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National Council on Rehabilitation Education San Antonio Texas February 21, 2009

Welcome! Reaching Employers:  Unpacking Barriers to Disability Inclusiveness Dr. Hannah Rudstam Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center—Northeast National Council on Rehabilitation Education San Antonio Texas February 21, 2009

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National Council on Rehabilitation Education San Antonio Texas February 21, 2009

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  1. Welcome!Reaching Employers:  Unpacking Barriers to Disability InclusivenessDr. Hannah RudstamDisability and Business Technical Assistance Center—Northeast National Council on Rehabilitation Education San Antonio Texas February 21, 2009

  2. If you would like a copy of this presentation sent to you, please email me at hhr5@cornell.edu(It’s on the card in your packets)

  3. In a nutshell—Goals for today… • Barriers to disability inclusiveness—broadening the conversation • Who should we be reaching? The gatekeepers • How does work get done? General workplace trends & context factors • How are hiring decisions made? About hiring trends & techniques • It’s not just about barriers—Getting employers’ attention • Have a look at a program • Implications for VR research & practice—Your thoughts

  4. 1.Barriers to disability inclusiveness—broadening the conversation Indirect context factors Not specific to disability

  5. About discrimination • U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy. Survey of Employer Perspectives on the Employment of People with Disabilities. Technical Report , November 2008. • Meta-analysis: employer discrimination accounted for a substantial part of the wage differential (Baldwin & Johnson, 2006) • National surveys of employers: Pre-conceived attitudes and lowered expectations are significant barriers to people with disabilities finding employment (Bruyere, 2000; Dixon, Kruse & VanHorn, 2003) • Various types of negative expectations lie behind this discrimination (Schur, Kruse & Blanck (2005): • Low performance expectations • Negative assumptions about co-worker and customer reactions • Pre-conceived ideas about which types of jobs are “appropriate” for people with disabilities • Discrimination persists even when applicants with disabilities are rated as equally qualified (Drehmer & Bordieri, 1985) • Laboratory experiments: Out of 13 simulation experiments involving attitudes toward hiring people with disabilities, 10 found that “applicants” with disabilities with the same credentials as others were rated significantly lower on perceived future performance potential and promote-ability (Colella, Denisi & Varma, 1998) • Discrimination in hiring process may be more hidden and less measurable than other types of discrimination in employment processes (e.g. promotion, termination or accommodation)

  6. By the numbers*… • About employment in 2007… • 21.2% • Percent of working age people with disabilities employed full-time/full-year • 56.7% • Percent of working age people without disabilities employed full-time/full-year • About income in 2007… • $38,400 • Median income of households that include any working-age people with disabilities in the US was $38,400 • $61,000 • Median income of households that do not include any working-age people with disabilities in the US was $61,000 *Source Erickson, W., & Lee, C. (2008). 2007 Disability Status Report: The United States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics.

  7. Broadening the conversation: Context within which workplace decisions are made about people with disabilities— Knowledge translation context within which information is received and acted upon (or not). Indirect discrimination factors: Not directly related to disability-- subtly but powerfully impact how decisions are made about anyone who appears “different” Direct discrimination factors: Attitudes, beliefs, expectations directly related to disability Gatekeepers

  8. 2.Who are the key players? The emerging importance of reaching mid-level managers as hidden gatekeepers • HR professionals are often our point of entry. • Yet, mid-level managers might be more important as gate-keepers & decisions makers • Transition from transactional to strategic HR practice might heighten the importance of mid-level managers as arbiters of employment lives of people with disabilities

  9. 3.How does work get done? General workplace trends & context factors— the perception of gatekeepers • The shift from clear role-based work to project-based work • The emergence of the contingent workforce • The rapid rise of productivity expectations • Rapid rise of health insurance costs

  10. Increased volatility & fluidity in how work gets done. “The Blur”* “The late, great job.”** …And the late, great essential function. What will this mean given Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act? *Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy by Stanley Davis and Christopher Meyer, Warner Publishing, 1999. ** Job Shift: How to Prosper in a workplace without jobs. William Bridges, Perseus Books, 1994.

  11. Increased volatility & fluidity • in how work gets done. • And why is this? • Unprecedented speed on how fast business operates: order-to-delivery speed, product lifecycles, logistics, learning curves, etc. • Increased value of intangibles: brand strength, management talent, organizational knowledge • Increased connectivity: IT effect--speed to customer, logistics, inventories, JIT production • Increased volatility in “job” titles—There are seven times as many job titles now than there were 25 years ago (Herman, Olivo & Goia, 2003) • Dramatically decreased tenure of leaders & managers

  12. And what has this meant? We think we should prepare people with disabilities for a workplace that’s like this… When in fact, we may be dealing with a workplace that’s like this…

  13. Implications of the shift from role-based to project-based work • The ADA Amendments Act will likely throw more attention onto who is a “qualified individual” • Essential function is key to this determination • In the current workplace context, it is getting more difficult to pin down essential function

  14. How does work get done?General workplace trends & context factors The rapid rise of the contingent labor force Contingent workers are defined as those who do not have an explicit or implicit contract for long-term employment

  15. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Number of New Jobs in 10 Fastest-Growing Industries. Projection 2003 - 2012

