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Build Diverse Workforces

Strategies and Tools for Inclusive Mentorship

Français • October 29, 2025

Inclusive mentorship for people who experience disability

Mentorships are pivotal in supporting early entry to the labour market, career transitions, and career advancement for people with disabilities. This toolkit provides organizations with key elements to help them design and implement mentorship programs for people who experience disability.

This toolkit was informed by two employer roundtables, interviews with 10 employers, and interviews with 15 mentors and 15 mentees experiencing disability. While there is still a need for more research in this area, this resource provides promising findings and practices to support workplace inclusion through mentorship programs and help people advance in their careers.

Inclusive mentorship program toolkit for employers

Our inclusive mentorship toolkit provides practical guidance, templates, and documents for employers in Canada to develop mentorship programs. It includes:

  • Mentorship business case
  • Pre-program reflection
  • Mentorship program guide
  • Mentorship program charter
  • Matching guidelines
  • Implementation timeline
  • Communication plan
  • Mentorship responsibilities and resources
  • Mentorship agreement
  • First meeting reflection
  • Mentorship conversation guide
  • Mentorship communication log
  • Mentorship program evaluation survey
  • Post-program reflection
  • Mentorship alumni key metrics
  • Additional resources
Access the toolkit

Fostering accessibility and disability inclusion in the workplace

Given the rate of unemployment and underemployment for persons who experience disability, workforce inclusion continues to be a pressing need in Canada. Research shows that workforce inclusion can lead to improved talent acquisition, innovation, job satisfaction, and retention. Statistics Canada survey data from 2022 highlights:

  • The employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 without disabilities is higher (80.1 per cent) than the rate of those with disabilities (65.1 per cent).1
  • People with disabilities are more likely to work part-time compared with people without disabilities.2
  • People with disabilities have a median hourly wage that is 5.9 per cent less than that of people without disabilities.3

Organizations can foster more inclusive environments by addressing some of the common employment barriers, including:

  • Lack of workplace accommodations4
  • Barriers to accessibility5
  • Discrimination6
  • Underemployment and unemployment7
  • Workplace mental health8
  • Disclosure9

Mentorship supports inclusive work environments

Providing access to mentorship opportunities for people with disabilities can help close the employment gap. A 2024 review highlights mentorship’s role in fostering social inclusion for people who experience disability,10 such as improvements to job performance, attraction and retention, talent development, and knowledge transfer.11 Additional research shows that the mentoring relationship enhances the experience of those with disability at work by improving:

  • Feelings of inclusion12
  • Job satisfaction13
  • Retention14
  • Comfort around disclosure if an employee chooses to disclose15
  • Access to job training and career development opportunities16
  • Social skills and self-esteem17

Mentorship can also support inclusive workplace cultures and improve workplace accessibility.18

Barriers to inclusive mentorship

Mentorship offers many benefits, yet organizations face numerous barriers to implementing mentorship programs that meet the needs of persons with disabilities. Common challenges and mitigation strategies are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1

