People may find it risky to disclose a disability to an employer, says Ross Barchacky, head of partnerships, Inclusively. But an employee or job seeker self-identifying can result in an employer making accommodations to help that person reach maximum potential.
WorkingNation sat down with Barchacky at the 2023 Disability:IN Conference in Orlando.
For those hiring managers who are not aware of the accommodations they can provide, Barchacky has a suggestion, “Educate yourself. Go out there and do research about accommodations if you don’t feel like you might be a subject matter expert. Let’s face it, if you’re not in HR, in compliance – everyday hiring managers might not have that experience of the accommodations process.”
He continues, “Being able to bring that to the table and understand how your organization operates and how they accommodate their employees and what that process is like, I think is really important.”
Barchacky – who suffered traumatic brain injury and musculoskeletal injuries while serving in the military – says he is seeing progress on the employer-side. “I think you see that in the fact that employers are willing to become a little bit more transparent themselves – talking about what their accommodations process is like, interviewing individuals from their organization and being able to have them share their stories, just standing up in an ERG [employee resource group] or a BRG [business resource group] where they might have a mentorship program, where people can get help through the onboarding process by somebody else with a disability within the organization.”
“I think that they’re starting to embrace the mantra, ‘Nothing about us without us’ and I think that it’s really benefiting organizations as a whole.”
Inclusively works with employers to help them become more inclusive and partners with stakeholders, including veteran service organizations, to assist their job developers match with job seekers.
Learn more about Inclusively.
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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.
