CAN-ASC-1.1 Standard on employment: Public Review Draft - 1. Introduction

This Standard is grounded in the pillars of the “employment life-cycle” and aims to assist users of the Standard throughout all phases of the cycle, namely:

1. recruitment;
2. hiring;
3. onboarding;
4. retention;
5. promotion and career development;
6. performance management; and
7. separation.

Productivity to an employer means having performing workers that contribute to the organizational mandate and success.  Inclusive employment emphasizes and values diversity and representation in the workforce, leading to more meaningful worker engagement and motivation, and therefore a more productive and healthier workplace. This Standard examines how organizations identify, prevent, and remove barriers that persons with disabilities encounter within their employment journey. This Standard encourages the embedding of accessibility and disability confidence alongside diversity and representation in inclusive workplaces. This Standard is also designed to encourage employers to create workplaces that are “inclusive and accessible by design” and to raise employer awareness of the talents and abilities of those who have disabilities.

A systematic, proactive approach is promoted with continual improvement to enable employers to have a high-performing, inclusive labour force such that an employer can be at the forefront of inclusive employment. The concept of continual improvement involves recurring activities to enhance performance over time. Examples of these include the planning, implementation and evaluation of projects, programs, policies, and practices in the workplace. This Standard uses a proactive and systemic approach focused on facilitating workplaces where accessibility is embedded within the work environment, as well as based on individual accommodation.

The requirements within this Standard define a framework of systemic change through environmental solutions and policies to facilitate accessibility and inclusion in the workplace (see Clauses 5, 6, and 9):

• Clause 5 of this Standard focuses on structural support, policy, and leadership in organizations by emphasizing the development of systems, policies, and practices.
• Clause 6 discusses culture, engagement, and education within the workplace.
• Clause 9 highlights the Work disability management system and accessibility accommodations in the workplace.

This framework of systemic change is balanced by a person-centred, individualized approach to accessibility and accommodation throughout the employment journey (see Clauses 7, and 8).

• Clause 7 addresses identifying, preventing, and removing barriers encountered during recruitment, hiring and onboarding.
• Clause 8 addresses the identification, prevention and removal of barriers encountered in worker retention, professional development, pay equity (compensation), performance management and job separation.

Both approaches, taken together, are necessary to achieve a truly inclusive work environment. This Standard demonstrates that both approaches (the systemic approach and the person-centred approach) are required in equal measure (as opposed to one approach predominating over the other).

The framework outlined in the requirements clauses is summarized here for ease of understanding and potential use. Three overarching categories of policy are recommended:

• Accessibility policies (see Clauses 5, 6 and 8);
• Individualized accommodation policies (see Clauses 7 and 9); and
• Work disability management system (see Clause 9).

While there is some overlap among these three groups of policy, they are intended to be complementary to one another, and one cannot by itself take the place of all. A fourth policy framework, anti-ableism policies, is discussed in Annex E.

Informative annexes provide additional information and context on concepts presented within this Standard:

• Annex A (informative): Background and context to accessibility in the workplace;
• Annex B (informative): Lived experience with disability;
• Annex C (informative): Continual improvement;
• Annex D (informative): Intersectional accessibility lens;
• Annex E (informative): Anti-Ableism policies; and
• Annex F (informative): Stand-alone accessibility policies and accessibility elements integrated into existing policies.

In this Standard, “shall” is used to express a requirement; “should” is used to express a strong recommendation; and, “may” is used to express an option that the employer can implement to enhance the accessibility of the workplace.

The purpose of this Standard is to provide direction to employers and other workplace parties in achieving the long-range objective by identifying, preventing, and removing barriers. This allows all persons to fully and equitably participate in employment, whether or not the worker lives with (a) disability(ies).