Disability Community Outreach

Attracting Employees with Disabilities

Recruitment Outreach Strategies that Can Work for your Business

Finding good help is getting harder and harder. Businesses are finding that they must be creative, flexible and very outgoing in order to attract the best job candidates, including people with disabilities. An effective diversity initiative is one that incorporates an aggressive and comprehensive recruitment outreach strategy, which may include some of the following ideas:

19 Ways to get Great Job Candidates in the Door

1. Host an open house and orientation for job seekers with disabilities and employment services organizations.

A large communications firm was having difficulty in attracting candidates with disabilities for their job openings. Being a large corporation with a poor employment track record towards minorities, they decided to host quarterly open house and orientation meetings for job seekers with disabilities and their representatives. The human resources department sent notices out to community groups inviting participants. A two hour meeting was arranged, with company representatives presenting information on the types of jobs available, pitching what a great company it was to work for, describing the application process, then inviting questions from the guests. Result: applications began pouring in and successful hires were made. The firm now has a strong, positive reputation as a company that welcomes people with disabilities - and one that really walks their talk.

2. Cultivate partnerships with employment services organizations

Many companies recognize the value of developing and maintaining close working relationships with employment service provider organizations. Inventory those organizations in your community who are representing job seekers with disabilities, invite them into your place of business to explain their services, and ask them to send candidates who fit your hiring needs. In many instances these services are available at no cost to an employer. Recruitment through employment agencies is typically more cost-effective and likely to result in a successful hire than traditional newspaper advertising. These organizations are there to help your company succeed by assisting with recruitment, prescreening, training and supporting new employees with disabilities, and giving your supervisors and coworkers the information and tools that they need to maximize successful job placements.

3. Interview all qualified candidates with disabilities, even when a job isn't available

Whenever a qualified job seeker with disabilities approaches your company to inquire about employment opportunities, make time to meet with them for an informational meeting (this need not be a formal job interview). This will give you both a chance to ask questions of each other, and you may then build a prospects file for future reference and hiring consideration. Informational interviews can help you keep abreast of candidate availability, qualifications and interest, and strengthen your company's reputation as one that values people with disabilities.

TIP: You may also wish to consider making your managers and supervisors who have a hiring authority available for informational meetings with job seekers with disabilities. The advice and council that they can offer to job seekers would be assist them greatly in their job search, and at the same time, these managers and supervisors would gain an increased level of comfort and knowledge about issues and opportunities relating to employment and people with disabilities through first hand exposure.

4. Consider disability experience an asset

When it comes time to make that hiring decision and you have to choose between two equally qualified candidates (with one that has a disability), consider the personal experience that the candidate with disabilities brings as an additional asset. This experience gives the candidate unique perspectives and insights, and may enable your business to improve services and supports towards other employees and customers with disabilities. Disability experience gives that candidate, and ultimately your business, a competitive advantage.

5. Cultivate future employees by taking action now

An engineering firm decided to undertake an aggressive, proactive recruitment program to develop and ultimately expand its ranks of professionals with disabilities. Management and staff were consulted and support for the new initiative was broad-based. As few people with disabilities with professional credentials were available for hire, the firm decided to sponsor 2 scholarships each year for students with disabilities who wanted to pursue engineering degrees at the local university. The successful candidates were given summer jobs at the firm, and assigned mentors (company engineers working in areas of interest to the student). The mentors met regularly with their protégés, and took an active interest in provided guidance and support as the students moved through their education and work experience. Successful hires resulted, and retention rates and employee dedication to the firm was outstanding.

6. Establish an internship program with area high schools

High schools have expanded their efforts to successfully transition young people with disabilities from school directly into employment. Companies can recruit student interns with extensive training and support being made available through the high school transition programs and counselors affiliated with the state Vocational Rehabilitation agency. What an excellent way to recruit and develop talented, motivated young employees!

7. Try out candidates for short term placements

If you have any doubts regarding a candidate's ability to do the job - ask them to demonstrate how they would perform the job functions. Sometimes, however, some people need more time to learn the job and/or figure out how to perform certain duties in new ways that accommodate their disability and maximize their performance. In these instances, immediate demonstration does not give you and the candidate a fair opportunity to demonstrate proficiency. To ensure that you make a good hiring decision, you may want to consider bringing the candidate on board for a time-limited term position or trial period, so that a situational assessment (or work trial as it is sometimes called) can be completed. Situational assessments give both the employer and the candidate an opportunity to structure the job, provide training and get a little work experience under the belt - and a time period for the individual to prove what they can accomplish. It helps the employer get over any reservations about getting stuck with someone who demonstrates they can't do the job, and it is a recruitment strategy that can help you to screen people in rather than out. Employment services organizations and the state Vocational Rehabilitation agency are available to assist you in setting up situational assessments for appropriate candidates - give it a try!

8. Put state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to work for you

The state VR agency is one of the best government programs serving employers and people with disabilities in the country. VR counselors are ready, willing and able to assist you with recruitment, hiring, training and support of new workers with disabilities, planning for and accessing job accommodations and assistive technologies, working with employment services organizations under contract with VR, and helping you to retain existing employees who have become disabled and their jobs are at risk.

9. Consider job carving

Employers often meet job candidates who can perform some skills with exceptional ability, yet may not be able to do the complete set of essential functions for a particular job. Rather than disqualifying these individuals, employers may "carved out" key functions and re-organized the job to capitalize on the skills and abilities of certain candidates. Often, this reorganizing can introduce new efficiencies into the operation, and result in cost-benefits for the employers.

