How to Make Internal Hiring Support More Disabled-Friendly

By Lura Peterson

Having a disabled-friendly HR policy and structure is beneficial to an organization in many ways. Employees with disabilities are as productive as those with no disabilities if they are properly trained. Also, disabled employees give a high return on investment by way of qualifications, high retention rates, and the tax sops provided by the government for disabled-friendly employment practices.

Although the talent pool of disadvantaged candidates is vast, very few manage to find satisfactory employment and career growth. On an average, workers with disabilities earn 70% of what other workers earn. So what could be the factors that prevent employers from realizing the full potential of the disability-confident?

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Internal hiring support includes hiring, accommodation, and training of new candidates; however, companies tend to lack proper guidelines, focus, and procedures in making their workplaces disabled- or disadvantaged-friendly.

So how can the Human Resource department overcome these hurdles?

Recruiting Disabled Candidates

Successful businesses need to recruit people from diverse backgrounds, help them identify with the organization, and feel welcome and see how they can positively contribute to organizational growth. The recruitment processes need to be accessible for disabled candidates. They should be given an opportunity to prove that they are as good as anybody for the job. So, how do you do this in the right manner?

Job Descriptions, Advertisements, and Person Specifications

These are essential to ensuring a good hire and should be chalked out carefully. They should not needlessly discourage or exclude a highly qualified disabled candidate. More than the physical description of how the job needs to be done, you can focus on the skills required. The requirements can be spelled out in a less rigid manner, with skills grouped into “essential” and “desirable.”

• Essential functions exist because they are integral to the job. For example, driving is an essential function of a driver’s job, whereas his ability to help in cleaning the bus occasionally is a desirable function.

A few criteria which may be considered while determining essential functions are listed here.

(a)  The employer’s judgment as to which functions are essential

(b)  The amount of time spent on the function during the job

(c)  The work experience of the current/past incumbents in the job

(d)  Consequences of not having someone in the job perform the function

If you are advertising through mainstream channels, specifically encourage disabled candidates to apply for the job. Please keep in mind that you may have to relax certain criteria to accommodate deserving disabled candidates. Mention clearly in the advertisements your intention to do so. This is encouraging to the disabled candidates and you will have more applicants. Common instances where you may have to be accommodating are when candidates have gaps in their work history for disability-related reasons, have an interrupted educational history, or have less work experience because of difficulty in gaining employment.

Interviews

Interviews help you gauge the confidence, ability, and suitability of a candidate for a particular job position. Qualified candidates with disabilities can participate in the interview process in a manner that is equal to the opportunity given to a candidate without a disability. While interviewing disabled candidates, ensure the convenience and comfort of the candidate. The location needs to be accessible for your interviewee, and accommodation can be made for the candidate as long as it does not create undue hardships for the employer. Treat this interview as no different from your routine ones.

There are many do’s for you here. You:

• Can ask candidates to explain their relevant skills. They can elaborate on past experience.
• Can assess the education, training, and other qualifications relevant for the job.
• Can find out from the candidate his or her ability to work under and handle pressure and deadlines.
• Can ask him about his confidence to deal with the demands of the job and the challenges he may face.
• Can focus on his achievements and abilities.

But you should keep the following in mind.

• Never ask the candidate how his disability will adversely affect his job performance.
• Never ask him how the work pressure and demands will hurt his disability.
• Never ask for details or explanations about his disability or medications.

Onboarding

Onboarding or organizational socialization is the process by which newcomers to work organizations become insiders. How successfully this happens heavily influences various outcomes like newcomer job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance and knowledge, promotions, salary growth, and turnover. But this is never an easy process especially if the newcomer has disabilities. There may be interaction avoidance, inability to cope with demands of the new job, and isolation or lack of proper guidance and support. It is essential that the organizational culture be decidedly disabled-friendly. The workforce should be sensitized to the abilities and achievements of disabled workers. They should be treated as a vital and organic part of the workforce. There are specialized cells for disabled-employee welfare in several companies, but they are never visible or proactive. These units should be empowered and enhanced so that they can provide necessary help and support to those who come to them.

Training

Training has to be provided in a consistent, planned, and continuous manner for it to be beneficial to the disabled employee in the same manner as a nondisabled peer. Disabled persons may in some cases require specialist training facilities to remove or overcome barriers that they encounter disproportionately otherwise. This may include physical support or the provision of special aids or adaptations.

1)  Need to overcome access barrier

Sometimes, access-related needs become necessary to put the disabled employee in the same starting position as others. These may include all or some of the following:

a)    Numeracy or literacy training for employees with an intellectual disability

b)    Sign language classes for the hearing impaired

c)    Braille classes, mobility or low-vision training for employees with partial or full vision impairment

2)  Needs relating to training content requirements

In some instances, the content, method, or duration of training may have to be altered to make it as useful and beneficial to the disabled employees as it is for the others. Following are a few need-based modifications required in training programs.

a)    Specialized trainers or additional assistance to help and support learners with emotional, behavioral, or other disabilities.

b)    Individual attention to the employees.

c)    Support modules like those on personal effectiveness, managing disability, or self-advocacy may have to be incorporated.

d)    Work preparation or training work skills in simulated situations may have to be added.

In addition to work-related training and assessments, nonoccupational training needs may also have to be taken into consideration in some cases. This may include providing training to commute for work or managing medications.

Conclusion

A growing, evolving, and dynamic organization requires a vibrant, cohesive, and diverse workforce. It has to be inclusive and encouraging. Tapping into the disability-confident workforce will help organizations fill labor shortages in a competitive job market. Both employers and employees should honestly, willingly, and continuously assess the effectiveness of initiatives being implemented for making workplaces disabled-friendly. The disabled employees should be strong stakeholders in this process and view all gaps and lapses as opportunities for improvement.

About Today’s HR Daily Advisor Blogger:

Lura Peterson is a writer. She is a writer for Topmobility.com and loves to write on Mobility. Her writing is backed by her knowledge gained from working with clients to build their businesses.