Six Lessons to share about being a Employer of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people

Six Lessons to share about being a Employer of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people

Haworth in Calgary has long been a leader in employing people from diverse groups, and that diversity includes employing people from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

In fact, at the height of our manufacturing production in Calgary, Haworth had about 12 Deaf and Hard of Hearing people among our members.   That was before Haworth made the decision to move our manufacturing facility to another location in Michigan.  One of the members, who was with us until 2010, was employed with us for almost 25 years.  Others were with us anywhere between 4 months (work experience student) to 14 years.

In other words, our commitment to diversity was not a fleeting fancy.  Of course, we had people from other diverse groups – for instance, lots of people from around the world. We did a survey at one point and found that 68 different languages were spoken in our facility!  Our communication problems were not limited to those between hearing and non-hearing people!  In 2008 Haworth was honoured with the Organizational Diversity Immigrants of Distinction Award given by Immigrant Services Calgary.

Who is Haworth?  What do we do?  We are a global manufacturer of organic workspaces – furniture, seating, walls, and floors. We employ about 6000 people around the world in our showrooms, offices and manufacturing plants. At our peak in Calgary, we employed around 1400 people; we now employ about 70.  What remains in Calgary is our Showroom and Sales office, and our Center of Excellence for our Walls products.  That means we have engineers, technicians, estimators, project managers and other Sales Support functions.

Why do we hire Deaf and Hard of Hearing people? Why not? Haworth made a decision long ago to employ people from diverse backgrounds. Looking for people from a variety of sources expands our candidate pool, helping us find the best people for the job.  Diversity brings different perspectives and experiences into our company, enabling us to learn, grow and get better.  A variety of people bring a variety of talents.

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing members filled a variety of positions within Haworth: Machine Operators, General Labourers, Assemblers, Material Handlers, Fork lift Operators, Custom Wood Workers, Computer Technical Support, Administration Assistant and a work experience student learning about becoming an Administration Assistant.

We learned a lot through the years about working with the Deaf & Hard of Hearing community. I hope to impart some of those lessons to you through this blog.

First Lesson: Don’t make assumptions. 

Each person is an individual, not just a member of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.  Actually they may not be part of the ‘community’ at all.

We had one member who was Deaf and wore a hearing aid who absolutely refused any interpreter support. I don’t know if he knew sign language or not. He has called me using the TDY services but other than that? Who knows! He would speak and read lips to communicate. Occasionally he would write a note. When we had a sign language interpreter in for meetings or assemblies, he would not join the other Deaf or Hard of Hearing members. He didn’t join them for lunches. I don’t think he identified himself with them at all. When we shut down our plant, we offered support to all of our members to help them find another job. We held interview and resume writing workshops, career fairs, and job search support. For our Deaf & Hard of Hearing members, we brought in Symmetry Solutions to help them with their job searches. Although this member refused the Symmetry Solutions support, months after his last day at Haworth, I spoke with him and he told me about a job offer that he had received – until the prospective employer realized that he was hard of hearing. They were concerned about safety. He had performing the same work for us at Haworth for many years. He was angry, with reason. I advised him to contact Symmetry to get some support, to perhaps talk to the prospective employer. 

We also had a member on another extreme. She was a very good lip reader and spoke very clearly.  We had many members within Haworth who did not realize she was Deaf at all. Our mistake was assuming at first that she didn’t need an interpreter in meetings.  After all, we understood her just fine!  But of course, person to person communication is very different from communications in a meeting, and she needed and wanted interpreter services in that setting.

The lesson: ask the member about what support he/she wants or needs.

Another example, one that Symmetry Solutions helped us learn, is that all the Deaf & Hard of Hearing members don’t need the same types of interpreters.  Some know ASL, some sign in English.  We had a couple of members who were from the Ukraine – I don’t know what type of sign they used, but I know that their level of English was not up to par with the other Deaf members.  This made it challenging when we were booking interpreters for a group meeting or company assembly. We relied heavily on Symmetry Solutions’ expertise. If we were having a meeting with one Deaf member, we learned that it was important to tell Symmetry who the interpreter services were for, so that they could find an interpreter who specialized in the right type of sign language.