Case in point: An employment specialist visited a garage station and met with the head mechanic/owner. Upon review of all the job functions associated with running the station, the specialist determined that she had a candidate who would be great at pumping gas (this station still had full service pumps). The owner described this as part of the mechanics job, and they didn't have someone who just pumped gas exclusively. The station had a thriving repair business, and when the specialist pointed out that pumping gas took away mechanics' time from more lucrative repair jobs, the owner quickly realized that having someone pump gas at minimum wage made good business sense. A job function was carved, and a candidate with disabilities, who wasn't qualified to be a mechanic, was able to get their dream job working at a garage. Over time, the mechanics taught their coworker how to check the oil, fix flats, clean tools and run the cash register. The employee with disabilities proved their worth. (Adapted from "Job Carving" by Cary Griffin).

10. Assign a mentor

Remember the old adage "if I only knew then what I know now," and "it's not what you know but who you know"? Many of us have had our careers carefully nurtured and developed by key advisors and mentors, who recognized our talents and helped us move forward. Many companies often assign mentors to new employees to ensure that the new recruit gets a thorough orientation and has someone to go to and talk with as they get settled into their new jobs. This may or may not always be their supervisor. Often this happens naturally, yet it needs to be done in a deliberate manner to ensure that the new employee gets started on the right foot and is integrated into the workplace and corporate culture quickly and effectively. People with disabilities can be alienated early on following the hire. Consider assigning a mentor someone on their team who is respected and influential - to provide support, guidance and advice during the new employee's critical settling in period. It's a great way to enhance job success and long-term job retention.

11. Train supervisors and coworkers

Who's the new guy? And why does walk so funny? The greatest challenge impacting new employees with disabilities is the fear and stigma often associated with coworker reaction to perceived "handicap," and not their ability to do the job. To overcome the discomfort and stereotypes employers should consider providing information and training to supervisors and coworkers to ensure understanding and enhance the capacity of all employees to be responsive to the needs and interests of both coworkers and customers with disabilities.

12. Set clear, written performance expectations

Start off on the right foot. Meet with your new employee and make sure they understand exactly what it is that you want them to accomplish, how you want the work to get done and what the end product/service needs to look like. Discuss accommodations and modifications and try out new ideas. Make sure that you set clear, written performance expectations and that you meet regularly with your new employee to review performance and results and provide improvement suggestions. This is an exceptionally important task for supervisors done right it will be critical in responsibly looking after both the new employee and your company's interests.

13. Start a diversity committee

Wells Fargo is a company that thinks and acts on diversity outreach in a proactive manner. The bank has established a number of committees representing employees with diverse backgrounds, including people with disabilities. These committees serve to advise the company on policies and practices that will enable the bank to better serve customers and employees with disabilities. Who better to provide sound business advice and insight towards a particular market segment than your own employees who have those personal connections and experiences?

14. Join the Business Leadership Network (BLN)

The BLN is a network of business leaders interested in assisting companies to succeed by including people with disabilities. We encourage employers to join this group, share your experiences, challenges and successes with peers, learn what other companies are doing, get tips and new ideas for introducing diversity outreach initiatives, and role model your efforts for other companies.

15. Open up your in-house training courses for people with disabilities

A large rail transportation company has been experiencing substantial staff reductions, and has no plans to hire anyone (including job seekers with disabilities) for quite some time. One of their vice-presidents posed the question "what else can we be doing to help people with disabilities get jobs, even though we ourselves won't be doing much hiring?" They decided to open up all of their in-house training courses for their own employees, and allow people with disabilities from outside their company to come in and go through courses of their choosing at no cost. "Putting out an extra seat for a person with disabilities who wants to learn how to use a computer software program isn't really costing us anything, and its letting that individual get some great free training" stated the VP for human resources, "our managers and employees are also getting valuable exposure and awareness of issues and opportunities affecting people with disabilities, by way of these personal contacts. It's been a great success for us."

16. Initiate corporate-sponsored training to develop skilled employees with disabilities

Citicorp Diners Club established a major training program to prepare under-qualified people with disabilities for jobs as customer services representatives. In this instance, the employer decided that their were substantial benefits to making an extra effort to develop individuals who typically might not succeed in the regular recruitment process, and teach them the skills needed to do the job and get in the door.

17. Join a board of directors

Many companies are encouraging their employees to volunteer with community organizations, thus investing human capital towards community improvement rather than making a simple corporate donation.

Consider lining up volunteer and board memberships for interested employees, as a way to better network with and support community organizations. The new experiences, learning opportunities and contacts they acquire will help your firm to become connected with the disability community.

18. Just do it!

Hire people with disabilities. Do whatever it takes to get people with disabilities in the door. Only hire the best people - and they are really out there in the disability community. Often, you have to do a little digging to find gold. It happen one person at a time.

19. Celebrate your success

When your diversity outreach efforts yield positive results - make sure that people know about it. Tell stories in your company newsletter and other publications, speaking engagements, etc. Reinforcing the value of these efforts happens when you tie them into how they benefit your business and the community as a whole.

ATTRACTING NEW EMPLOYEES WITH disabilities

19 ways to get Great Job Candidates in the Door

Article written by:

Roger Van Lieshout

Development Specialist - Business Leadership Network