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.
