies in shock when announcements come out that we were not part of.
And supplier diversity people, I always say you can walk in anyone's office just by your title.  They are not going to say no.  They are just not.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: That's right.  Don't hold back.
Joyce, any thoughts.
>> NATALIE McGRADY: Don't hold back, yes.  You know me, Philip.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: I do.  That's why I love you so much.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Yeah, I would say the same thing.  You know, you need to be on the pulse of what your company is doing and your company's perspective.  So, all of the people that Natalie mentioned, you know, whether it's your legal, your HR, your public relations, your sustainability teams, everybody, everybody is looking at that, your leadership.  Make sure you have the pulse with them.  And that your voice is heard as well.  And I think everybody is just watching and waiting and looking at what's happening and trying to figure out what is best for their company.  And you have to go with what is best for your company.
>> PHILIP DeVLIEGHER: Some wise advice, indeed.  And I will just add, kind of back to that coalition building within your organizations, building these relationships your legal teams, among your government affairs teams is incredibly important, not just to drive supplier inclusion within your companies, but to ensure that it's sustainable.  And that it is part of the company's strategy moving forward.
So, with that, I think we are at time, but I really want to thank Natalie, Joyce, Will for your expertise and your ability to share with us and our audience your experiences and the work that you do at your respective organizations.  So, I cannot thank you enough.  So, again, to our audience, thank you for joining us.  And thank you to my friends, again, on our panel.  You are experts at what you do!
So, we certainly appreciate all of that work that you do to advance not only supplier inclusion, but specifically disability supplier inclusion.  So, again, thank you all.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Thank you.
>> WILL HOLMES: Thank you.
>> JOYCE EGGERS: Bye.
(Session was concluded at 12:46 p.m. EST) 

This text, document, or file is based on live transcription.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), captioning, and/or live transcription are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.  This text, document, or file is not to be distributed or used in any way that may violate copyright law.

Disability:IN Virtual Inclusion Works Meeting 2025 
Session 4:  Talent acquisition:
Integrated Recruiting, Including Employees with Disabilities in your Hiring Process
Thursday, February 27, 2025
1:00 p.m. EST. 

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This text, document, or file is based on live transcription.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), captioning, and/or live transcription are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.  This text, document, or file is not to be distributed or used in any way that may violate copyright law. 
>> Recording in progress.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Hello, hello, and good day, everybody!  You are joining Session 4, "Talent Acquisition:  Integrated Recruiting, Including Employees with Disabilities in Your Hiring Process."
I am your moderator, Bridgette Anderson.  I am the director of talent acquisition with Disability:IN, and I am truly ecstatic to be here with you today.
I am a black woman whose pronouns are she and her and I am presenting from my home office in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.
I am so looking forward to the conversation with our panel today.  Our panel, who is Taryn Gantar, a Specialist I of Talent Acquisition with Enbridge.  Alexandra Oles, Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Sheetz.  And Jennifer Thompson, Senior Manager of Human Resources at VF Corporation.  They all will collectively discuss the creative, unique and effective changes their companies have made to ensure their recruiting processes, as well as onboarding and beyond are inclusive to their candidates and employees.
But before I give them a second to introduce themselves and we get started, I do want to go over a few housekeeping items.
Next slide, please.
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So, utilize that Q&A box, which is down below, it's on the bottom of your screen.  And that will help us to continue the conversation so that you get all that you want out of this session.
I am so excited to get started.  And so that's going to cover us right now.  For right now, with all of our housekeeping items, with all of that said, let's jump in.  I want to start with Taryn, who is at Enbridge.  I really just cannot wait to learn from you all that you have been doing, how you have been intentional in your inclusive recruiting processes.  So, and your recruiting practices.
So, Taryn, would you mind just starting us off with what you have been up to and how Enbridge has been thoughtful in their hiring?
>> TARYN GANTAR: Yeah, great, I'm Taryn Gantar.  As Bridgette said I'm a talent acquisition specialist at Enbridge here in Edmonton for the past 10 or so years.  I am also someone that identifies as having a diversity ability and my pronouns are she and her.
Yeah, so Enbridge really embraces increasing diversity and inclusion through recruitment.  Some of the things that we do is we want to increase awareness of people with diverse abilities in the workplace.  Sometimes disability gets left out of the conversation about diversity inclusion in the workplace.  But I really think in 2025, that's changing.  I'm really proud to work at Enbridge because I believe we are an employer that really does embrace people's differences.
Some of the things that we do to increase diversity through our hiring practices would be making sure something as simple as making sure that your interview team is diverse, right?  Different age, gender, religion, disability, veteran, LGBTQ.
Also another thing that we look at is consider fit, right?  I think cultural add instead of cultural fit when filling positions.  Consider quality is needed to deliver results instead of the qualities of the previous person in the role, right?
Talent with nontraditional experience can bring fresh ideas and perspectives.
Also seek difference.  Build diversity at all levels.  Give others, particularly those who are different than yourself a chance.  And also no one wants to feel like they are the only one, right, or others.  So considering multiple people within a dimension of diversity to multiply the power of voices.
