Labor shortages not only have undesirable effects; in some industries it is forcing companies to rethink their business model.
• Also read: A Tim Hortons closed at 1pm and on weekends due to staff shortages
• Also read: Too young to work?
• Also read: Youth work: no more than 17 hours per week
Charles Lafortune and Sophie Prégent’s Autist & Major Foundation has been developing projects for the past two years to integrate autistic people into certain professional environments, such as B. in gastronomy.
And it works.
Les Rôtisseries St-Hubert is already hiring around forty people with autism, also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and would like to add more of them to their pool of employees.
“It’s innovative. I’m thinking of a business… obviously with the labor shortage you have to think outside the box and that’s a great opportunity [de le faire]“, explains Karine Brunet, General Manager at Autisme Laurentides.
“I think there’s also an opportunity for those employees who can’t necessarily work, who don’t have a car… and they’re lucky enough to have someone on site for them. Help Who Understands Autism is an autism expert and sets things in motion so that they have a sense of achievement,” she continues.
The Autistic & Major Foundation also seeks to make society aware of the constituency that autistic people represent.
On Sundays, in several St-Huberts in Quebec, the dining rooms are adapted for people with autism: the lighting is reduced, as is the music, for example.
The staff is also trained to receive this clientele.
For Autist & Major Foundation co-founder Charles Lafortune, working as a team is essential to including autistic people: “Training through success, building failure, to tell ourselves, that’s how we did it in Quebec if you do it, we have this program, you could do it like this… to make things concrete.”