Creating inclusive environments is crucial for companies, according to Terilynn Bench Harris, VP and employee relations senior manager, accommodations at Wells Fargo.
WorkingNation sat down with Bench Harris at 2022 Disability:IN Conference in Dallas.
Bench Harris says she, herself, has a number of disabilities that started at the age of 14, including chronic costochondritis, generalized anxiety disorder, hearing loss, and chronic memory impairment.
She found her career pathway when she was in executive assisting reception work. “I had some amazing mentors who helped me into the human resources field and gave me an opportunity to learn, to be an analyst – which is a jump from secretary work into being an analyst. And through that process, I eventually was introduced into ADA work.”
She notes that accommodations for employees with disabilities are not expensive. “For example, furniture that might be needed – sit-stand workstations – come up a lot. They’re not expensive. We’re a large organization. We can order them with a pricing break. For some businesses that are smaller, you can get them almost anywhere now.”
Bench Harris says sometimes employees are concerned about costs. “They’ll say, ‘I don’t want to cost my company any money’ and I’ll say, ‘This isn’t going to cost you any money. Actually, we can do this without any cost.’ You know, schedule changes, modified breaks. There are so many things that help individuals.”
She adds, “For myself, as somebody with a disability and working in this field, I am vocal at Wells Fargo about opportunities that I see for improvement. About things we could do a little better. About things that we win. We’ve made big strides in some areas for sure. I want to celebrate that.”
Learn more about Wells Fargo.
Watch more interviews from the Disability:IN conference.
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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.
