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Inclusion@Work

MAY 2007 ISSUE
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Inclusion@Work - The e-magazine of the Oregon Business Leadership Network. Committed to including people with disabilities in the competitive workplace and as consumers.
Hello!
Welcome to the MAY 2007 edition of Inclusion@Work
- the eMagazine of the Oregon Business Leadership Network.
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In This Issue:New Seasons Market logo

Bullet  A Workforce Focused on Inclusion - Employees with disabilities are naturally part of the workforce at Oregon's New Seasons Market.

Bullet  Seven Corners Store: Where employees with disabilities are "a productive part of our team."

Bullet  Sellwoods Store - Employing people with disabilities "is just the normal thing to do."

Bullet  A Picture-Perfect Employer - A perspective on New Seasons from job developer Lynn Wiles.

Bullet  A Productive Partnership - Portland Public Schools has ten former special education students now employed by New Seasons Market.

For Your Calendar:

Bullet  November 13, 2007 - OBLN JOB AND CAREER Exploration Fair - Linking business with the talents of students and job seekers with disabilities.
"Employing people with disabilities is really about inclusion and seeing it as an opportunity."

- Bill Tolbert
New Seasons Market

Bill Tolbert
Deborah Mullin
"We are prepared to listen to and deal with any personal situation that any employee has - and disability just falls into that."

- Deborah Mullin
New Seasons Market

"Developmentally disabled people have a lot to contribute... we need to provide more jobs for them to be able to be a productive part of our team and our society."

- Mark Feuerborn
New Seasons Market
Mark Feuerborn

Visit the OBLN Website for more information on
Youth Transition Programs

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A Workforce Focused on Inclusion: New Seasons Market

New Seasons Market has nine stores in the Portland area. By hiring from within the community and stocking products of local interest, each store works proactively to reflect its surrounding neighborhood. Recognized for high standards of customer service, the stores are also well-known for their emphasis on organic and locally grown products. 

Known simply as “Bill the Recruiter”, Bill Tolbert is the person responsible for ensuring that the New Seasons Market employee base is broadly diverse and that staff in each of its stores reflect the diversity of people in that particular community. People with disabilities are readily embraced within the New Seasons workforce and Bill helped us understand why and how this is important to the company.

OBLN: Bill, can you give us an overview of your role as the primary recruiter for New Seasons Market?

Bill Tolbert: I actively go out into the community and try to find candidates who can help us keep to our goal of having the people that work in our stores being a reflection of our local communities. It is important to us that anyone who shops here can come into the store and meet staff who are part of their demographic communities.

OBLN: How does this extend to people with disabilities?

Bill Tolbert - New Seasons MarketBill Tolbert: One of the first things we did was two and a half years ago when we opened up our fifth store. Our Seven Corners Store was designed to have one of the cashier stations able to accommodate cashiers who might be wheelchair users. We then contacted some local organizations to help us find wheelchair users who would like to work for us. The first person that we hired also helped us to further refine the design of the cashier stations. He is still with us – continuing to do well as a staff member.

Did it cost money? Sure it did, but it was the right thing to do – so we did it. We continue to make adjustments as we see fit and all of our subsequent stores have register stands that can accommodate a cashier in a wheelchair.

OBLN: Are people with other types of disabilities represented in your workforce?

Bill Tolbert: Sure. We have also been able to work with organizations representing people with developmental disabilities to create job opportunities for them – modifying jobs in ways that enable them to work to their strengths and adding new tasks to their jobs as they master previous ones. A number of our stores now have people with developmental disabilities working in different capacities.

One of the things we always look for is friendly people – people who can connect and people who “get” what we believe about customer service. 

By the way, our customer service extends not only to the way we treat our customers but to how we treat each other. Here is a good example of this: There is a young man here who has a vision impairment. Last Christmas, his fellow staff members saw that the bike that he used to get to and from work was in pretty bad condition. They pooled their money and surprised him with a brand new bike.

OBLN: How would you describe New Season’s general approach to the issue of employees with disabilities?

