City of Sydney, the local government authority for central Sydney and surrounds, asked Jigsaw to help them improve disability inclusion in their organisation. The partnership began at the beginning of 2023 and moved quickly from disability inclusion training to engaging and employing three Jigsaw trainees.
Goals
- In City of Sydney’s Inclusion (Disability) Action Plan 2021 – 2025 they committed to partner with organisations to increase employment opportunities for people with disability.
- The HR team in City of Sydney wanted to work with organisations that could not only provide job-ready candidates, but offer a practical, guided program of support to ensure the long-term success of job placements.
There are a lot of misconceptions about people with disability. Given my disability is invisible others might see me as an unskilled worker, think I don’t fit in or that I’m less productive than people that don’t have a disability, which isn’t true.
Approach
For International Day of People with Disability at the end of 2022, the HR team at City of Sydney asked Jessie Moore, Jigsaw Connect Strategic Account Manager (NSW), to join their panel presentation to educate people about invisible disability. In learning more about Jigsaw’s innovative and proven pathway to employment for people with disability, HR Manager, Rodney Waterson recognised Jigsaw would be a great fit to be a longer-term partner of City of Sydney and engaged Jigsaw to help them achieve their inclusion objectives.
Phase zero, the discovery stage of Jigsaw’s engagement pathway, kicked off in February 2023. The goal of this phase was to get to know the City of Sydney team and understand their employment requirements. It included workshops and job-scoping of the relevant business units.
Jigsaw then worked with Rodney to review Jigsaw’s pool of job-ready candidates and shortlist three. The next step was to align identified roles to their individual skills sets: one in the HR team and two in the Urban Analytics Team.
The three candidates, Ari, Frazer, Matt, and Jessie, then met with the HR and Urban Development teams and toured the offices. Having met, both Jigsaw graduates and the City of Sydney team were confident and enthusiastic about the job opportunities.
Before Ari, Frazer and Matt started their roles at City of Sydney, Jigsaw conducted a ‘Disability Confidence’ training session for 66 people in the HR and Urban Analytics team.
For direct managers and their close teams, the three Jigsaw graduates ran their own ‘support plan sessions’ with assistance from Jigsaw Transitions Coordinators Michael Summers and Brayden Capstick.
When Ari, Frazer and Matt started their roles, the Transitions Coordinators supported them onsite for the first two days. This was followed up by a weekly phone or email check-in with the new placements and their managers.
I would like people to understand that people with a disability know what support they need to function in a working environment. I worked with the Connect team on a disability support plan that detailed everything we needed to consider so that I could train for office work effectively.
Outcome
City of Sydney initially put a six-month agreement in place. After demonstrating their hard work and skills, Ari, Frazer and Matt have since received contracts with City of Sydney and have fully transitioned and embedded themselves into their new teams!
Jigsaw’s Connect team is providing ongoing support to the City of Sydney and the Jigsaw graduates, and looks forward to supporting ongoing skill development and exploring development opportunities.
The group placement model allowed the team to transition from Jigsaw with a support network around them, to help them navigate a new workplace and culture. This also meant the team had support with their tasks, as they helped each other out when they come across a problem.
Rodney Waterson, Manager of Recruitment and HR Systems at City of Sydney, expressed his satisfaction with the process.
“My impressions of Jigsaw have been very positive, right from my first interaction. Their commitment to delivering the best possible employment outcomes for the young people they work with is what made them stand out to me when seeking a partner to work with,” said Mr Waterson.
“The support they provide to their clients and to the business has been outstanding. They continue to provide support to the young people and the business even after placement in ongoing employment. I intend to engage Jigsaw for our next round of inclusive employment.”
I’ve enjoyed getting better at my computer skills, learning new tasks and exploring the city together on our lunch break. Disabilities are very diverse. Some people have physical problems, others have trouble learning or have speech difficulties. A little bit of patience goes a long way to making us feel included.
About Jigsaw
Jigsaw is a social enterprise that provides an innovative pathway to open employment for people with disability. By embedding a comprehensive skill-based training program within our commercial document and data management business, Jigsaw enables people with disability to achieve their employment goals at their own pace. Jigsaw’s holistic approach starts from the very basics of core work skills and supports trainees all the way through to transition to open employment with ongoing support and coaching once they have transitioned.
Jigsaw is located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Canberra.