Greensboro, NC 27410 January 23 2008
As the labor market tightens and employers begin considering overlooked population segments, they will find a gold mine in people with disabilities. According to Alexis Herman, former United States Secretary of Labor, “only one-third of disabled Americans are employed, even though more than two-thirds of unemployed people with disabilities say they would like to work”.
Unfortunately, discrimination is alive and well. Mostly, this prejudice is rooted in fear and misunderstanding: fear of not knowing how to relate to people with disabilities, fear that accommodations will be costly, fear that “once hired, never fired”, and fear of potential lawsuits. However, as companies and organizations that hire people with disabilities will tell you—these fears are often groundless and easily can be overcome.
An organization of business leaders, the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN®) (www.usbln.org) is having a major impact on this situation. Representing over 5000 businesses networking together, members share best practices and look for innovative solutions for recruiting and retaining workers with disabilities. In the spirit of cooperation, they work together, dedicated to educating each other on the business imperative of hiring individuals with disabilities—and the Return on Investment this socially responsible effort brings to the table.
One major USBLN® initiative is its Annual Career Fair, held in conjunction with its Annual Conference, which provides an opportunity for businesses to meet with high school and college students about career choices. As reported by Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (www.cosdonline.org), about 45 percent of college graduates with disabilities are unemployed or underemployed. USBLN is working to fix this disconnect.
Beyond connecting businesses to youth, the USBLN® markets the business case for hiring people with disabilities. Aside from doing “the right thing”, hiring people with disabilities enhances a company’s bottom line by creating a more varied workforce with true diversity of thought in meeting workplace challenges. Surveys have shown that people with disabilities have lower absenteeism rates, which correspond to additional dollars going to a company’s bottom line.
Hiring people with disabilities will attract customers with disabilities to your products and services as they’ll see, through your employees, your commitment to their community. From a Gallup poll, we also know that 88 percent of American people would prefer to give their business to companies that hire people with disabilities. The time is overdue for companies to overcome their fears and increase the employment of people with disabilities within their ranks.
According to Katherine McCary, USBLN’s President, and a loaned executive from SunTrust Bank, “Hiring people with disabilities requires CEO commitment; when CEOs get disability as a diversity case, they often get the business case”.
Our forecast: business leaders worldwide will embrace the profitability of hiring people with disabilities to help them address the growing, critical skilled labor shortages.
Joyce L. Gioia, CSP, CMC (Joyce@hermangroup.com)
Certified Speaking Professional and Management Consultant
The Herman Group
Greensboro, NC
Phone : 336-210-3548
Fax : 336-282-2003
Youpicks
Investing in people with disabilities is my ultimate vision for Canada.
My Brother Bill has been a quadrapalegic for twenty years.
Fell backward and broke his neck.
This happened on his honeymoon.
After twenty years bill and Linda are still together.
My brother Billy is the coolest guy I know.
Bill had his tendons fused so he could use a wheel chair.He used a regular char up until a few years ago.
He built his home and he has a great family and we are large in numbers.Spread all over Canada.Mostly in Ontario which is another great city to get around in.
When we invest in services to make our communities open and accessable.
We invest in people and make our spaces better for everyone.
Municipal investments through out the provinces and territories of Canada are made every day.
Repeatedly through federal infrastructure dollars.
Getting back to my brother Billy
he came to Charlottetown and loved it.
He loves the board walks all over the place. It made me feel proud of where I lived when he could have fun here and get around.
he love going to Victoria Rowe and sitting outside listening to Scott Parsons.
Bill and Linda traveled all over the province and found fantastic look outs.
Hats off to Prince Edward Islanders for making the island a better place to live.
The federal parks and services lead the way with their floating docs.
Investing in accessible infrastructures simply pays out big time for the community.
Investing in employment for 27% of the population is simply good business.
If we can roll our world a little closer to being accessable.
That’s good business.
Our cities and communities need to be constantly making life easier for the 27% of our population that has a disability.
What would happen if the Province invested in municipal spending in Charlottetown.
Would it cause a Federal increase for communities over all. Would it set a higher influence and increase the municipal spending federally over all for the other municipalities and communities in our province.
If this is so investing in Charlottetown and Summer side has a trickle up effect on the province.
Strengthening the overall provincial and federal programs in favor of communities.
It would not hurt any city and it would increase overall funding for the provinces for communities.
This would be good.
More for accessibility projects in our community.
This would help everybody.