Just because the Deaf member can’t hear, doesn’t mean that he/she does not benefit from being around other people. We had a Deaf member who spent most of the day working alone on the computer. Due to circumstances of people leaving the department, she was isolated from the others in the group. After a while she got bored with the work, less interested in it, and didn’t take initiative in taking on other work. In other words, she was not an engaged employee. We moved her into the ‘thick of things’, and with the increase of activity, she bounced back and got involved in everything! She was happy again.

Second Lesson: Plan ahead if you can.

Calgary needs more sign language interpreters!  It can be very difficult to find interpreters when you need them, even when it is a month or two before you need them.  So plan ahead, book them as soon as you know you need one (or two). Depending on the length of the meeting, you may need two interpreters so that they can trade off. It is difficult work.

The other thing that interpreters like is an idea of the material that will be presented, in advance. That way they can prepare, brush up on terminology etc.  That means that we have to be organized and can’t leave our own preparations for the last minute!

We had several occasions when there was no way we could foresee the need for an interpreter. For example, when a member had an issue to report to HR – something that had just happened in the work area.  On these occasions, Symmetry Solutions did their best to send an interpreter in as quickly as possible.  On at least one occasion, I remember an interpreter being on-site within 10 minutes to help us with the communications, and resolving the issues at hand.

But there are many occasions that you know about well in advance. For example, weekly or monthly staff meetings, quarterly company assemblies, annual and semi-annual performance reviews, health & wellness fairs, job fairs, training classes and workshops, new member orientations can all be anticipated. 

After gaining a reputation in the Deaf community, we had many applicants come to Haworth looking for work. We found that we needed a place on our application form for the applicant to indicate that a sign language interpreter would be needed for the interview.

Third Lesson:  Health & Safety concerns are no different than for any other manufacturing employee.

Safety is always a top priority in any manufacturing plant.  Hearing people find it difficult to imagine being without the sounds and other auditory cues that warn us of danger.

But it ends up being not very different.  Every person gets safety training; it is critical that communication is clear at this stage, no matter what language the employee speaks, so make sure you have an interpreter available if one is needed.

Every person working in a manufacturing or production environment benefits from the use of visual cues.  Best safety practices and lean manufacturing & production practices already include plenty of visual signs and flashing lights and markings and signals.  Many plants and warehouses are very noisy to work in, so further visual cues are developed to help hearing people become aware of potential hazards.  So the visual cues typically needed for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing employees may already be in place. Plus they don’t have the noise to distract them. 

Haworth has a very good safety record. During the time that I have been employed here, I am not aware of any accidents caused by a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person not being able to hear the potential hazard.  They aren’t immune to breaking safety rules – some will drive too fast, or not use their PPE’s consistently. It is the same as any other employee.

And finally, Deaf and Hard of Hearing have another advantage: they have learned to adapt to not being able to hear alarms or running vehicles.  Have you asked a Deaf person how they are able to drive a car without hearing?  How do they know when there is an emergency vehicle approaching?  How do they know when their vehicle may be having a problem – we listen to our cars, right?  Well they have learned different methods.  They use peripheral vision a lot more than hearing people do.  They notice those flashing lights more quickly – they pick up all sorts of visual details that hearing people miss. And they notice and interpret vibrations – small and large – more readily than us.

I would recommend that the fire marshal for the work areas where the Deaf or Hard of Hearing employee works is made aware of the fact – just in case. It is the same as with anyone else who could potentially need additional help during an emergency evacuation such as a pregnant woman, a person with a broken limb, etc.

Fourth Lesson:  It pays to go above & beyond to support inclusion

Everyone is a little apprehensive when starting a new job.  Add an extra challenge such as English not being your first language, or not being able to hear, and there is more reason to be nervous.

Make sure that when your Deaf or Hard of Hearing employee starts to work with you, that you make a point of making face-to-face introductions.  Be transparent about the needs of your new employee with your other employees.  It saves awkwardness from all directions.

