It’s always interesting (at least to me) to look around the world and see how other cultures are working to increase employment among people with disabilities. The same factors contributing to slow economic growth here in the U.S. are impacting other countries; while the efforts to raise awareness about the benefits of hiring these people range from the practical to the dramatic.
Let’s stay in Australia for a second day, where just yesterday The Sydney Morning Herald writer Tony Featherstone wrote, “Is your workplace blind to staff diversity?” Australia considers itself one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. But Featherstone, whose column “The Venture” focuses primarily on small businesses and entrepreneurs, says that the workplace still has a ways to go to reflect this across lines of “gender, race, skills and physical capabilities” within the upper echelons of management and corporate boardrooms. The impact of such a change would be felt through the entire organization and beyond, he writes:
It’s a no-brainer, really: staff see the organisation will give a worker with a disability a chance, provide extra support where needed, and get so much more back in return. Employees do the right thing because they can see their employer does the right thing. Customers, suppliers and other stakeholders see the organisation genuinely embraces diversity, and feel good about their relationship with it…
Arguments for increasing workplace diversity is at the heart of the current back-and-forth between the private sector and the U.S. Department of Labor over the the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) proposal to require organizations seeking government contracts to keep data on their recruiting and hiring of people with disabilities. Some corporate lobbyists say that the lack of skills among this population, rather than lack of effort by HR departments, is what keeps employment figures low. But as training programs for people with disabilities continue to close the gap, that argument will be more difficult to sustain.
Our neighbors to the north, meanwhile, are seeing parallel trends of an aging workforce and increased burden on the social safety net. This past Monday, Hamilton Spectator columnist Alison Griffiths considered these broad factors in making her six points for hiring people with disabilities. Griffiths’ column was inspired by a letter from Mark Wafer of Toronto. In the six Tim Hortons restaurants owned and operated by Wafer, 16% of the staff comprised of people with disabilities. He provides Griffiths with some quantitative data for the benefits of employing these people:
The disabled are very motivated employees. Research studies on this are sparse but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. Wafer maintains that ’employees who have a disability work 97 per cent safer, have attendance records 86 per cent greater, stay on the job up to five times longer [and] increase morale to the point that non-disabled staff stay longer — [a] huge win for me.’
What benefits have you seen when people with disabilities are part of the workplace? Share in the comments section below.
Image by tarO (Taro the Shiba Inu), used under its Creative Commons license.