Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care (2024)

High Performing Employment Service Provider

Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (PPRC)

Introduction

The following case study of a High Performing Employment Service Provider has been conducted by the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN) from information gathered through interviews and public material available from Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (PPRC).

High performing service providers are those that consider their responsibilities to every stakeholder involved in their service delivery from clients, colleagues, employers and the public. These are organizations that understand that collaboration and partnerships drive employment outcomes for the clients they serve. High-performance service providers focus on quality of service delivery and the impact their work has in community growth and most importantly, on the overall quality of life for the job seekers they serve.

ODEN identifies and studies high performing employment service providers and curates case studies that promote the promising practices adopted by these providers and the lessons they have learned in their journey to becoming a high-performing organization. ODEN has identified measurable metrics for which evidence can be provided to support the selection of a service provider to a case study. These metrics are classified under three categories:

Employment focus: This refers to the service provider offering, among other programs, services that connect job seekers who have a disability to employment opportunities. Some of the evidence used to evaluate this engagement include details of employment programs and services; details on the breadth of employment opportunities offered and obtained for job seekers who have a disability; and impact measurements to support the quality of employment services provided in their community.

Business focus: This category refers to the efforts, work, and services to engage with the people who have the jobs — employers!

When evaluating how well the service provider works with the business sector, ODEN looks for evidence such as examples of their marketing efforts; services promoted to businesses; evidence of relationships with the business community; whether the case is made for the ROI on inclusive hiring from the business perspective as well as the social perspective; and evidence that the supports to the business community are as robust as they are for the job seekers.

Focus on nurturing the talent pipeline: This refers to active and intentional ways to engage with “will-be” job seekers. Building relationships with the community is important so that the service provider is seen as the go-to service provider when a job seeker is looking for supports. ODEN looks for evidence that the organization demonstrates strong relationships with other stakeholders outside of employment such as families and school boards; evidence that innovation and promising practices are a core value; and that partnerships and collaborations are important drivers for the organization.

Using these three categories as guidelines, ODEN has identified that Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (PPRC) is candidate for a High Performing Employment Service Provider case study.

Background about Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care

Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (PPRC) is a fully bilingual, Canadian-owned rehabilitation company established in 1994 as a team of four offering a unique set of services with mobile functional assessments in Canada. Their initial focus was facilitating safe returns to the workplace after illness or injury and according to their founder, Linda Simpson, the team worked in the Ottawa area originally before expanding to Montreal and travelling across Canada. PPRC’s team has grown from that team of four to nearly 24 PPRC consultants with three-quarters of them self-identifying as living with a disability[1].

PPRC helps both private and public sector employers find reliable employees. PPRC communicates clearly the return on investment (ROI) for employers looking to connect to a dedicated and motivated workforce: people who have a disability. This is illustrated in their LinkedIn profile in the quote below:

“Recruiting and training motivated, and dependable employees is no easy task. Especially when you consider the complex screening processes, the time required to find the right candidate, the training costs and keeping the worker engaged. PPRC will match your occupational needs to a pool of highly motivated and capable candidates with disabilities. Our “Ability” employment process will ensure that the match we make between employer and employee will be a success[2]”.

For job seekers, PPRC offers access to a strong network of employers willing to hire persons living with a disability so they can reintegrate into the workforce. This employer network has been built from years of successful employment matches and employer support services such disability training and career coaching. This has ensured that PPRC have the ability to help their clients reach their career and job placement goals as quickly as possible.

Stakeholder engagement

High-performing employment service providers work with a number of stakeholders to drive employment opportunities for people who have a disability. ODEN was able to gather several pieces of evidence of the work that PPRC does with job seekers, employers and other stakeholders. This information was obtained via research of publicly available materials (website, articles, etc.) as well as via interviews with PPRC staff.

Employment focus

This section describes how PPRC works to connect job seekers who have a disability to employment opportunities.

PPRC utilizes a method called “Ability” Employment Process to support job seekers to connect to employment opportunities. The process is illustrated in Table 1.This process is influenced by the Employment Readiness Scale process, a best-practice tool that PPRC has used since 2018 to support job seekers who have a disability.

Table 1. Ability Employment Process[3]

Ability Employment Process Steps Brief Description
1.     Application Support The employment process begins with a preliminary interview where an Employment Consultant will discuss the client’s work history, interests, education, medical history, and disability adjustment requirements.The focus is on the client’s abilities as opposed to their limitations.PPRC provides application support and help navigating the employment paperwork and disability forms.
2.     Vocational Rehabilitation PPRC helps evaluate and coordinate services to assist people who self-identify as living with a disability in coping with barriers resulting from such factors as cognitive and learning difficulties, psychological conflict or distress, or the loss of physical or functional ability.
3.     Career Coaching PPRC provides career coaching, advising, educating and consulting services to our clients to help them adjust to a new position and attain productivity levels that match other employees.
4.     Skills Training PPRC helps clients living with disabilities establish a career goal and secure job training opportunities to prepare them for their return to the workplace

The Ability Employment Process is a systematic, person-centered approach that allows PPRC consultants to get to know the candidates they work with and truly make better employment matches. Just in the last year (April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023), PPRC supported 96 job seekers to enter the workforce, with 64 of them retaining employment beyond 90 days.

Business focus

This section describes the many ways in which PPRC engages with employers in their community and beyond.

Services offered to employers are well detailed in PPRC’s website with a dedicate page for them. PPRC also makes the case for the return on investment for any employer looking to join their “employer partnership network” — as indicated in their LinkedIn page, about section:

“PPRC is committed to providing exceptional customer service to meet employer recruitment needs. Job coaching assistance can be provided to candidates, if required and etiquette training to existing staff, so they can learn to work along side a person with a more complex need, such as person using a service dog[4].”