Barriers to inclusive mentorship and potential mitigation strategies

Barriers to inclusive mentorship Mitigation strategies recommended by organizations
Untested or under-resourced administrative processes
  • Start with smaller cohorts of mentors and mentees to ensure smooth administration processes before opening the program to a wider audience.
  • Outsource program administration to an online mentorship platform (e.g., Mentorcity, Together Platform).
  • Ensure proper resourcing for program administration is available for the entirety of the program.
Lack of adequate training for mentors and mentees
  • Leverage free online training resources for mentors and mentees offered by Mentor Canada and other organizations.
  • Hold orientation sessions for both mentors and mentees to go over roles and responsibilities for the programs.
  • Offer access to an internal resource for questions about the mentorship program.
  • Use the inclusive mentorship toolkit, which includes conversation guides, communication logs, action plans, etc.
Lack of disability knowledge and awareness
  • Offer disability awareness training for all employees.
  • Have a dedicated contact person for employees who have questions about disabilities, accommodation, and accessibility.
  • Provide training/information on different types of disability and potential accessibility considerations to all employees.
Implementing appropriate accommodations for mentorship
  • Provide mentors and mentees with information and resources on how to make mentorships more inclusive, accessible, and welcoming and how to navigate accommodation requests respectfully.
  • Provide a list of accessibility-focused resources that are available for the all participants in the mentorship program, in addition to providing accommodation requests for unique needs.
  • Ensure any event spaces are accessible for all participants.
  • Ensure that any resources offered are available in an accessible format.
Disclosure stigma (i.e., fear of disclosing)
  • Allow disclosure through multiple channels at the organization (application process, internal portals, engagement surveys, etc.).
  • If they are comfortable, invite a leader with disabilities to discuss their disclosure experience with employees.
  • Bring in speakers with disabilities to engage employees in conversations about disability inclusion.
Lack of leadership support
  • Engage leadership in the development of the program and align program goals to company values.
  • Offer mentor positions to leadership (if appropriate for the program goals).
  • Have senior leaders promote the program internally to eligible participants.
  • Provide leadership with access to relevant data on mentorship programs and their impact on the organization (see benefits of mentorship above).
Disjointed policies for time off to participate in the program
  • Clearly communicate the time required to participate in the mentorship program to managers.
  • Create a reporting system for recording time spent on the mentorship program.
  • Engage with union representatives (if required) to determine any potential conflicts with collective bargaining agreements.
Unclear goals and objectives for the mentorship program
  • Align project goals and objectives to company values.
  • Engage the program’s target audience to help define goals and objectives (e.g., employee resource groups, surveys, leadership).
Challenges with building mentor pools
  • Reach out to potential mentors to gauge interest before launching the program to assess internal capacity.
  • Communicate the benefits of mentorship to potential mentors (e.g., leadership development skills, succession planning).
  • Include mentorship in leadership competencies, leadership development training or programs offered by the organization.
Mentor bandwidth
  • Offer guidance on time commitments and expectations for the mentors before they start mentoring.
  • Provide clear, easily accessible information about the program requirements and provide access to mentorship resources to help with meeting preparation.
  • Ensure that there is a contact person to support mentors enrolled in the program.
Effective mentor–mentee matching
  • Leverage AI to create matches based on pre-determined criteria (e.g., Guider AI, MentorEase).
  • Utilize the matching guidelines to ensure good matches between mentors and mentees.
  • Give both mentors and mentees the option to end the mentorship if things aren’t working out.


Source: The Conference Board of Canada

Lessons learned: Actionable insights from employers

Have a goal for your mentorship program

Knowing what the organization intends to achieve by introducing a new mentorship program is vital for the program to be effective. Tying program goals with organizational values and objectives shows that the development of the program is well thought out and can also help to address identified or systemic barriers within the organization.

“The objective has to be clear. If we are saying that we want to empower somebody to be more independent, that’s the objective.” — Employer

“Develop guidelines. You need to tell people what the expectations are, because if you’re a mentor or a mentee, you want to know what the process is going to look like.” — Employer

Don’t be afraid to pivot

Establish clear feedback channels that allow organizations to refine the program and address challenges in real time. For instance, participants may express interest in a specific focus area after the program has been launched. Organizations can alter programming to reflect these requests.

“We’re now looking to incorporate the feedback we’ve collected before we launch again.” — Employer

“At the end of each cohort we have a [retrospective] meeting to understand how we can improve the mentorship program.” — Employer

Leverage employee experience and expertise

Leverage employee resource groups (ERGs) and other employee-led initiatives to help define mentorship goals. Members of these groups offer valuable insights into where mentorship can be most impactful, as they have a deep understanding of what’s happening on the front lines of their organization. They can help set goals, communicate information about the mentorship program, and support recruitment.

“We’re now looking to incorporate the feedback we’ve collected before we launch again.” — Employer

“We have a very active ERG [of employees who experience disability].” — Employer

“Rely on your ERGs. That’s a huge resource.” — Employer

Start small

If your organization is launching its first inclusive mentorship program, consider starting with a small pilot program for select employees. A pilot will help quickly identify what works, what needs improvements, and how to better align with organizational goals. Starting small helps clarify the administrative load associated with the program, helping organizations adjust cohort sizes to match the program’s capacity.

“Pilot it. One thing that we do if your leadership is not sure, if you don’t have buy-in, is to pilot it for a year or six months.” — Employer

“Conduct a pilot, because then you’ll learn the process structure that works for your organization.” — Employer

Make your mentorship program visible

Once the program is ready to launch, ensure that employees know about it and promote the program regularly.

“Tell them when to expect it, what the benefits are.” — Employer

Various methods to communicate the program to eligible mentors and mentees include:

  • • issuing a call for participants in an employee newsletter or email;
  • • posting on an internal communication board (e.g., physical or electronic);
  • • mentioning the program in team meetings or employee town halls;
  • • discussing the program during performance reviews or check-in meetings with leaders;
  • • promoting mentorship at corporate events through events-based programming (e.g., inviting everyone to learn more about disability inclusion);
  • • inviting program participants to share experiences and stories.