Bill Tolbert: We look at it as another opportunity to make us a stronger company. We stand to learn. We learn a great deal from the variety of different people that we employ. Working in one of our meat departments, we have a young man here who is hearing impaired. When he first started, we had all kinds of questions; “How will he do this? How will he do that? How will he handle this? How will he handle that?” – seriously questioning whether we were going to be able to do enough to make it comfortable for him to work here. Well, he has been here for a couple of years now and doing quite well. Our major accommodation is simply bringing in a sign language interpreter for him when we have company meetings.

OBLN: It seems that having a fellow employee with a hearing impairment would help your staff to be more comfortable and proficient when serving customers with hearing impairments.

Bill Tolbert: That is a key point. It also comes back to the point I made earlier. If a customer with a hearing impairment comes into the store they realize; “Hey this person is like me. This person is part of my community. This store is part of my community.”

OBLN: Would it be correct to say that New Season’s recruiting philosophy is to seek out people who have the skills to add value to your store and whatever difference that they bring to the table are actually seen as assets?

Bill Tolbert: By all means, that’s true. We have a young employee who has a degree of mental retardation. Working with her, our managers had to learn how to give direction to someone who takes a little longer to learn – learn to be a bit more patient, a little more clear and concise in giving direction. Also, watching this young woman learn to interact with others and grow as a person has been rewarding to everyone involved.

Employing people with disabilities is really about inclusion and seeing it as an opportunity. It is an opportunity for both parties to grow and to learn.
 

Bullet See: Website for New Seasons Market: Work With Us


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New Seasons Market, Seven Corners Store

Mark Feuerborn is the Store Manager at New Seasons Market’s Seven Corners Store. He has had particular interest and experience in employing people with developmental disabilities

OBLN: Mark, we understand that, as a store manager, you have had a lot of positive experience in employing people with developmental disabilities. Can you tell us about that?

Mark Feuerborn: When New Seasons Market started back in 2000, some of us came from another company that had employed people with developmental disabilities and we wanted to continue to do that in this new business. We are fortunate to have a number of positions for which folks with developmental disabilities can readily fit the bill.  

OBLN: What kinds of positions are those?

Mark Feuerborn: Joe, here at the Seven Corners Store, sorts bottles for us. While having autism and being legally blind, he does a great job and is just a great guy. He regularly attends staff parties and meetings and wants to advance in the company beyond the job he is doing for us now – which I think he will do eventually. 

Mark Feuerborn - New Seasons MarketKen works here for two hours each day. He is very personable. His job is mainly housekeeping and it includes taking care of external garbage cans and cleaning our offices. Ken is currently considering transferring to a different store that is an easier commute for him.

Like these guys, most employees with developmental disabilities perform housekeeping and bottle sorting jobs for us. A few have also been hired as courtesy clerks and produce clerks.

While some will be able to take on more and more responsibilities, we realize that the contribution some of these people make may always remain at a certain level. Our goal is to help them become more socialized and better contributors to the workplace, but to do it in a gentle way that helps them feel validated and part of a group of people that really cares about them. 

A lot of our jobs for these folks are now in “backroom” jobs. My personal goal is also to get more developmentally disabled employees integrated into the regular workings on the sales floor.

OBLN: Do these employees usually hold full or part-time positions?

Mark Feuerborn: At the Seven Corners Store, we currently have five employees with developmental disabilities. Three of them are full-time employees and two of them work part-time.

OBLN: How do you go about recruiting employees with developmental disabilities?

Mark Feuerborn: We have recruited many of our employees with disabilities from community-based organizations. Almost all of them provide a week to two weeks of initial job coaching for the new employees. They are also really good about supporting us if we need their help later on.

Lee Weaver from Portland Public Schools has been a great partner in this. He will drop by and say “I’ve got a great person for you.” Typically, I will meet with them and scope out their skills. Then we would move them along to our human resources office. I have to say, this is really a collective effort at New Seasons Market. If we didn’t have our other store managers, our human Resources office, and our CEO all saying “This is something we should be doing more of,” it wouldn’t be happening.

OBLN: Mark, you seem to be very enthusiastic about this whole facet of your staffing at New Seasons.

