Small changes, big impact: How Medavie is rethinking recruitment
At Medavie, we believe that meaningful change doesn’t happen overnight. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we’re building a foundation of small, strategic steppingstones to create lasting impact in our recruitment and processes.
We’ve spent time taking a deep dive into our entire recruitment funnel—from the moment a candidate reads a job posting to their experience through the recruitment and hiring process. The findings were clear: While we’ve made progress in inclusive hiring, there’s still important work ahead to ensure an inclusive experience for all employees once they join the organization.
Making recruitment more accessible
One of our key learnings has been around accommodations in the hiring process. We’ve incorporated inclusive practices to ensure candidates have the support they need throughout the recruitment journey, whether that means adjusting interview formats, providing assistive technology for assessments,or providing additional preparation time. But accessibility doesn’t stop at hiring—it must extend into onboarding and beyond.
Over the past year, we’ve been working alongside Abound Consulting, a Halifax-based firm specializing in neurodiversity, to refine how we support accessibility in the workplace. Alongside Abound, we’re currently assessing specific roles to better understand how accessibility barriers show up in day-to-day work. This type of targeted insight helps us make sure all employees, including neurodivergent individuals, have the right tools and support to succeed—not just on day one, but throughout their entire career at Medavie.
As we continue to evolve our recruitment practices, inclusive hiring remains a top priority. That’s why we’ve developed Unconscious Bias in Recruitment—a training tailored specifically for Medavie. While our HR team has already completed the session, we’re now extending this learning to leaders across the organization. This is particularly important as we deepen our focus on accessibility and inclusion, and the training will equip our leaders with practical tools to recognize bias, build more inclusive job postings, and assess candidates more equitably.
Beyond the job description
Our approach recognizes that inclusive hiring isn’t just about writing better job postings or making interviews more accessible —it’s about changing entire systems. That means:
- Training HR and Hiring Managers to recognize bias and make inclusive and unbiased decisions.
- Educating leaders and teams on how to foster inclusive workplaces.
- Assessing positions to identify potential accessibility gaps before they become barriers.
This work requires effort and commitment, but we choose to do it because it aligns with who we are as an organization.
The Road Ahead
Rather than a quick-fix, we’re deliberately building a sustainable model, one that can be tailored to address and support unique needs – for employees with us today, and the team members who will join us down the road. This commitment to long-term change strives to make sure that every hire, from entry-level to leadership, benefits from a fair and accessible experience.
If your business is looking to refine your own recruitment strategies, our team is always open to sharing insights. Reach out to us at dei@medavie.ca if you’d like to discuss these initiatives further—we’d love to connect.
Jennifer Taylor Oland
Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Medavie
Jennifer Deschambeault
Manager of Talent Acquisition
Medavie
