A story about people with disabilities working at Papa John’s or Dairy Queen could come from almost any city in the continental United States. But even though it’s the largest city in the world, Shanghai, China, is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about fast food meccas or employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
The Wall Street Journal‘s online presence includes robust content on emerging international markets that include blogs branded as “Real Time Reports.” That moniker is more than appropriate for its coverage of China, which merits multiple daily posts even during the traditionally slow news cycle around the holidays.
The day after Christmas, Laurie Burkitt posted the report titled “Restaurateur Finds Retention in Overlooked Corner: Intellectually Disabled.” Burkitt’s beat is the growing influence of consumer choice in China’s economy, and she begins her post with the assertion that the country’s service industry has the same difficulty keeping good staff as its American counterpart. But businessman Li Ping has discovered people with disabilities stay longer in their jobs, Burkitt reports:
Around 80 employees who have learning disabilities have been selling pizzas at 22 of Mr. Li’s Papa John’s stores or are crafting ice cream cakes at one of the Dairy Queen factories… Most of the workers have been on staff for three years now… The average turnover rate for other employees is a year or less, Mr. Li said.
In fact, the staff at two of the Papa John’s stores are comprised entirely of people with disabilities; a point not lost on the Special Olympics chairman Timothy Shriver, who Mr Li credits for his realization that private industry could be the mechanism by which his country could help these people be productive members of society. Shriver tells Burkitt that China’s 10-years-and-counting economic boom has meant more education and training opportunities for people with disabilities:
In some ways, China has surpassed the U.S. in its recognition of the intellectually disabled, Mr. Shriver said, recalling a recent conversation he had with the mayor of Shanghai, Han Zheng. Mr. Han mentioned that he’d consider creating a separate civil servants exam to enable government hiring of disabled persons.
The correlation between employee retention and profitability is strong and direct. Training an employee to prepare food or serve customers is a business investment that is rewarded by customer satisfaction and loyalty. The longer that person remains on the job the more dividends the investment pays.
As Mr. Li tells Burkitt, job training for people with disabilities ensures the best rate of return from his franchises. Fortunately, it’s a trade secret he’s more than happy to share with other businesses.
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Image by RLHyde (Ryan Hyde), used under its Creative Commons license.