So, some of the things that our recruiters do on our team is we give one‑on‑one coaching to all the hiring leaders, just to support inclusive hiring practices.  We support leaders with accessing diverse talent pools by targeted outreach on LinkedIn, indeed, glass door, we have an indigenous recruiters as well as two campus recruiters who are supporting diversity in our hiring.  We have standard job interview process which includes standardized competency‑based questions, diverse interview panels and providing accommodations to candidates for prescreening to interviews.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: That's super helpful.  I think you hit the mark for me in particular when you said having a diverse talent assessment team.  I think it's so important that it's coming, they are seeing people that not only look like them, but are having living experiences similar to them as well.
You had mentioned to me before, and I have taken a look at your website, just to see kind of how Enbridge is really setting themselves apart.  And I have seen some job descriptions that I felt were not your traditional, you know, block of paragraph with some basic bullets that kind of, actually, I think for the candidate in particular make us nervous, give us anxiety because, one, they just sometimes are a little bit inflated with language, but then also don't get to the specifics of the role.  Can you tell us what you have done to simplify your job descriptions and make them more inclusive?
>> TARYN GANTAR: Definitely.  So, Enbridge used to post our long job descriptions that included must‑haves but also nice to haves, but really this was limiting our talent pool.  So, in 2020, we met with our communications team and they gave our TA team tips and tricks on how to write an attractive job ad that defined competencies clearly.
So, now we create short attractive job postings.  What we do is highlight the top three to five specific accountabilities and we call it who you are, right?  And then the top three to five skills required, what you do.
I think roles with endless lists of requirements and nice to haves can deter people from applying, they want to make sure they check every box that we list.
Another thing we did with our job postings is we use a software called text teal, it's a tool.  What it does is it uses more than half a billion data points to improve job postings to make sure that we are using the right language.  So we can include the best and most diverse set of candidates.
So, what it does is it's a Honeywell overview, is that when we put in a posting, it highlights words that are corporate cliches or and it also makes the posting more gender neutral.  It will highlight words for improvement, tell us when we are too repetitive, and/or we are focusing too much on a specific gender or age.
It's really interactive and easy to use.  You know, using general neural words in job postings not only attracts male and female applicants but it helps non‑binary or gender fluid applicants as well.
I think language really does matter.  As someone like myself with a disability, for instance, if someone has that ‑‑ like I can't travel due to my disability, so if 30% of the role says that you need to travel 30% of the time, I'm not going to apply, right?
So, we really need to be aware.  Does the person really need to travel 30%, right?  So really being intentional with our language.  Or even writing effective communication skills rather than being a strong communicator.  Just being really present in our words, words really do matter.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: They do.  They absolutely do.
What else have you seen or do you feel personally that you got to be a part of it in making some really interesting changes that you feel have been effective, that you are proud of, that you want to highlight for our audience and just letting them know, like, hey, we thought of this thing because there was a need or because there was a gap, and I love being a part of it.  Is there anything that you maybe want to highlight that I might not know of, and might not ask about?
>> TARYN GANTAR: No.  For sure.  One thing is when I started at Enbridge, I really thought I was the only person with a disability there.  So, I was surprised when we created an Employee Resource Group for people with diverse abilities.
So, there is a lot of us, right?  So, which is really great, right?  I think being part of this group, we are able to share our stories.  And I think when more people share their stories, people feel more comfortable bringing their true self at work, right, and not feel alone.
So, we have numerous events and sessions where people can share their stories and learn from others, you know, navigating having diversity in the workplace.  I am now a lead in our DAN employee resource group, a partner engagement lead, which means I help out with our partners, and so one thing I wanted to mention, one of our amazing partners is Specialisterne.  People with diverse abilities tend to not self‑identify either through the application stage or the onboarding stage for fear of being treated differently.
For myself, I have been ‑‑ had a disability for the last 25 years and I actually only came out about eight years ago with my diverse ability in the workplace.
So companies need to look beyond traditional mainstream sources for the job applicants.  So, one way is through these special programs.  That's why Enbridge has partnered with Specialisterne who is a non‑for‑profit organization specializing in recruiting highly qualified neurodiverse people.  So to date we have hired phi incredible talent through this program in varied roles such as project patrols, finance, ITs and customer service.  What Specialisterne does is it's a different recruitment process from every other process we have, where we don't do interviews.  They do the interviews for us.  And they send us the top candidates.  And then the leader does a meet and greet and selects the top candidate from there, right, and Specialisterne is to partner with the leader to make sure they are supported with the process and seeing the candidate.  They are there all the way supporting the candidate.  It's one of the partnerships I'm super proud to be part of.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Awesome.  Absolutely.  I completely understand that, and I know that a lot of who our audience are, given that they're Inclusion Works, have either worked with or heard of Specialisterne, so I'm glad they have been a positive partner to you all.  They offer some wonderful resources as well.  
I think you're right, resources, partnerships, they make the difference when you are wanting to really increase your inclusion and be thoughtful and mindful about how exactly you are pulling in talent and then keeping talent.
So, Taryn, you know, honestly, as much as I'd like to ask additional questions, I promise that I will leave that for our audience and the Q&A portion.
