2023 Winner
Public Service Best of Show
GoldBest in Social Media
SilverBest Disruption
SilverBest in Niche Targeting
BronzeBest in OOH Platforms
Canadian Down Syndrome Society
"Inployable"
Initiative
"Inployable"
Initiative
The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) exists to empower the Down syndrome community by closing the gaps in support, information, and resources that make life more challenging for people with Down syndrome.
As people with Down syndrome become adults, employment is important in building independence and a sense of dignity. Being employed means much more than earning an income; it means learning new skills, the opportunity to build lasting connections with others, improved self-confidence, and a sense of self-worth.
North America is facing a historic labour shortage – with over 6.8 million open jobs. Despite this, over 50% of people with Down syndrome struggle to find meaningful, paid employment. Individuals with Down syndrome have been victim to outdated stereotypes and misconceptions about their capabilities, which ultimately has led to their community being ignored by potential employers.
The employers that are open to hiring people with intellectual disabilities remain uninformed about how to reach and connect with these candidates. Throughout the recruitment journey, their research found that employers were in desperate need of information, resources, and a designated place to connect and recruit.
“Inployable” is the world’s first-ever employment network for people with Down Syndrome on Linkedin.
A collaboration between the Canadian Down Syndrome Society and LinkedIn, “Inployable” helps prospective employers easily discover potential employees and access key resources.
To build up their roster of job seekers, they used hyper-targeted social posts for the Down syndrome community, calling on ready-to-work individuals. Those looking for work were able to fill out a brief form on inployable.com, including their LinkedIn profile. If they didn't have a profile, a LinkedIn coach helped them build one. Job seekers were added to “inployable's” network where potential employers could find them.
The campaign launched during Canadian Down Syndrome Week, via a long-form video featuring people with Down syndrome advocating for their right to work. The video drove employees and employers to visit the hub and discover opportunities to connect. They pushed the work out through social, PR, and community advocacy groups associated with CDSS.
With LinkedIn as a core activation partner, they had access to a rich trove of data, allowing us to take candidate skills and match them against vacant job and employer data. They were able to identify employers across Canada with DEI initiatives who were hiring for relevant positions and bring forward the right candidates from the Down Syndrome community.
Using employer data from Linkedin, they mapped out major corporations across Canada hiring for relevant positions, and served ads inside their office buildings. This allowed us to target hiring managers where they work with tailored messaging on elevator screens that called out their company by name and introduced them to suitable “Inployable” candidates on Linkedin.
They developed the first employment network for people with Down syndrome on Linkedin, full of resources like training processes, interview adaptations and everything required to successfully hire an individual from the Down syndrome community.
LinkedIn favors traditional workplace experience, so they added over 25 skills to the platform (repetition oriented, morale booster, loyal) to accurately represent the strengths of the community and make them more discoverable.
An “inployable” coach was ready and waiting to help candidates add their existing LinkedIn profiles to the network; they made live coaching sessions available to support candidates through profile and resume creation, choosing the right skills and employment opportunities for them. RESULTS: Since its launch, “inployable” has seen incredible success. As a small Canadian charity, budgets and resources were slim, but “inployable” achieved the following:
More than 700 companies from 164 different industries followed their page within the first 2 months and 91% of their followers work directly in HR. “inployable” is one of the fastest growing company pages on LinkedIn” Sean McConnell, LinkedIn Business Development Lead and 17% of “inployable” candidates have already been hired, getting us closer to their goal of zero candidates unemployed.
They achieved 149,000,000+ impressions for the campaign and based on their $7,500 in PR and media support, this equates to 19,867 impressions per $ spent.
As people with Down syndrome become adults, employment is important in building independence and a sense of dignity. Being employed means much more than earning an income; it means learning new skills, the opportunity to build lasting connections with others, improved self-confidence, and a sense of self-worth.
North America is facing a historic labour shortage – with over 6.8 million open jobs. Despite this, over 50% of people with Down syndrome struggle to find meaningful, paid employment. Individuals with Down syndrome have been victim to outdated stereotypes and misconceptions about their capabilities, which ultimately has led to their community being ignored by potential employers.
The employers that are open to hiring people with intellectual disabilities remain uninformed about how to reach and connect with these candidates. Throughout the recruitment journey, their research found that employers were in desperate need of information, resources, and a designated place to connect and recruit.
