LEAP is helping employees with disabilities find work in successful Ohio businesses
By Tricia Kuivinen, Contributing Writer
Great Lakes Brewing Co. features all the sights of a successful brew-pub restaurant—happy guests and hometown brewed beer. What often goes unseen are the unique roles that some employees with disabilities are playing to help make the GLBC dining experience truly exceptional.
Linking Employment, Abilities and Potential (LEAP), a Northeast Ohio disability employment service provider, suggested GLBC adopt the practice of a job carve to help people with disabilities contribute effectively in their restaurant.
“LEAP’s approach to helping people with disabilities find jobs is to make their search completely customized,” says Julia Donovan, employment services director. “LEAP works with employers, in this case, Great Lakes Brewing Co., to create ‘carved’ positions that allow candidates with disabilities to apply their unique skills sets successfully in the workplace.”
According to Becca Rittersbach, human resource coordinator at Great Lakes Brewing Co., it is an approach that has paid off. “We noticed that especially in the busy summer months, we had a lot of small customer service requests, such as straws and napkins, that impacted how customers viewed their dining experience,” she says. “LEAP helped to create an innovative job-carve for a server assistant, then provided us with some ‘work-ready’ candidates who are now an integral part of our restaurant family.”
LEAP employment candidates have adapted so well to the restaurant team that one was recently selected by fellow employees for the “Dortmunder Gold Award,” named after one of the restaurant’s signature brews. “Enhancing diversity in the workplace makes everyone’s workday better,” says Becca. “Thanks to LEAP, we see potential for other job-carve positions and hope to welcome more people with disabilities to our growing team.”
To learn more about applying job carves in your workplace, or to find out how your company can add job candidates with disa-bilities to your team, contact LEAP at 216-696-2716 or employmentservices@leapinfo.org. Visit LEAP online at LEAPInfo.org.