So, I will let us move into conversation with Jenn from VF Corporation, but don't you go anywhere.  We have got plenty of questions for you, Taryn.  Thank you for your time.  We appreciate it.
Jenn, if you don't mind, I have heard that you all have a really interesting way in which you recruit candidates.  And I am dying to know how you have been creative in that space.  So, I am not going to give any hints.  I just maybe have an idea of what that could be.  But I'd love to hear from you all how, or you in particular, how you at VF Corporation have been really mindful in being inclusive in specifically the process of recruiting diverse talent.
>> JENN THOMPSON: Sure.  As you mentioned, my name is Jenn Thompson.  I'm the senior HR manager for VF Corporation, and VF is home to brands like North Face and Vans.  My current location, we distribute North Face and Vans to stores and to e‑commerce, maybe customers that are even on this platform today.
Something interesting we have been doing to get differently abled talent is being able to bring them in for job trial.  So, when my co‑panelist talked about how they are recruited, but I'm talking about how they interview.  So, we have many differently abled talent, some come from autistic schools, some come from local schools, intermediate units.  But a process that we do differently is, instead of a formal interview, that could be face‑to‑face conversation sitting in a conference room, we take our candidates on job trials.
So, with partnering with training and partnering with, maybe they have a job coach, maybe they even have an ASL interpreter.  We bring them through our distribution center and try them at jobs like picking, packing, and shipping.  And the job trial could take as long as they need to.  But we look to see if the candidate is engaged in that atmosphere, if they are safe, if they find it interesting.  A lot of times many of the candidates have an area that they really prefer the most or they really feel their skill sets would be a match to.
Others want to try it all and are so excited.  But at the same time, they get to see the environment.  They get to feel the environment.  Maybe there's too many people and it's not a role for them.  Maybe it's too loud and they have sensory issues with that.  It gives candidates a real life view of the job that they are applying for.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: That is so phenomenal.  I have worked with a couple of companies that have warehouse opportunities and they do something similar, not that exactly, at least not with the coaching and so on.  So, I think that's extremely unique and so helpful.
How did you all determine who or what business does the trials?  Like, you know, was it part of a specific business?  Was it a pilot program that you decided to do with a profile in particular that you were partnering with with the school?  Give us some details there.
>> JENN THOMPSON: Sure.  Back in 2020, we partnered with a local intermediate unit to be able to bring in, in‑school youth to students over the age of 18 into our facility to try the jobs.
So, at the time, this was before COVID, we brought in about seven candidates.  And all we did was truly stretch the environment.  We stretched onboarding.  We stretched training.  And just slowed things down a bit to really understand how our differently abled people learn.
We had a group of candidates and we really got to know them and their needs and they are still working here today.
So, it is a true testament to what we do if we take the time, be mindful, be flexible, and understanding we have endless means of talent pool, truly, with differently abled people.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Absolutely.  I think that's phenomenal.  When you were planning to do this, did you do pretrainings with hiring managers and the colleagues that were on those teams?  Did you walk through facilities, like you said, you had mentioned safety of each candidate.  You clearly had to be extremely mindful and methodical in the way that you were going to implement this pilot.
Do you have details on if a company is thinking about doing something like a trial, like where do they get started?  I know I just asked three different questions.  But let's start with, like, maybe it's the buy‑in first.  Where are we getting approval and then how are we thinking about the physical space, and then beyond that, the people leaders and the colleagues, if you don't mind.
>> JENN THOMPSON: Sure.  I think the buy‑in came super easy.  We are always interested in getting the best talent.  This was just a different means of finding talent.
We brought our leaders and our employees through sensitivity training, being able to train our employees.  If someone doesn't have a hand, what do you shake?  If someone isn't able to make eye contact with you, what do you do?  Simple things that you don't really think of.  So, that's why I talk about sensitivity.
Also had some of the institutions that were helping us, like the school for the autistic, train our supervisors on how to coach someone who is on the spectrum.  What does it look like if you have a candidate who is stemming, things like that.  It's about being inclusive.  It's truly understanding your workforce but also when we are going into this, understanding the type of population that may come on site and how to best support, coach and just be a good mentor.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Yeah.  I love this.  I love this so much.  And I hope that we are going to start to see some ‑‑ I don't know, maybe additional companies, or companies doing other things, right, that are more creative for some of those roles.  Because I think oftentimes we are really thoughtful about this profile pretty much aligns with this type of role.
But I don't think that we often think about the program that we can implement internally that cannot only pull in new talent, but then retain them as well.  When you think about the program in particular, was it easier like this is where we see the school and the partnership, so let's start here, or was it this is where the location is that we want to fulfill this pilot?  How were you able to determine where so that you could do this function, being on site?
>> JENN THOMPSON: Right.  Definitely partnering with the school that is set up in our area for differently abled people.  That was step one.  You have to find the right partner.
And through this program and truly sharing what we do and sharing the amazing things happening, we are able to have other organizations that hire differently abled people come in and say, hey, I have a group of people who want to work.  Can you help me?  And we have completely grown.  And I challenge other employers to simply say why not, be flexible.  Be inclusive, be understanding.