“Inployable” is the world’s first-ever employment network for people with Down Syndrome on Linkedin.
A collaboration between the Canadian Down Syndrome Society and LinkedIn, “Inployable” helps prospective employers easily discover potential employees and access key resources.
To build up their roster of job seekers, they used hyper-targeted social posts for the Down syndrome community, calling on ready-to-work individuals. Those looking for work were able to fill out a brief form on inployable.com, including their LinkedIn profile. If they didn't have a profile, a LinkedIn coach helped them build one. Job seekers were added to “inployable's” network where potential employers could find them.
The campaign launched during Canadian Down Syndrome Week, via a long-form video featuring people with Down syndrome advocating for their right to work. The video drove employees and employers to visit the hub and discover opportunities to connect. They pushed the work out through social, PR, and community advocacy groups associated with CDSS.
With LinkedIn as a core activation partner, they had access to a rich trove of data, allowing us to take candidate skills and match them against vacant job and employer data. They were able to identify employers across Canada with DEI initiatives who were hiring for relevant positions and bring forward the right candidates from the Down Syndrome community.
Using employer data from Linkedin, they mapped out major corporations across Canada hiring for relevant positions, and served ads inside their office buildings. This allowed us to target hiring managers where they work with tailored messaging on elevator screens that called out their company by name and introduced them to suitable “Inployable” candidates on Linkedin.
They developed the first employment network for people with Down syndrome on Linkedin, full of resources like training processes, interview adaptations and everything required to successfully hire an individual from the Down syndrome community.
LinkedIn favors traditional workplace experience, so they added over 25 skills to the platform (repetition oriented, morale booster, loyal) to accurately represent the strengths of the community and make them more discoverable.
An “inployable” coach was ready and waiting to help candidates add their existing LinkedIn profiles to the network; they made live coaching sessions available to support candidates through profile and resume creation, choosing the right skills and employment opportunities for them. RESULTS: Since its launch, “inployable” has seen incredible success. As a small Canadian charity, budgets and resources were slim, but “inployable” achieved the following:
More than 700 companies from 164 different industries followed their page within the first 2 months and 91% of their followers work directly in HR. “inployable” is one of the fastest growing company pages on LinkedIn” Sean McConnell, LinkedIn Business Development Lead and 17% of “inployable” candidates have already been hired, getting us closer to their goal of zero candidates unemployed.
They achieved 149,000,000+ impressions for the campaign and based on their $7,500 in PR and media support, this equates to 19,867 impressions per $ spent.
Credits
Canadian Down Syndrome SocietyChair: Ed Casagrande
Executive Director: Laura LaChance
Marketing & Communications Manager: Courtney Cassel, Kristen Halpen
Senior Manager Fund Development & Donor Management: Pamela Massaro
Board Member: Ben Tarr
Initiative
VP, Head of Comms Design: Ryan Van Dongen
Comms Design Supervisor: Pascaline Forget
Strategy Director: Christian Kern
Reprise
Sr. Director, Head of Social & Strategy Solutions: Tyler Dmytrow
Account Manager: Kate Stevenson
FCB Canada
CCO: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna
Executive Creative Director: Andrew MacPhee
Associate Creative Director: Sara Radovanovich
Associate Creative Director: Sally Fung
Creative Director: Ryan Dzur
Creative Director: Sam Cote
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Strategist: Audrey Zink
Community Manager: Serena Luca
VP, Managing Director: Tim Welsh
Group Account Director: Blake Connolly
Account Executive: Sophie Seidelin
Executive Producer, Post Production: Elise Beauvais
Colourist: Conor Fisher
Editor, Social: Tyler Strahl
Agency Producer: Dan Rankin
Project Manager: Hani Adam
Production Manager: Jennifer Cachola
Production Artist: Mark Parenteau
Production Artist: Joey Ng
Proofreader: Melanie DaSilva Pinto
Proofreader: Zohrin Jivraj
Retoucher: Marcelle Faucher
Retoucher: Carly Bright
Quality Assurance: Kim Cheung-Quenneville
Canada Country Manager: Diana Luu
Head of Marketing: Jonathan Li
Agency Development Lead: Sean McConnell
Glossy PR
Suneeva Production