Mentoring and Recruiting Students with Disability
There are a variety of ways employers can recruit and retain talented students with a disability. Employers can access help through the Australian Employers Network on Disability (AEND), a not-for-profit, member funded organisation that has taken a leadership role in advancing employment opportunities for people with disability. For more information about AEND visit AEND website.
Deakin University pioneered the Willing & Able Mentoring (WAM) program in conjunction with Melbourne University in 2000. The WAM program matches job seekers or tertiary students who have a disability with mentors in leading organisations in the job seekers/students' field of interest. Mentors and student attend a series of approximately eight one to two-hour discussion meetings during trimester two of the given year. During these meetings strategies focused on are:
- Gathering information about the career environment students are heading towards
- Refining interview skills
- Experiencing the workplace culture (eg. staff meetings)
- Developing better skills in presenting a professional profile
- Disclosure and demystifying disability and related workplace issues (eg. Workplace modifications)
Initiatives such as the 'Stepping into...' work experience series provides students with disability from participating universities paid work experience in their area of study. The program provides a great opportunity for students to gain practical experience in leading organisations throughout Australia. In 2009, opportunities are available for students in the following disciplines: Law, Accounting, Information Technology, Marketing, Human Resources and Public Policy and Research.
Case Study: ANZ Abilities Program
ANZ is committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce.
ANZ's Disability Action Plan includes measurable steps to ensure ANZ welcomes, supports and celebrates the unique contributions of all staff and customers and to ensure products and services and inclusive and accessible everyone.
ANZ Group General Manager, Organisational Capability, Jonathan Harvey said there are real business benefits to having a diverse workforce: "It's important to employ people with a disability. We know that twenty percent of Australians have a disability. To better understand our customers, it's important that we strive to reflect the makeup of the communities in which we participate."
As part of the Plan, ANZ plans to recruit 35 people with disabilities by 30 September 2009.
Other initiatives include:
- Providing accessible online training for all staff;
- Increasing awareness of disability in staff communications;
- Providing improved accessibility for staff and customers;
- Ensuring internet banking system developments are trialled by people with varying disabilities prior to implementation;
- Installing audio-enabled ATMs in high-demand areas; and
- Helping to improve the financial literacy and inclusion of people with disabilities.
"We are in a talent war - and the organisations that will win this are the ones that look past limited perceptions about candidates; to recognise that talented people are not defined by an image," Mr Harvey said.
ANZ Global Technology Accessibility Manager, Hamish Mackenzie, works with project managers across ANZ to ensure technology projects are accessible for people with disabilities.
"The most important part of my job is to get people to understand why accessibility has an important role in today's technology," Mr Mackenzie said, "There is a general misconception that in order to be accessible, web pages must be dull and boring whereas I love turning ideas like that around. I show them how an accessible solution can also be very visual and functional."
ANZ's Disability Network is a group of staff at all levels from all over Australia who want to find ways to better support our staff and customers at ANZ who experience disability.
ANZ Trustees Charitable Foundations Secretary, Briar Stevens, is also Chair of the ANZ Disability Network, which runs regular meetings and an online discussion board.
The Network has been involved in the launch of the Technology Accessibility Helpline in September 2008. It also facilitated the Reach Out DVD to highlight success stories and disability-related initiatives at ANZ.
"We found that there was a lot going on or had been going on in the area of disability and we just wanted a very simple way of putting all those strands together and communicating that to the wider bank," Ms Stevens said.
Stuart Minotti, who is a Business Analyst and works on fraud prevention projects at ANZ, said: "It's great to participate in everyday working life and to know I'm contributing to the success of ANZ's business. I'm learning about myself and I have a sense of belonging in the workplace."
Mr Minotti began his career at ANZ in February 2009 as part of the ANZ Graduate Program.
"Having a disability does not greatly impact my ability to work. At school and university I developed strategies to manage possible limitations, so I can always work at my highest capacity," Mr Minotti said.