As an HR professional, my job is to make sure we are getting people hired and to fill roles.  This is an endless opportunity, an endless ‑‑ it's a wealth of talent, right?  So many amazing people are looking for opportunities that may be not considered at other opportunities due to barriers for entry.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Absolutely.  Have you seen or are you receiving, because you said this was pre‑COVID.  So, you have been doing this for some time now.  What are you as a company seeing as the feedback and as the retention?  When you were thinking the success rate of being able to implement these trials.  Is it something that you think that, one, is it positive, right, and then, two, how are you seeing it grow throughout your company outside of that one location?
>> JENN THOMPSON: Right.  Our ‑‑ the location I'm sitting at right now, we are our original goal was 7% of our population to identify as having a disability.  We are currently at 15.  So, it is huge.  And we continue to grow so much that one of my challenges is to launch this same program at our other distribution centers in California.
So, one of them will be starting off next month.  And they are partnering with Goodwill Industries.  And then moving to Southern California and my final stop ‑‑ I shouldn't say final stop, ‑‑ will be in Danville, Kentucky, they have a school for the deaf right next to their distribution center.  So I am super excited to be able to transform the way we do things in distribution, and if you buy from Vans in the North Face, you might have your package picked and shipped by somebody that's disabled.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: That's phenomenal.  I have questions.  One for you to chew on, out of distro, had you considered this, doing this on the corporate level and other places.  I'm going to hold on that question.  
Cynthia, maybe you can add that to your list as we move into chatting with Alex.  But I am just ‑‑ I am so impressed by that program.  I love that you have done it.  I hope that we see more of it.  I think it's so important that we give candidates an opportunity to show us how they do the job, rather than sitting in, you know, like, that formal Q&A session of, can you do, what have you done, tell me some things.
Not everybody interviews well.  It's just not a think.  Being able to do this is such a phenomenal option for them and I'm glad you are doing it and that you are able to share that with us.  Jenn, stay on hold for us.  I have got plenty more questions for you.
>> JENN THOMPSON: You got it.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: I want to invite Alex to the screen now.  Alex, please just dig in with us.  We have talked about the beginning of the process, some job descriptions.  Taryn kind of walked us through what they have been doing at the front end.  Jenn has talked about some middle ground, like when we are interviewing, how we can interview and be thoughtful and creative and different and unique and effective in pulling in new talent.
But I want to know at Sheetz, how you guys are thinking through the beyond the recruiting process.  So, once we have found some awesome talent, once we have onboarded them, what happens?
>> ALEX OLES: Yeah, absolutely.  Thank you so much for the opportunity, Bridgette.  As you mentioned, my name is Alexandra Oles and I lead diversity and inclusion here at Sheetz.
I am a Latina woman and I use she and her pronouns.
At Sheetz, as do my colleagues, which I applaud them and congratulate them for all of they are doing to be inclusive in their recruitment practices.  We are also committed to ensuring that our hiring process is inclusive of all job seekers.  That means the things that were mentioned, inclusive imagery and language, regularly reviewing job descriptions to remove unnecessary barriers, ensuring candidates are available of accommodations throughout the application and interview process and we are actually in the process of launching an ERG for individuals with disabilities.
But what we have learned, Bridgette, that supporting job seekers with disability goes beyond that hiring process.  It's really about creating a comprehensive support system, one that integrates external resources with the workplace support to remove barriers, provide that equitable access to opportunities, and set individuals up to successfully compete for roles.
So, that's why we have actually partnered with Pennsylvania's Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, to pilot a program aimed at helping individuals with disabilities specifically, though to transition from subminimum wage jobs to meaningful, competitive employment where they can grow and thrive.
And at the heart of this program is something called the integrated resource team or IRT, and this team is made up of both external support resources, which could be agencies and caregivers, and employer embedded resources, and they are all working together to support the job seekers' employment journey.
So the IRT helps ensure that the individual's skills, their interests, their goals and specific needs, whether that's behavioral, mental or physical are fully understood with the goal of helping to match them to the right role and the work environment.
They are also responsible to, you know, to remove any or identify any potential barriers to employment, like transportation, technology or any additional training, and that they are identified and addressed before they start working, as well as ensuring that the right supports come our accommodations are in place from day one.
However, it's important to clarify that this program does not guarantee job placement.  Instead, it really provides the tools, the resources and the support needed to help that individual navigate the hiring process, compete for roles, and transition into the workplace successfully.
So, what makes this approach even more effective is really the employer embodied support roles.  At Sheetz, these are dedicated roles within Sheetz who understand the hiring process and the realities of the external systems and the internal workplace environment.
So, at Sheetz we have two embedded resources.  One is an inclusion liaison and the other is an employment specialist.  They are subject matter experts in disability services.  They are trained in the life course framework, and they are experienced in supporting individuals with disabilities externally.
They are also fully integrated into the IRT team to help remove employment barriers and match candidates with job positions that align with their interests, skills, comfort levels and their long‑term goals.they are also fully embedded within Sheetz allowing them to shadow employees across the different roles to understand job expectations, workplace culture and even potential sensory or environmental challenges.
