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Building a stronger, more resilient company culture through disability inclusion

Creating a truly inclusive workplace, where diversity and inclusion thrive, is not just a goal, it’s essential to building a positive and respectful company culture

Creating a truly inclusive workplace, where diversity and inclusion thrive, is not just a goal, it’s essential to building a positive and respectful company culture
This WorkingNation documentary introduces you to California companies that have embraced disability inclusion as a key part of their hiring practices. Through their stories, you were learn about the initial challenges and the ultimate triumphs of their transformation.
Director: Melissa Panzer
Producer: Stephanie Tobey
Cinematographer: David Auerbach
Editor: George Freund, Mengfang Yang
Executive Producer: Melissa Panzer, Joan Lynch, Art Bilger

Creating a truly inclusive workplace, where diversity and inclusion thrive, is not just a goal, it’s essential to building a positive and respectful company culture. This WorkingNation film takes a close look at two California businesses – Common Corners Brewing and Little Elephants – that embarked on a journey to embrace disability inclusion as a key part of their hiring practices. What started with hesitation and uncertainty transformed into a powerful commitment that reshaped their workforce and their entire approach to business.

Like many companies, Common Corners Brewing and Little Elephants didn’t initially prioritize disability inclusion. They had concerns about the potential risks, costs, and how it might impact other employees. But as they continued to grow, they began to see the undeniable value of an inclusive workforce. Embracing individuals with disabilities brought new perspectives, talents, and opportunities to strengthen their businesses and build a truly collaborative workplace.

Although these companies didn’t use the California Employing Abilities at Work Program – powered by the SHRM Foundation and the California Department of Rehabilitation (CA DOR) – their experiences align with the goals of this initiative. The California Employing Abilities at Work Certificate offers businesses tools and resources to implement effective disability inclusion strategies, the kind of transformation that Common Corners Brewing and Little Elephants naturally discovered in their own journey.

In this film, the owners of Common Corners Brewing and Little Elephants share their insights, speaking candidly about the challenges they faced and the tremendous benefits they’ve experienced from building a workplace where all talents, including those of individuals with disabilities, are welcomed and valued. Their stories demonstrate that an inclusive workplace isn’t just about doing the right thing – it’s about building a stronger, more resilient, and innovative company culture.

If your California company is interested in learning more about disability inclusion and earning the California Employing Abilities at Work Certificate, visit this link for more information.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.