Mark Feuerborn: The payoff for me is to see those folks integrated into our staff and become typical working members of society and feeling like they belong to this community.

For us at New Seasons Market, it is a winning situation all the way around. What we are doing helps our staff members and our communities understand that developmentally disabled people have a lot to contribute – that we need to provide more jobs for them to be able to be a productive part of our team and our society.

Bullet Read more about Mark Feuerborn
 

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New Seasons Market, Sellwoods Store

Deborah Mullin is the Store Manager at the New Seasons Market’s Sellwoods Store and very proud of the inclusiveness of its workforce.

OBLN: Have you had to make many accommodations for your employees with disabilities?

Deborah Mullin: The day-to-day approach we take at New Seasons Market is to be really accommodating to all employees. We do so many things for so many people in so many situations that, when somebody has a need for a disability-related accommodation, it isn’t considered something out of the ordinary. It isn’t considered as going out of our way. It is just the normal thing do.

We have a staff member in our meat department who is legally deaf. Rocky works in a situation where he is mainly doing meat-cutting, but he still has to be available to customers who are shopping the counter. Over the past two years he has stretched what he thought were his limits in being able to do something like that – to the point where he is now very comfortable interacting with customers. He is an integral part of what we are doing here and he will always let us know if there is something that he needs that we are not aware of - and we will make those changes accordingly.

OBLN: How well do your employees with disabilities fit into your workforce?

Deborah Mullin - New Seasons MarketDeborah Mullin: There are about 130 staff members here at this store. We have a strong subculture of taking care of each other. People are very aware of each other’s needs and very sensitive to them. It makes people feel good to be in this environment, helping to support each other, especially when it comes to helping somebody who needs a little extra support. Nobody is seen as being different than anybody else. We all work together. And that is just the way it is.

One young woman has been with us over three years. She has a mental disability and is still supported by her job coach. There are some tasks that she does quite well with and others that are outside of her scope or comfort zone. She is extremely consistent and does a phenomenal job. She is also an integral part of the staff community here and, outside of her basic job duties; she gets involved in new projects that interest her. Anybody who has been here for a while has watched her come out of her shell and start to go after opportunities versus having to be asked to do things. She is a very pleasant person and she affects people here in a positive way every day.

OBLN: Even though New Seasons Market has some truly outstanding practices for employing people with disabilities, it seems as though this isn’t really considered a “big deal” by anyone who works there.

Deborah Mullin: If somebody was to stop and ask us about it, it would be hard to dig up reasons why this would seem unusual, because it just isn’t for us. Everybody has areas in their life that aren’t as easy as others. At New Seasons Market we are prepared to listen to and deal with any personal situation that any employee has - and disability just falls into that. As much as we are adamant that we offer products and services to everybody, not just a particular niche, we want to be the same type of employer. There is a place here for everybody. We want to be wide open to who it is that we can offer jobs to.


Bullet  Read more about Deborah Mullin


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New Seasons Market: A "Picture Perfect" Employer

Lynn Wiles of Wiles and Associates is a job developer who has placed two of her clients with disabilities into positions with New Seasons Market stores.

OBLN: Lynn, tell us a little bit about your company.

Lynn Wiles: We contract with the State of Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation Services, as well as with the Washington Department of Services for the Blind, to provide job search assistance, job development, job placement and job retention services to individuals with disabilities and/or other barriers to employment.

OBLN: Tell us about your experience with New Seasons Market.

Lynn WilesLynn Wiles: We have had a lot of contact with New Seasons Market and we have placed people in two of their stores. To us, they are the “picture-perfect” employer. I have been doing this kind of work for seventeen years and they are just fantastic. They truly walk the talk. They provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities all the time, including people with severe disabilities – people with behavioral issues, severe autism, traumatic brain injuries, etc.

I placed a woman with a hidden (non-apparent) disability at the Arbor Lodge store in North Portland. She blends right in with the workforce. No one would be the wiser. She just does beautiful work and she has been there for a year now.