They are key players in ensuring reasonable accommodations are identified and in place before the individual even starts work.
And they are an ongoing internal resource fully dedicated to these individuals hired through the IRT process to provide direct services, such as on‑the‑job coaching, reconnecting them with external resources, if needed, and, of course, to be an ongoing resource to all employees, managers and the organization.  These are the essential duties of these roles, meaning that it's not just part of someone's job.  They are fully dedicated to providing direct disability inclusion services and support care sheets.
And I want to bring this to life.  If you don't mind, I want to share a real example of how this approach is making a difference.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Please.
>> ALEX OLES: I want to share the story of Franklin.  Franklin came to the program with a great attitude, previous kitchen experience, making him an ideal candidate for an open cafeteria support role at Sheetz.  But like many job seekers with disabilities, Franklin had always been surrounded by family, friends or paid supports.  So, applying for this job isn't just about employment for Franklin.  It's about stepping into greater independence.
So, as the IRT collaborated with Franklin, several needs were identified.  One was comfort with work environment.  Franklin had minimal exposure to workplace settings so he completed a job shadowing experience similar to what's done at VF, which allowed him to get familiar with the kitchen, the tasks, the environment, and even meet some of his potential future coworkers.
It even included the inclusion liaison providing a detailed written and visual of proper hand washing procedures for Franklin to practice at home.  So, this experience really helped build his confidence and his comfort level before he even applied to the job.
The second was technology access.  Franklin didn't have a cell phone, which would be essential for staying in touch not only with his family, but connecting with his hiring manager and also accessing Sheetz employees apps.  So, the IRT through that process helped security a phone through eligibility‑based funding and our embedded resources have worked to get him comfortable using it.
And then transportation.  Like many job seekers, reliable transportation is a challenge.  Through the IRT, a mix of natural supports and eligibility‑based funding was used to secure solution for Franklin that would help him get to work, to and from work consistently.
And the application and interview process.  The inclusion liaison has worked closely with Franklin to navigate the online application process and has also conducted several mock interviews to ensure he understands what that process looks like that he feels prepared, and mostly importantly, that he's comfortable and confident.
The inclusion liaison has also worked with the hiring manager to provide guidance on plain language interview questions, and then also any questions that they may have.
By addressing these needs before Franklin interviews or potentially starts, we really set him up for success, instead of leaving him to figure things out once he's already on the job or for us to secure extra resources to secure Franklin's needs, when something comes up or maybe identified, really meaning that we are being proactive versus reactive.
So, again, while Franklin was identified as a strong candidate for the role, the process doesn't guarantee employment.  Instead, it really is meant to give Franklin the resources and preparation he needs to comfortably pursue job opportunities and successfully compete for the roles.
So, now Franklin is prepared, he actually has an interview this Friday.  He's really excited about it.  And thanks to this collaborative approach, he's going to be walking into that ready to succeed.
So what this approach ‑‑ what really makes this approach even more comprehensive, and it doesn't just stop at the hiring.  Our embedded support roles continue to work with employees and managers to ensure that accommodations remain effective, that we offer coaching and training as needed, and that we re‑engage support such as on‑the‑job coaching if new challenges arise later on.
Should Franklin be offered the job, which is the goal, the inclusion liaison will help Franklin with understanding the onboarding process, guide him through the mandatory E learnings and possibly even attend a higher orientation with him.
The inclusion liaison will also have an onboarding meeting with Franklin's manager and colleagues to provide one‑on‑one disability etiquette training or sensitivity training and provide them with Franklin's one‑page profile which includes what's important to him, what people like and admire about him, and what he needs to be successful as an employee and colleague, which could be anything from a preferred communication or learning method, or an accommodation or something from an environmental aspect.
The inclusion liaison will also encourage and guide coworkers to complete their one‑pager so that Franklin can get to know them as well.  And the employment specialist will provide direct, on‑the‑job coaching to Franklin to ensure he's comfortable with all of his tasks, and the important thing is that that role remains a constant ongoing resource for Franklin should additional support be needed later on to ensure his ongoing success.
So, at the end of the day, this integrative resource team or IRT and these employer embedded resources work together to really kind of create a holistic support system, not just for Franklin, but his family and his new Sheetz work fam.  
Again, the program isn't about guaranteeing jobs.  It's really about creating equitable access to opportunities, removing those barriers and really empowering the individual to compete and succeed in the workforce.
So, I'm really excited to share that with you all today.  Thanks so much, Bridgette, for the opportunity.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Absolutely.  I am really glad that you were able to share that with us.  Fingers crossed, I'm super hopeful for Franklin, and I hope that his interview goes well tomorrow.
I'm curious to know and I know that I have received questions like this in the past when we were thinking about resources and partnerships and the importance of building the partnerships as we had mentioned a little bit earlier with some of our Inclusion Works companies and just saying, like, hey, there are some of these, you know, like these VRs that will provide job coaching and job training and job matching for you.  But a lot of the skepticism comes from, that's a lot of effort on the front end.  And to your point of, this doesn't guarantee that Franklin gets this job.  But you have put in a lot of effort.
