Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Lauren Winans Of Next Level Benefits On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability

An Interview With Eric Pines

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

2. Act with empathy.

3. Don’t work late. The work will be there tomorrow.

4. Become familiar with the traits of a toxic workplace.

5. Follow the instinct that tells you to move on or start something new.

As we all know, over the past several years there has been a great deal of discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. One aspect of inclusion that is not discussed enough, is how businesses can be inclusive of people with disabilities. We know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. What exactly does this look like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Winans.

Lauren Winans CEO and Principal HR Consultant of Next Level Benefits.

Next Level Benefits is a nationally-certified HR consulting firm staffed with former corporate HR professionals in all HR disciplines. Each member of our team has at least 20 years of corporate HR experience from Fortune 500 companies, global organizations, and well-known brands around the world.

She founded Next Level Benefits in 2019, offering HR teams access to former corporate HR professionals on-demand when they need them most.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?

Human resources and employee benefits administration have been the focus of my career. I have worked with General Nutrition Centers, CONSOL Energy, and American Eagle Outfitters, where I managed all aspects of health, welfare, absence management, and retirement. While with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, I acquired an extensive knowledge of the health insurance industry.

I am currently the founder of Next Level Benefits, a certified women-owned HR consulting practice that offers its clients access to HR professionals for both short-term and long-term projects. I took a leap and founded Next Level Benefits because I wanted to explore the entrepreneurial and creative side of myself. It was scary, but something I had always been thinking about and just waiting for the right moment to start. Our mission is to serve clients as an extension of their teams, creating more “best places to work” in the process.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Discipline is definitely one. I have always been able to focus on a task, project, goal, or objective and navigate any challenges without giving up or procrastinating.

Ambition is another. I have always had high aspirations or “grand plans,” as my mother would say. Being disciplined has made it possible for most of my aspirations to become real, including becoming an entrepreneur, starting a family of my own, and achieving financial independence.

Resourcefulness would also make the list. I learned early in my career how underrated resourcefulness can be. Your leaders or bosses often tell you to be independent and forward-thinking, but what they are really describing is the ability to be resourceful. Ensuring that I tap out all of my available resources before asking for help or assistance has expanded my own knowledge on various topics as well as demonstrated that I can work independently and make sound decisions after gathering the necessary facts.

Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?

One of my greatest work-related struggles was learning how to be an empathetic leader. It took me years, probably a decade, to realize the power of empathy. I made many mistakes as a young manager of people, but over time, through trial and error, I learned that being empathetic with your team is the most effective way to build relationships, drive progress, and get great work done.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Most of our current client projects are focused on how to create a better experience for employees — whether it be through onboarding, benefits, compensation, or training and development. I always find those types of projects to be interesting because no two are the same.

I also find it awesome to see the stark difference between where things start and where they end up. For example, we recently wrapped up a project for a client who had a great recruiting process and onboarding program, but there was little attention given to competitive compensation and benefits. We helped the client to adjust their pay structure, enhance their benefits plan, and showcase both pay and benefits to attract and retain talent.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about inclusion. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?

My initiatives with DEI started early during my corporate HR career, specifically within the employee benefits function. I participated in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for the company I was working for at the time and found that we were deficient in many areas. I worked with a project team that was assembled with the intention of taking action and implementing various programs and initiatives such as transgender medical benefits, covering same-sex partners, and identifying appropriate accommodations for those with physical disabilities.

The experience was enlightening as well as empowering. It was also disheartening to see the stark difference between my workplace experience and what others go through. Throughout the rest of my career, then and now, I have been looking at the employee experience and the workplace through a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) lens, always considering that not everyone has the same experience that I have.

This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?

Employees want to work in diverse, inclusive environments where everyone has opportunities to learn and grow. Fundamentally, we as human beings all want this in every environment we are in, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen organically; you have to be intentional about making it a reality.

Employers who make it a priority will reap benefits for their efforts — a higher employee retention rate (i.e., lower turnover rate), a more connected workforce, higher productivity among individuals as well as teams, and higher profit margins over time according to many case studies. So, there are business reasons for wanting to support workplace inclusivity in addition to the humanity of the effort.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what this looks like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Can you please share a few examples?

This can evolve in many different ways, but a few examples would include accommodating physical disabilities by constructing wider doorways and hallways, installing ramps and handrails, and having elevators easily accessible. Other examples include accommodating mental and emotional disabilities by allowing support animals into buildings and shared spaces or by providing quiet rooms as a safe space where people can get away from crowds or noise.

It is important to note that “reasonable accommodations” can also take the form of flexible scheduling, hybrid or remote workplaces, and allowing more breaks during an employee’s day. Any accommodation that can be reasonably provided, to both employees and customers alike, without causing undue hardship on the function and profitability of the business should be considered and most likely implemented.

Here are a few examples that illustrate disabilities and how they can be accommodated:

• An employee who uses a walker for mobility may need a larger workspace to comfortably navigate furniture or fixtures.
• A customer in a wheelchair will need more space to get around clothing racks and access to lower shelving to reach items.
• An employee with post-traumatic stress syndrome who normally works remotely from home may feel most comfortable with their support animal when they need to work out of the office a few days a month.
• A neurodivergent employee (i.e., an employee living with autism, ADHD, Tourette’s Syndrome, etc.) working 100 percent onsite may need a few moments of quiet each day to calm their mind and regain focus in a safe, private space away from coworkers or customers.

Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? If you can, please share a few examples.

The number one best practice is to become more aware of this topic in general and be willing to be flexible and versatile in your approach. What works for one employee will not work for another.

Also, it is important to acknowledge that accommodation work is never finished. It is not a “check the box” process. There will always be new accommodation requests. Treating each and every request or suggestion as an opportunity to enhance your work environment will put you in the right frame of mind to determine if it can be reasonably implemented.

Other best practices include:

• Becoming more involved with local or national groups like the ADA National Network and learning from the work done by other organizations like Microsoft’s neurodiversity-focused hiring program.
• Ensuring that work environments are well-lit, spacious, free of clutter or debris, and both functional and operational for all heights, weights, and abilities.
• Creating a recruiting process that allows candidates of all abilities to apply for and have the opportunity to secure meaningful employment with your organization.
• Developing equitable pay and benefit practices across the workforce.

Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help promote disability inclusion? Can you share with us how the work culture was impacted as a result?

The most impactful example is that of a more inclusive hiring process. People with disabilities and neurodiversities have been commonly passed over for positions and have a much higher unemployment rate overall (like 30 to 40 percent higher). When the hiring process was revamped at one of my past workplaces, it was amazing to see how the workforce and the environment changed for the better — more kindness, more support, and greater sense of being connected as one team.

This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

2. Act with empathy.

3. Don’t work late. The work will be there tomorrow.

4. Become familiar with the traits of a toxic workplace.

5. Follow the instinct that tells you to move on or start something new.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote?” Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?

One of my favorite life lesson quotes is, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” It’s a Dr. Seuss quote, but I really think it resonates! I knew that I had the passion inside me to start this business, I just had to start moving in the right direction.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Remember that every person you meet and interact with is someone’s child, someone’s sibling, someone’s parent, someone’s everything. Treat them the way you would want your loved ones to be treated. You’d be surprised how patient and empathetic you can become.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Visit our website to discover more about Next Level Benefits, our recent projects, and our client testimonials. If you find yourself in need of short-term HR project assistance, like redesigning your employee benefits package, ensuring pay equity, and creating more learning and development opportunities for your employees, you can reach out to me via email or schedule a discovery call via our website.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.

While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.