I placed another person, with a more apparent disability, at their new Mountain Park store. We had some initial behavioral issues. He had a job coach with him for a long time until this was resolved. We still do ongoing check-ins to support him. The management and staff at the store have just been wonderful with him. They have worked so beautifully to make the job work for him.

OBLN: In your opinion, what are the characteristics of New Seasons Market that make them an employer that, in a very positive way, have been able to take advantage of people with disabilities as active members of their workforce?

They have a sincere and genuine commitment to employ people with disabilities. They are very willing to provide employment opportunities to people who have “differences”. They are just a great employer in general. They are like a family and they take really good care of all their employees. There is a lot of camaraderie and support among the employees – including support for those people who maybe need some extra training.
 

Bullet  See more about Wiles & Associates


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Portland Public Schools - A Productive Partnership

Portland Public Schools is one of the organizations that has developed a productive partnership with New Seasons Market – providing them with a ready source of employees through its special education programs. Patti McVay is the Program Administrator for the PPS Special Education Transition Program and Lee Weaver is the Transition Specialist who has primarily been involved with placements at New Seasons Market. Lee helps students with disabilities to make a successful transition from high school to adult life. Lee has been working in this capacity for 28 years.

OBLN: Patti, how do you prepare your students with disabilities for the workforce?

Patti McVay: We have a strong focus on increasing our students’ self-confidence and ability to express their own wants and needs and to increase their skills in their personal areas of interest.

We have sixteen group “enclave” sites in various businesses. In each of these, one of our employees is onsite to help the students learn the skills required in that setting. So students get to explore several different work environments. They learn how to do the specific jobs and what they entail. They learn how to communicate and dress in different work environments. Including places like greenhouses, retail stores and offices - work experiences vary widely.

OBLN: Once a student is placed, do you provide any follow-up services to the employer?

Patti McVay - Portland Public SchoolsPatti McVay: Support will vary according to the need of the student and the job site. We work with each employer to decide what will work best. Some employers prefer to begin with a six week work experience before making a hire. We can do that. Once a student is hired, we continue to be there as much or as little as needed. This can vary from daily support to a weekly check-in to a monthly phone call to an “as needed” contact.

Our commitment to students, to families and to employers is a commitment to ongoing problem solving. The reality is that there are always things that pop up. We are prepared to get together and work it out. If everybody is committed to that, bumps in the road are just that, not the end of the road – just a bump that can be worked through.

OBLN: What do employers need to know about employing people with disabilities?

Patti McVay: Society promotes this idea that “Look, I’m doing such a grand thing because I’m helping somebody with a disability.” There is something grand about helping anybody. What is being missed is what people with disabilities bring to any position they are in. Just like everybody else, they have their own story. They have their unique attributes. They have skills, reliability and willingness to learn.

When businesses give people with disabilities an opportunity to work… everyone I have spoken to says “Wow, my attitude about people with disabilities has changed.” They find out that people are people – regardless of disability.

OBLN: Lee, we understand that you have placed a lot of students in jobs with New Seasons Market stores. Can you tell us about this?

Lee Weaver - Portland Public SchoolsLee Weaver: I’ve worked with a lot of great employers throughout my career, but, of all of them, New Seasons has done the best at providing supports for my students. I currently have about ten students from various schools employed in four different New Seasons stores. They range from folks who needed quite a bit of job training and follow up to those who are more capable and can follow the regular employment route.

During the course of checking up on his working students and during his own shopping trips (Lee is also a regular customer of New Seasons Market), Lee keeps in touch with the store Managers – alert to any new job opportunities that are on the horizon. If he has a student that has a particular interest or aptitude, he will approach the manager and let them know “Hey, I’ve got a really great kid who lives right here in the neighborhood.”

OBLN: What are the qualities or practices that make New Seasons Market such a successful employer of people with disabilities?

Lee Weaver: Becoming an employee at New Seasons is like joining a family. My students just love to go to work there every day. New Seasons’ sense of community and willingness to support all their employees is really unique. I have never worked with a company that cares so much about their customers, their employees and their community.

Bullet See Portland Public Schools Special Education

Bullet Contact Patti McVay pmcvay@pps.k12.or.us

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