The CEO of Marriott once said their 5,000 employees with disabilities would be the last to go if layoffs loomed. Why? He said there were three reasons he would do this. The first reason is that they have a “proven excellent performance”. Secondly, they are “more loyal”. And lastly, “they are more responsive to customers”.
While at a national convention in Portland, Oregon, I heard the President of Carolina Fine Snacks talk about how he was being run out of business by employee’s who didn’t show up for work and when they did show up, they were continually stealing merchandise from his place of business. He solved his problem by firing most of his employee’s and hiring people with disabilities. This one act changed his business completely around.
The National Council on Disability polled 30 CEO’s and managers of Fortune 500 companies and found that 73 % of the top industries employed people with disabilities. Why? Because it make’s good business sense.
In this column and for the next six months I am going to talk about integrating people with disabilities into your workforce. I am going to use a six steps process outlined in a publication published by President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities for the Business Leadership Network.
This series will cover what I feel are the important issues in integrating people with disabilities into your workforce. They are Commitment, Recruitment, Interviewing, Accommodation, Training, and Awareness and Sensitivity.
In the next installment, I will discuss how everyone in the organization must be aware of the commitment in order for this to succeed. You will find a number of ways you can recruit people with disabilities in the second installment. The third article in the series will focus on interviewing techniques and how to train you employees to conduct interviews with people with disabilities in a professional manner. In the fourth installment, you will learn how to ensure that it is the right accommodation for the employee. Next, you will read about the training required and ways to ensure that the employees you have hired will be successful in your organization. The last installment will focus on your employees who do not have a disability. We will discuss the awareness and sensitivity issues that are so important for the success of this program.
David M. Little is the President & CEO of Disability Management – Life & Work Solutions, LLC, 315 Lemay Ferry Road, Suite 135, St. Louis, MO 63125, V/TTY 314-638-1200, Fax, 314-638-1205, e-mail, david@dmlsolutions.biz