Do you have a message for the recruiter, the leader, the whomever watching right now to say, like, I understand, that's a lot of effort.  We might not get a hire out of it.  But X.  You know, it is worth it because of these reasons.
Is there anything that you would say to highlight the importance of just what this means to your company and your candidates?
>> ALEX OLES: Yeah, no, absolutely.  At Sheetz, we are really committed to an inclusive, engaging workplace.  We have an award winning culture and at the heart of what we call our DNA are those behavioral aspects of how we show up to work every day is respect.  So, everything that we do when it comes to hiring, to interviews is always and even how we engage with each other every day is really about at the center of it, respect.
And respect is about making sure that we also give opportunities to everyone.  And these are certain roles in the organization that, you know, we can make sure that anybody who has the skills and abilities can apply to them.  Sometimes we just have to make a little extra effort.  But we see the long‑term, you know, impact and benefits to the organization.  And, you know, as part of this partnership with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, we really are working with them to model this approach and show the success and show the great return on this investment so that other employers throughout Pennsylvania, and hopefully other states, can replicate this model.  And having these inclusion ‑‑ you know, an inclusion liaison and an employment specialist is not just for individuals coming in through the program, but for anyone in the organization that has a disability and that they have a dedicated resource to go to.
So the return on investment is already there because we are all benefiting from it.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Absolutely.  I love it.  And one final question for you, Alex.  I was considering all of the pieces of the puzzle and when you mentioned the IRTs, those folks that are there for your candidates and then employees, you know, were they chosen because they raised their hand to say, I hear you are doing this program.  I want to be a part of it.  Help me.  Are they internal team members that have already been in some form of a role that just transitioned well?  Did they get extra training?  How did they get into the position that they are in to assist with those candidates once they are onboarding?
>> ALEX OLES: Yeah, absolutely.  Like I mentioned, it is a pilot.  The two embedded resources that we have, the inclusion liaison and employment specialist are actually contracted through an external agency who has, you know, the skills and the knowledge and the ability to be in these roles.
So, these are individuals that have been in these type of roles and external agencies and they are contracted right now to Sheetz.
The goal is that we see such success that we in turn make those individuals, you know, Sheetz employees and ongoing role for the organization.
And when you mentioned the IRT, the integrative resource team, these are individuals in the community that are coming from subminimum wage jobs or that potentially would go into subminimum wage jobs.  They are probably already working with VR programs, other agencies, and through the ‑‑ through Pennsylvania, through this pilot, they are applying for this program or this pilot and then they are being connected to us as a designated employer.  There's another designated employer in Pennsylvania.  So, we are in the west.  And there's another employer in the east.  And they are being connected to this.  And then that's how we are kind of building the team with the embedded resources, their external agency that's already supporting them and their caregivers or loved ones.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Got it.  That's phenomenal.  I mean, I could ask all of you all questions all day long.  As a talent professional, and I never, I never get tired of learning what you are doing.
Also, wanting to just see effective change across our industries, where candidates that are deserving of opportunities are getting the opportunity to be seen and valued.
So, we have got a little over 15 minutes.  And what I want to do, actually, is invite everybody back on video, including my phenomenal colleague, Cynthia Collver, who is one of our Inclusion Works consultants to lead us in our Q&A so that we can kind of dig into some of the questions that we have been seeing in the Q&A box.  Some may have been answered directly.  But we want to be certain that everyone is getting the benefit of those questions answered as well.
And really have a little bit more of some of this discussion.  I will hold.  I will let Cynthia kind of do her thing because I have got all the questions.  But I don't want to be greedy and take all the time.  So, Cynthia, I will let you jump in, ask some of those questions, and hopefully they are my questions.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Okay.  Thanks for that wonderful introduction, Bridgette.
I am a Disability:IN consultant.  I don't know how many companies with us today but I'm so impressed of the rich conversation that the panelists have given us.  I'm glad we have some questions so we can continue that conversation.
I guess we will go back to where we started.  So, Taryn, question for you.  You mentioned about training for hiring managers and then you also spoke about coaching managers.  Can you tell us a little bit more about how you prepare hiring managers to be successful?
>> TARYN GANTAR: For sure and it's really during our intake conversation with the hiring leader, right, is our recruiters really trying to find out the requirements of the role and making sure to be as inclusive as possible.  Because I think it starts off with the job posting.  We are not going to track talented people if we have a laundry list of requirements.
And then it's also we have a competency rating tool, candidate rating tool.  So, we want to make sure that we ask questions based on the competencies of the job, right?  And so we have this really phenomenal AI tool called hire guide and what it does is looks in the universe for other job titles that are similar and comes up with competency‑based questions.  And then the leaders ask competency‑based questions and rate them on those competencies.  And I always let the leader know, you know, you don't have to hire the person who scores the highest, because some people are just really great at interviews, right?
And then others are not, right?  So other things that we look at are maybe like a technical assignment.  So it's a mix of showing their technical work and then answering the soft skill questions.
