Priya’s story: Change the story

Priya’s story: Change the story

Priya’s story is one of an employer who is determined to help people succeed. Over the last eight years, Priya has worked with CoAct to support her employment needs. In the last five years alone, Priya has employed 18 people with disability in her small business. This is a story that shows the positive impact that a supportive employer can have when they focus on the positives, choose inclusivity and invest in the development of people.

Video Transcript:

Priya: I like the mid-north coast because it’s quite a slower pace of life compared to Sydney. You get a bit of everything: gorgeous green banana plantations in the area, beautiful beaches all along the coast, and gorgeous rivers and bushland five minutes inland. My name is Priya, and I came to Australia from Malaysia to start my tertiary education. I moved up in 2011 from Sydney to take a Repeater Heart franchise that was made available, and it was a very quick decision. So, we were given the opportunity seven days later. I was moving my things up to the Mid North Coast.

Working in a small business means that every day is a little bit different, and working with a team of people also means that every day is a little bit different because you’re working with different combinations of team members. Prior to CHESS approaching us, I would never have considered working with people with disability because it felt like it was too hard. There were too many allowances to be made, and especially working in a franchise, there are a lot of standards and safety precautions we need to take for liability purposes. But having had the first few candidates come through, and them being such successful employees for several years, I have really changed my mind. It’s really made me rethink that.

Nicole: We work with the local community trying to assist people with disability to obtain and maintain employment in the open market. I was lucky enough to meet Priya shortly after joining the company when I was working in post-placement support, so it was my job to work with employers to assist in helping people maintain their employment.

Priya: We’ve had an eight-year relationship. They were one of the first few employment providers that approached me when we’d taken over the business. Over the years, I’ve found that they have provided me with the most successful employees in my team, let alone the most successful placements from an employment provider.

Nicole: People might look at the disability, not the capacity. So focusing on that capacity is really what we do, and we try to get people to focus on what they can do, not what they can’t do, and find a job role’s match.

Priya: Honestly, I don’t find working with people with disability any more frustrating or more often frustrating than working with anyone else in the team. Every person that I work with will present challenges in one way or another. One person is no different than the other. Everyone has their strengths, and everyone has their areas where they can improve, same as myself. So that gives me the perseverance to try to help someone through, and the biggest reward at the end of the day is seeing them do well. For any other small business owner that’s thinking about going along this path I’d advise them to learn through working with a provider like CHESS Connect because the skills that they will learn will help them in any employment process, not just working with people with disabilities.

Nicole: This has been extremely inspiring. It’s been amazing to watch, actually, the wellness that comes from the placement and the pride and confidence that comes along with that often carries through to many other aspects of their life, and I get to see that.

Priya: I will be making any workplace I mean in the future an integrated one and an inclusive one for people with disability.

Illustration of staff member sitting at her work desk

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