Andy Traub
Vice President, SPHR, SHRM-CSPMy Story
I am a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources, SPHR, SHRM-CSP, and a nationally recognized leader in both disability and autism employment. Over the past two decades, I have provided talent management and acquisition solutions for many national employers, including Google, Best Buy, Walgreens, Office Depot, Toys”R”Us, Starbucks, Sodexo and Kroger to name a few of the major brands. He has also worked as a lead consultant on the Workplace Initiative Team of the Poses Family Foundation to develop disability inclusion strategies for national employers receiving funding from the foundation.
At AMC Entertainment Inc., I led the company’s strategic recruitment initiatives and created “AMC F.O.C.U.S.,” an award-winning program in which AMC broke new ground in hiring and retaining large numbers of individuals with disabilities. During that time I was invited to present to White House staff on hiring individuals with autism.
I have also served as the Managing Director for the National Organization on Disability where he created several innovative programs and products to help national employers develop strategic programs designed to effectively attract, on-board, manage and retain individuals with disabilities.
Why I’m Excited You Are here
I am thrilled to see you are investigating a diversity and inclusion initiative. Speaking from experience there is not any bigger or more important way to elevate or enhance the culture of your workplace than by implementing an effective and sustainable solution. With our current environment you need a partner who has decades of experience with implementing D&I solutions in companies or all sizes and industries to be able to move quickly and intelligently leveraging best practices. I would love to talk to you further about where and how to start on this journey if recognizing the full benefits to your company of a diversity and inclusion program.
My Favorite InclusionWorks Story
We were in the implementation stage of the initiative at a DC and the General Manager of the DC asked if I could join him for lunch on site. While eating he asked me to look around because this breakroom where nearly 500 people were eating, I immediately notices there were no longer cultural ‘clicks’ or homogeneous groups eating together. Instead each table represented its own diversity and inclusion community! Race, ethnicity, gender, LGBT, veteran and any other ‘classification’ was included in conversations. Laughing and connecting was happening. The GM went on to explain that prior to implementation of the initiative- each table was only made up of its own ‘click’ or ‘class’. But this camaraderie has carried over to the floor and productivity is increasing, attendance is better, and people seem to truly enjoy coming to work, and it showed in employee engagement scores.
That lunch was a snapshot of the benefits of the work we do alongside you and your team. It’s a journey and we would be thrilled to guide you in this important work.