We want to make sure all the interviews are structured as well.  So, we are asking the same questions to all the candidates.  And I'm really proud of us that we also make sure that candidates are aware that they can ask for accommodations during the prescreens.  We use a video prescreening tool to prescreen candidates.  But if they want, they could do it by email, they could do it by phone, they can turn off their camera.  We give them options, right?  So it's not just like one way to complete that.
And then leaders know, because most of them also have done the video prescreen, you know, don't judge people on how great they are on camera because no one is great on camera, as I'm looking at myself here right now.  (laughter).  So, yeah, it's really just that two‑way conversation between the recruitment team and the leaders to make sure that we are checking all the boxes to make sure that we are selecting the person based on the roles of the job and being really fair and not having any biases.
Is there going to be biases, yes, there's always biases with everything.  We are humans, right?  But we try our best to make sure to eliminate all those biases.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Wonderful.  Preparing the hiring managers and making them comfortable is so important to success.  So, that is clearly a best practice.
All right.  We will go to Jenn.  And you had a couple of questions and you have answered them.  So one question that I thought of when I was hearing you speak is, did you say candidate assessment of the trial, the trial interviews that you did?  And can you share with us what you learned from those assessments?  What were you impressed with, what did you decide to do differently?
>> JENN THOMPSON: Sure, some of the assessments begin with ensuring whatever candidate we are getting in, we give them the job description ahead of time and they match their abilities to our job description.  Certainly never want to put someone in a position where we are giving them a job or trial them in a job that they would not be able to do.  So, once we complete that, we take them through all of the jobs and interestingly enough, in the assessments, it has really shown us people who are so focused on attention to detail.  And some of our most productive workers identify as having a disability, simply because they are extremely focused on tasks.  We are very numbers driven.  We are very focused on product movement.  But those assessments have been able to just give us a bit of a glimpse into unlocking some of the potential we could have with this potential candidate.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Wonderful.  Okay.  Thank you so much for that.
All right.  We will go on to Alexandra.  You had a question, and I don't think you have answered it.  How do you convince leadership to pursue these more time intensive, more resource recruitment effort?
>> ALEX OLES: Yeah.  No, absolutely.  You know, when we entered into this partnership with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, this was a collaborative, yes, from our CHRO, our President and our leaders within our kind of main campus per se, because it is kind of a ‑‑ there is a geography to the pilot because we want that inclusion liaison and that employment specialist to be able to connect very easily and engage with those employees once they are through the door.  But then also part of that process of recruiting them in the door.
Honestly, there is no intense timing for hiring managers or the leadership.  It's really the commitment, the time and effort for the inclusion liaison and the employment specialist to work with those IRTs, individuals that come through the program, and identify their goals, their skills, as Jenn mentioned, you know, their maybe, you know, any particular needs, and connect them to jobs that are open at Sheetz and say you know what?  This candidate westbound a great candidate for this role and here's why.  And then coordinating that job shadowing.
So, that's all really kind of being done and our inclusion liaison is connected to our recruiting team so as positions are popping up, they are aware of jobs that are opening and then they already have identified candidates for these roles.
So, really the time commitment is up front.  And they have already identified candidates for positions as they come open.
Now, we do have some customized roles that are tasks or jobs that have been done by individuals in the organization, kind of as a side job, you know, as I get time, I will get to do this.  But it is something that needs to get done.  We have carved those duties out to create jobs, part‑time jobs that we are also looking at filling with Invest, which is the name of the program, with Invest candidates that come through the program. 
Honestly, the investment is on the front end.  And when the hiring manager, they are just getting their qualified applicants or candidates.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: So those resources are really embedded in your talent acquisition ‑‑
(Overlapping speakers).
>> ALEX OLES: Absolutely, yes.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: We had a couple questions come in.  Everybody is impressed with the Franklin story.  Questions started popping up when you were telling it.  And we got a question about how was Franklin identified?
>> ALEX OLES: Yeah, absolutely.  So, Franklin was identified through the program.  So, through outreach that OVR has done throughout the state to make agencies aware, partners aware of the program and what we are trying to do.  So, through that, he came in through the program and because of his geographic location, he was identified as a potential fit for Sheetz.  Plus Franklin loves Sheetz so, yay for Franklin, and he wants to work at Sheetz.  And his goals are to be more independent and be able to work part time.  And he's very eager.
So, it was a win‑win on both sides.  I am fully confident that Franklin has already done the job shadowing as Jenn mentioned before, that job trial.  So the interviews is more of a formality process, but, again, we are building his confidence and we are building his skills because regardless of whether it's Sheetz or somewhere else, we want Franklin to succeed.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Wonderful.  I know that many employers post their positions with vocational rehabilitation offices, but it seems as if you have built a good relationship with them.  So, it goes beyond just posting.  You know people there and you are working individually with them.  They are looking out for your interests, you are using their resources.
>> ALEX OLES: If I can share.  And the reason why I love this panel discussion is because we can all learn.  And we can all share best practices.  And this is a space where we are not competing for talent because we all want the same and we all have the same goal, as far as individuals with disabilities.  Specifically in our case, those that are typically in subminimum wage employment to be able to be in competitive employment.  So much so that when I actual heard Jenn and what she does at VF Corporation, I immediately went to OVR and said you need to connect with Jenn because she is already doing a lot of this.  And this integrated resource team approach could just take what she is doing to the next level.
