Rachel Nickless’s story, “Push to hire people with disabilities,” in Tuesday’s Australian Financial Review begins with a lot of familiar-sounding circumstances to those found here in the United States. Workforce participation by this demographic trends far behind the national average. Businesses make little to no effort to incorporate people with disabilities into their diversity recruitment policies, and job applicants experience rampant prejudice from hiring managers who focus on their disability instead of their education, skills, and experience.
As the story continues, we see that there are similar ideas on the table for improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including encouraging companies to set their own hiring goals and requiring organizations to demonstrate they are actively recruiting these individuals as part of their compliance with laws promoting workforce diversity.
But here is where the two cultures diverge. While business associations here in America have stridently resisted such measures, it is the Australian Human Resources Institute that is leading the charge for these changes in the land down under. Nickless writes that CEO Serge Sardo sent a letter to the Australian Securities Exchange back in August, saying that “mandated reporting of targets similar to the ASX’s gender diversity reporting requirements were needed.” The motivation is simply that expanding the talent pool of applicants for any job, whether it’s for an attorney or an assembly line worker, is better for a business and better for the overall economy. Nickless writes:
Taxpayers could also gain if more workers with disabilities were given a chance to work. Deloitte Access Economics has found that if the gap between the participation rate and unemployment rate for people with and without disabilities could be reduced by one-third, phased in over the next decade, the cumulative impact on gross domestic product in the next decade would be $43 billion.
Nickless speaks with officials and employees at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group about their efforts to bring more people with disabilities into its 48,000 member workforce. Sue Jeffrey tells her that the global financial service has voluntarily set targets for recruiting and hiring people with disabilities, and makes its reports publicly available because a more diverse workforce “reflected its own clientele.” Jeffrey says they also encourage their suppliers to take similar steps.
ANZ’s lead Web developer, Andrew Bucknell, makes it clear that he is no fan of “tokenism.” His description of the company’s business practices make it clear that he was recruited and hired based on his abilities and his Ph.D. in software engineering, and not to check off a box on a tracking form:
He says the best things ANZ has done to support workers with disabilities include hiring a specialist recruiter to help match people with disabilities to the right job; providing a physically accessible and culturally open workplace for people with a disability; and practical suggestions from his manager such as holding meetings near his desk to cut down on fatigue from walking.
Blame Australia’s different outlook on the Coriolis effect, I guess. But here’s hoping that more American businesses begin to see the value of putting people with disabilities to work, not only to make life matter for these individuals but for their own bottom line.
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Image by riddle_ (Peter Petrus).