In addition, PPRC strategically uses their website and their online presence to highlight the businesses they work with. For example, in their website they have a dedicated page for “success stories,” these are short stories that demonstrate customer satisfaction not only for the jobseeker who was matched to a job but most importantly for the business that is highlighted as an inclusive employer!

From a marketing perspective, these stories demonstrate the value of working with PPRC! They effectively educate employers not only on what services PPRC’s clients receive (both candidates and employers) but also offer advertisement for these employers to the disability community at large. As PPRC notes in their LinkedIn page:

Persons with disabilities, their families and their immediate friends control over 54% of the purchasing power in North America (Rich Donovan, Return on Disability). You will be getting good employees who will form an integral part of your team. You will be telling the customers in your neighbourhood that you are an inclusive employer who recognizes abilities and the economic benefits[5]”.

A very good example of the potential power of these success stories is shown in Figure 1 — a blog post published in January 2021 about Canadian Tire hiring at a time when most businesses were struggling due to pandemic restrictions (end of 2020).

Figure 1: Canadian Tire inclusive-hiring success story (image from PPRC blog)

But perhaps one of the most successful initiatives that PPRC has embarked on to support building capacity for employers has been their participation in MentorAbility Ontario starting in 2020. In fact, PPRC learned some important lessons by evaluating the process used by MentorAbility Ontario in approaching Cities and Municipalities for mentorship opportunities.

PPRC understood early in the MentorAbility initiative that a dedicated person was needed for these mentorships to be successful; the business would need a “go-to” person. They also understood that a “Champion” within the business engaged for a mentorship would elevate the goals for the program.

Other lessons learned included the process of curating conversations for the mentorship matches. Candidates would be prepared before interviewing with a mentor. They would be encouraged to think of careers goals and co-develop questions with the PPRC consultant that could be presented ahead of time to the mentor. To prepare the mentors, PPRC created one-page fact sheets, to give mentors guidelines about what their role in the mentorship event. The City of Ottawa was a fantastic mentor business. PPRC had a goal of conducting five mentorship matches. In their first year, they facilitated 12 mentorship matches. Job seekers were so eager to learn more!

Figure 2 illustrates a LinkedIn post by PPRC showcasing their MentorAbility relationship with the City of Ottawa.

Figure 2: A LinkedIn post by PPRC showcasing their MentorAbility relationship with the City of Ottawa. (image courtesy PPRC)

A more detailed description of the success of MentorAbility matches with the City of Ottawa is described in a separate Inclusive Business Case Study. Outside of the City of Ottawa, other businesses have benefited from participating in the MentorAbility matches facilitated by PPRC. One of these businesses is Fieldless Farms, a farm operation that uses Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to grow all of its produce indoors. They participated in the MentorAbility program and built their confidence in working with people who have a disability. Having support from PPRC consultants was an important aspect for Fieldless farm and today, 20% of their workforce identifies as having a disability. Their story was published in the Ottawa Business Journal in April 2022.

Since joining MentorAbility in 2020, PPRC has facilitated 57 mentor matches with employers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. These mentors not only offer their wisdom and support to jobseekers who have a disability, but in some cases these matches are the start of an employment opportunity.

Nurturing the talent pipeline and the sector at large

Like many organizations in the sector, PPRC is a growing company, and they welcome applications from professionals looking to join their team. In an effort to nurture their own talent pipeline, PPRC offers practicum placement opportunities to post-secondary students.

They are clear in indicating that students enrolled in “social science or health science-related fields with experience working or living with disabilities” are their focus. And this intentional connection to students with lived experience of disabilities is a great way to connect to potential staff but also potential job seeker who could need their employment services in the future. A great example of this initiative is described in a blog post titled The Benefits of Collaboration — a story of how PPRC has partnered with educational institutions such as Ottawa University, Laurentian University, Université du Québec en Outaouais and Algonquin College to provide co-op program opportunities.

As described in the blog, “PPRC believes in planning for the future, we know we will need more qualified workers available to meet the increasing need for service. So, we help. We help the interns get experience, we help the college find placements in an appropriate field and we help ourselves by training and assessing new workers and ultimately making employment for everyone more inclusive and accessible[6].”

Thinking strategically, acting tactically, connecting locally

PPRC has been making the news featuring business stories in a well-known business publication: the Ottawa Business Journal. The online magazine has some impressive online readership numbers with average monthly unique visitors in the range of 70,000 and average monthly website page views in the range of 170,000[7]. It makes great business sense that PPRC would access the business community by creating content and displaying it via a channel that is geared exclusively for businesses. And that is exactly what PPRC has been doing for the past few years: create engaging content in a medium focused on businesses.

By keeping the name Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. (PPRC) in front of a large business audience, PPRC are ensuring that they are acting tactically and connecting with local businesses who may need their help to get started with a disability hiring initiative.

If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this case study, please email us at info@odenetwork.com.

SOURCES:

[1] Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care marks a milestone in Ottawa business. Ottawa Business Journal. May 1, 2023. https://obj.ca/performance-plus-rehabilitative-care-celebrates-29-years/

[2] About PPRC. LinkedIn Profile. https://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-plus-rehabilitative-care-inc./about/

[3] PPR.Ca – Our Ability Employment Process. https://pprc.ca/finding-your-new-career/our-ability-employment-process/#application-support

[4] Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. LinkedIn Page – About Section. https://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-plus-rehabilitative-care-inc./about/

[5] Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. LinkedIn Page – About Section. https://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-plus-rehabilitative-care-inc./about/

[6] The Benefits of Collaboration. PPRC Blog. https://pprc.ca/blog/the-benefits-of-collaboration/

[7] About the Ottawa Business Journal. The Alliance of Area Business Publishers. Online Readership. https://bizpubs.org/member/ottawa-business-journal/