So, it's not about competing for talent.  We have Sheetz where Jenn is and we are going to hook her up with some mozzarella sticks but we want this to be successful, not just for Sheetz, but for everyone.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Wonderful.  That takes us back to Jenn, then.  I got a question for you.
Do you see these trial interviews being used outside of the distribution part of your business?
>> JENN THOMPSON: I am only in distribution, so I can only speak on the distribution side.  But I can tell you it is something that the North Face, one of our bigger brands, is focused on.  They are making product that will be released soon for differently abled outfitters, tents that are easier for people to get in if they are a barrier, jackets, you name it.  So, the universal design is going to affect not only my facility, but it's going to affect our product.
So, I am sure that will trickle down to the athletes that are testing it.  But I can truly only speak on the distribution side.  My goal is to, like I said, get this across the U.S., all of our distribution centers but you never know.  My next step might be the corporate office.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Okay.  Sounds good.
All right.  We have about five minutes left, so I better check in, Bridgette.  Am I asking your questions?
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: You actually did.  You asked two of them.  And I'm hoping that you have one for Taryn, one last one.  It could be it.  And that would just prove that we are a magical team, Cynthia.  So you have got time to ask her that one before we wrap.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: All righty.  Well, there was a question that came in, Taryn, about what sourcing channels have proven most effective for you?  And I don't know if that's something that you answered already.
>> TARYN GANTAR: Sourcing channels.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Sourcing for diverse talent.  Which ones have you used that you think have been most effective?
>> TARYN GANTAR: I think our partnership with Specialisterne have been effective for us because I know myself when I apply to a job and I have a disability, I don't self‑identify, and I think a lot of people don't, right, so it's like how do we make sure that we are increasing representation with special programs, right?  And so this partnership with Specialisterne has been amazing.  We have got extremely top talent in different areas.  And hopefully we will be continuing with our partnership next year as well.
So, other than that, I think we use the typical channels that everybody does, posting our jobs online, making sure that our postings are inclusive, LinkedIn, you know, the typical channels that people source candidates from.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Okay.  Some is probably thinking, does Specialisterne cover a range of different types of positions or are they focused more on a STEM position. 
>> TARYN GANTAR: Any type of position.  Any type.  Yeah.  Typically people with diverse abilities could be underemployed.  And so I wouldn't suggest, it's probably easier to find roles where it's not like a laundry list of requirements for them to help source.  But they source in every area that we have.  So, from customer service to finance to IT, to project control.  So very, varied positions that they can source for.  Yeah, they are amazing.  Their recruitment team is absolutely amazing.
And we do this throughout candidates.  So we have hired positions in Ontario, in Alberta, so ‑‑
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Sounds great.  All right.  Well in the few minutes that we have left, do any of you have something that you would like to say before we close the program?  Anything we didn't ask about?  Anything you want to brag about?  Okay, well, Bridgette ‑‑
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: I am shocked.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: I think we have covered it.  Do you have anything you want to wrap with?
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: Absolutely.  One, I am really shocked that you guys have nothing to brag about.  But I think it's because you have dug in so deep on some really unique and effective things that you have been doing.  And like I said before, I am just not blowing smoke.  I could listen to this all day.  I hope that our audience also learned as much as I did today.  And we will take from this and be able to, you know, make some changes internally.  I would love to be able to ask the question about how to get executive buy‑in.  I know that that's a question that a lot of people always want to know.  We are right at time so if somebody has like a 30‑second snippet that can say these are the things or it started with leadership, or if one of you have a way to just say, this is what we did to get that leadership buy‑in to make these changes, it's your turn.  Jump in really quick.
>> JENN THOMPSON: I can tell you from my perspective, proof is in the numbers.  I have some of my most productive employees are differently abled, best attendance, best engagement, and truly, if you have leaders that just believe in people, this will be a slam dunk.
>> BRIDGETTE ANDERSON: I love it.  Thank you.  That was perfectly said.  Again, I just have had the most amazing time.  I think this is a spectacular session.  I'm so grateful to have been a part of it.  I hope everybody found value in our time spent today and I hope that you enjoy the rest of the sessions to come.  A massive thank you to the Inclusion Works team, Cara, Ashley, all of our brilliant consultants, especially Cynthia, helping us today.  Jason who works tirelessly behind the scenes, Maria also on our global team, our interpreters, our captioners, of course, you all are partners.  Our amazing audience.
Immediately following this session in this room, room 1, is Session 6, start where you are, strengthening support for the neurodiverse employees you already have in your workplace.  And in Room 2 is Session 7, beyond the workplace, extending disability inclusion to products and services, both of them starting at 2:15 eastern.  So, grab some water, stretch your legs, I will see you there.  Thank you for joining us.
>> CYNTHIA COLLVER: Thank you, everyone.
(Session was concluded at 2:00 p.m. EST) 

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