Don’t do mentorship alone

Many Canadian organizations are committed to supporting groups of individuals secure, retain, and advance in employment. Their expertise and existing resources can be leveraged to enhance organizational mentorship programs (e.g., CASE’s MentorAbility Canada). Partnering with experienced organizations allows employers to focus on aligning existing resources to mentorship goals and program administration.

“Share resources. We shared some of our resources with different government departments. Don’t re-invent the wheel.” — Employer

“I recommend going outside of your organization to [connect with the experts] to expand our knowledge and awareness.” — Employer

For more information, please download our methodology.

Methodology

Access the Mentorship Program Toolkit for Employers.

Toolkit
  1. Statistics Canada, “Labour market characteristics of persons with and without disabilities in 2022.”
  2. Statistics Canada.
  3. Statistics Canada, “Labour market characteristics of persons with and without disabilities, 2023.”
  4. Statistics Canada.
  5. Statistics Canada, “Barriers to accessibility among persons with disabilities in Canada.”
  6. Ameri and others, “The Disability Employment Puzzle.”
  7. Statistics Canada, “A demographic, employment and income profile of persons with disabilities aged 15 years and over in Canada, 2022.”
  8. Khalema and Shankar, “Perspectives on Employment Integration, Mental Illness and Disability, and Workplace Health.”
  9. Gignac, Bowring, Jetha, Beaton and others. “Disclosure, Privacy and Workplace Accommodation of Episodic Disabilities: Organizational Perspectives on Disability Communication‑Support Processes to Sustain Employment.
  10. Canadian Association for Supported Employment and Mentor Canada, Mentoring for Persons Experiencing Disabilities: A Review of the Literature.
  11. Ivey and Dupré, “Workplace Mentorship.”
  12. Wool and others, “Your Workforce Includes People with Disabilities. Does Your People Strategy?”
  13. Barford and Parkin, Mentorship in the Workplace: Employee Participation and Perspectives.
  14. Wool and others, “Your Workforce Includes People with Disabilities. Does Your People Strategy?”
  15. Wool and others.
  16. Raju and others, “Does reverse mentoring work in the NHS”; and Chen, “Enhancing teaching competence through bidirectional mentoring and structured on-the-job training model.”
  17. Burton and others, “Cross-age peer mentoring for youth.”
  18. Canadian Association for Supported Employment, “The Benefits of Mentorship.”

This research was conducted by The Conference Board of Canada in partnership with the Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE), a national association that facilitates opportunities for employment service providers, employers, and other partners to increase employment inclusion in Canada for persons experiencing disability. The research supports CASE in its mandate to increase the social and economic inclusion of persons experiencing disability and, specifically, in its MentorAbility Canada initiative which leverages facilitated short-term mentoring opportunities, networking and learning to increase workplace inclusion of persons experiencing disability in Canada.

This research was commissioned by CASE’s MentorAbility Canada initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada’s Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities.

Many colleagues at The Conference Board of Canada helped to bring this research to life. This research initiative was designed and executed by Leah Ringwald, Associate Director, PhD; Diogo Borba, Senior Research Associate, PhD; and Tyler De Melo, Research Analyst, MA. Tabatha Thibault, Senior Research Associate, PhD, contributed to the survey development and analysis. Lindsay Coffin, Principal Research Associate, M.Sc., MBA, reviewed and provided feedback on the early drafts of the report. Dianne Williams, Vice President, and Liz Marcil, Associate Director, Human Capital, MA, reviewed and provided feedback on the final draft. This output was designed by Mallory Eliosoff, Senior Graphic Designer.

We also wish to thank our project partners and the members of the research advisory board who supported this research:

  • Véronique Church-Duplessis, Senior Director, Research and Impact, Mentor Canada
  • Lindsay Evans, Organizational Effectiveness & IDEA-B Lead, Home Hardware Stores Limited
  • Don Gallant, National Director, Ready, Willing, and Able (RWA)
  • Michael Gottheil,Senior Counsel, ARCH Disability Law Center
  • Maureen Haan, President and CEO, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW)
  • Marie Ryan, Partner, Goss Gilroy Management Consultants
  • Lisa Noel Smith, Director of Special Care Services, WorkSafeBC

We also thank the individuals who took the time to participate in this research as survey participants.

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