I highly recommend offering Sign language classes to your employees. It helps make your new employees feel welcome and included when people make an effort to learn how to communicate in their language.  Don’t you appreciate it when someone from another country speaks English to you? And other employees see it as a learning opportunity that they may not have had otherwise.

Haworth wasn’t my first experience working with a Deaf person. I had a previous career as a systems analyst in the oil & gas industry and had a Deaf person report to me.  That company (like Haworth) offered sign language lessons to anyone who was interested. I ended up learning the most, because I was providing daily direction to the employee.  But many others learned some of the basics such as spelling letters and saying Good morning, etc. We all had our ASL names.  Deaf people are generally very happy to teach you more words.  I think my most common sign was ‘Again, slower!’  Just as with any other second language, if you don’t use it, you lose it.  So unfortunately I don’t remember much ASL at all.

Another note about inclusion:  I remember talking to one of our Deaf employees about the topic in general.  He was noting that people don’t tend to socialize with the Deaf employees very much at lunches or breaks, including those who work right next to him.  I pointed out that all the Deaf employees from throughout the plant tend to gather at breaks at one table. There may be room for others at the table, but it is intimidating, or at least not inviting, to others to approach them and join into a conversation when you don’t know what is going on.  Of course it is the same for them, joining a table of hearing people.  But he hadn’t thought about it from the other point of view. He didn’t realize it was the same experience!  So it takes a little effort from everyone, if you want to be inclusive.

Fifth Lesson:  Communication Challenges

Yes, there are many communication challenges.  See notes above about interpreters.  It is important to get an interpreter in to help particularly when the message is about safety, or when there is no room for miscommunication.  At least we can do that! The Deaf employees have an advantage here too.  Let me ask you: when was the last time you were authorized to hire a Chinese or Punjabi or French or Spanish interpreter?  At Haworth, we hire people from all over the world, many of them new immigrants.  We have communication problems every day with many people!   Actually, even speaking English to English!  So being able to bring in someone to interpret for us is a real benefit, and more easily justified than for our ESL employees.

It is a whole lot easier to communicate today with the technological advances.  Using email, IM and text weren’t options for us in when I was programming in COBOL in the 80s! Most people now have a cell phone with them.  No need to carry note paper and pen everywhere any more. And no need to even see each other in person! 

Remember to use the basic communication rules:  check that you understand their message; check that they understand your message. 

We had a couple of cases with Deaf employees at Haworth that went sideways, which I attribute to miscommunication.  Did he really understand the expectations? Was I being clear? How else could I have explained this? Was she upset because of the situation, or because she wasn’t able to get through to me about the problem?

These questions lead to my last point, which can create another challenge with managing Deaf employees.

Sixth Lesson:  Just because they are Deaf doesn’t mean they get a free ride

As I have already stated, communication problems exist between all sorts.  I think when you are dealing with Deaf people, or with people with limited English, you need to continuously work towards improving the communication. 

Unfortunately, you may also have to follow up with poor performers in the Deaf community or with Deaf people breaking policies and rules. It is particularly important that communication is clear in these cases. And what if the Deaf ‘problem’ employee claims to not understand, or that there is miscommunication, and that is what caused the misdemeanor or poor performance?  Is he or she speaking the truth, or using it as an excuse?  Make sure you have clear documentation of every attempt to coach or provide direction.  Remember that your interpreter has sworn an oath to interpret only. You cannot ask them for their opinion about whether the Deaf person is telling the truth. You cannot ask them to mediate. I tend to err on the side of caution in these cases.

But it doesn’t do anyone any good to lower your work standards for someone who is clearly not living up to them.  I had to let a Deaf employee go once after he worked with me for over a year.  It was his first job out of University. Years later he contacted me to tell me that he had learned so much from me, about work expectations.  Do you think I would have done him a favour to leave him alone, let him do what he wanted while he collected a pay cheque?  Not for his self-esteem; not for our company.

Not for the Deaf people who are trying hard to prove to the hearing world that they can contribute just as much as anyone else.