News Releases

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Oct. 25, 2011) - The level of unemployment among Canadians with disabilities is highly disproportionate to that of the general population and to a large degree attributable to a hiring bias that can and should be eliminated from Canadian corporations, according to BMO Financial Group.

The comments come during National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). The NDEAM initiative was introduced last year in Canada with the goal of increasing employers' understanding of the positive outcomes of hiring people with disabilities.

According to statistics, 16 per cent of the population lives with a disability; and 70 per cent of them are unemployed; versus 7.1 per cent of the general population.

"We know from our own experience that intellect, creativity, ambition and productivity do not discriminate ….they reside equally within people with disabilities as much as they do within people who do not experience barriers to accessibility," said Sonya Kunkel, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at BMO. "In fact, overall performance results and retention of employees with disabilities are stronger than for the general employee population.

"These are highly motivated, talented colleagues who just needed the opportunity to prove themselves," said Ms. Kunkel.

"Building a diverse workforce is not just the right thing to do, it is sound business practice," says Mark Stewart, Director, Product Development & Management, BMO Investments Inc. "At BMO, we were able to lead the market with a quick response to the government's Registered Disability Savings Plan incentives in 2008. We have sustained our leadership position to this day because of the deeper understanding and insights we gained from talking to our own employees about the unique financial needs of families who support people with disabilities."

BMO Financial Group has been at the forefront of finding innovative ways to break down barriers to employing more people with disabilities. Its Pre-Employment Training Program (PET) is a primary example. The program works with community agencies to identify talented candidates it was overlooking through its regular recruitment channels. It then delivers six weeks of coaching and training to close any of the gaps so often experienced by candidates with little or no work experience. During this period, it also assesses any accommodation needs of the recruits for example, setting up the computer program Zoomtext for someone who is has low vision to eliminate workplace barriers that can impede the candidate's on-the-job success.

"We've just hired 10 great new graduates of the PET program. They will start their new careers with BMO on Monday," said Ms. Kunkel. "They'll be working at the bank's Meadowvale Customer Contact Centre in Mississauga, which is a fully accessible building."

BMO started its PET program in 2007 and has hired 99 persons with disabilities through the program, with excellent results.

In addition, last week BMO held a career fair for job seekers with disabilities in Toronto. The candidates, who were all recent college or university graduates, met with leaders from all our business groups. Twenty-five job candidates with disabilities were interviewed by hiring managers for positions in our retail bank, corporate areas, and Technology and Operations departments. The candidates had already applied and been pre-screened.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly-diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $477 billion as at July 31, 2011, and more than 47,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.

Backgrounder: Disability and Inclusion at BMO Financial Group