  16. How does work get done?General workplace trends & context factors Increased productivity expectations (Which are likely to intensify)

  17. U.S. workforce productivity has risen dramatically over the last decade Productivity in $/worker Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 2006

  18. How does work get done?General workplace trends & context factors The embedding of health insurance in employment & rapidly rising health care costs

  19. Health care system & health care-embedded in employmentEmployers responses… • The WalMart leaked internal memo • Growing employers’ fear of rising health care costs—taking steps to contain health care costs (SHRM 2009 Outlook Survey) • 53% of employers have added a health assessment to their benefits enrollment process • “To avoid high health care costs, employers may be less interested in hiring (and insuring) people with disabilities.” (NCD, 2007, p 181) • Particularly an issue for medium & small businesses (ODEP November, 2008 survey) • Suppresses the entrepreneurial options of people with disabilities themselves (DiCicca, 2007)

  20. 4.How are hiring decisions made? About hiring trends & techniques • Where will there be hiring? Are we preparing people for the right sectors? • Changes in hiring methods & techniques • Rapid emergence of standardized assessments • Rapid emergence of online screening systems

  21. Are job-seekers with disabilities being prepared for employment sectors that are vulnerable to being moved to the contingent workforce (outsourced) or of disappearing overseas? Bureau of Labor Statistics projections: people with disabilities are under-represented in the fastest-growing occupations and over-represented in employment sectors with fastest rate of decline (NCD Report, 2007) There would be an additional 860,000 jobs for people with disabilities if they were being prepared for occupations with the highest rate of job growth (Kruse & Schur, 2006)

  22. The Service Sector Employment Expectations Index: The % of HR Prof.s who expect hiring in their organizations to increase minus the % who expect it to decline Source: SHRM Leading Indicators of National Employment: Employment Expectations. SHRM Outlook Special Supplement to HR Magazine, pages 4 – 6, Society for Human Resource Management: 2009. Source: Society

  23. The Manufacturing Sector Employment Expectations Index: The % of HR prof.s who expect hiring in their organizations to increase minus the % who expect it to decline. (August measure shown) Source: SHRM Leading Indicators of National Employment: Employment Expectations. SHRM Outlook Special Supplement to HR Magazine, pages 4 – 6, Society for Human Resource Management: 2009. Source: Society

  24. But the news is not all bad! There will most certainly be a talent shortage in the next 5 – 10 years According to the SHRM 2008 Survey: 21% of employers said retaining retiring workers is part of their HR strategy for 2009 61% said it would be part of their HR strategy within the next five years Employers will have a “teachable moment” about disability inclusiveness

  25. Changes in hiring methods & techniques Hiring for emotional intelligence Use of competency-based hiring Use of behavioral event interviewing Competency-based hiring Hiring for emotional intelligence Use of behavioral event interviewing

  26. Movement toward competency-based hiring; movement away from task-based or “essential functions” hiring • About 75% of organizations report using some form of competency-based hiring (Van Der Heijde & Van Der Heijden, 2006) • Competencies—deep, underlying knowledge, behaviors and commitments that predict high performance in a broad range of job categories. (Sources: McClellend & McClelland, 1995; Spencer, 1996; McLagan, 1996; Boyatzis, 2003) • Formed either through internal study of high performers or purchased “off the shelf”

  27. Increased use of behavioral event interviewing (BEI) techniques • About 75% of employers use some form of BEI (Maurer, Sue-Chan & Latham, 1999) • Several different formulations (Eder & Harris, 1999), but all based on same premise: • The best predictor of future work competence is past behaviors. • More powerful in predicting high performers (Boyatzis, 2003) • Often competency-based

  28. Movement toward hiring for emotional intelligence • Though different studies have different findings, according to Goleman, McGee & Boyatzis (2003), EI predicts about 60% of high performance in the workplace • SHRM 2006 Outlook survey: About 70% of employers include EI in their hiring practice • Different formulations—usually focus on about 5 – 7 areas of emotional intelligence

  29. Rapid rise in number of employers using standardized assessment tools in hiring • Types of standardized assessments: • Cognitive • Ethics/deceitfulness • Skills/interests • Traits/personality/temperament • Assessments are often timed • May be a response to increase in negligent hiring lawsuits

  30. Rapid rise in number of employers using online hiring systems SHRM Outlook Survey, 2008 12% increase in just one year--number of employers who intend to institute an online assessment as part of their hiring Study released by Spherion Corporation in 2006: • 60% of employers have increased their use of standardized hiring assessments in the past five years • 51% increased their use of prescreening programs in the same time period (Related to this: 20% of employers reported scraping a candidate because of something they found on the internet--SHRM Outlook Survey 2008)

  31. Rapid rise in number of employers • using online hiring systems • Target website lawsuit brought this issue to the forefront • Studies of IT and the workplace--Erickson (2002) and Bruyere, Erickson & VanLooy (2005) • (2002) Vast majority of recruiting/hiring sites not accessible: only UPA & IBM accessible • (2005) Only 13% employer-respondents familiar with guidelines for accessible web design • Hiring “kiosks” being used more extensively (World Privacy Forum, 2003): • Blockbuster deployed an estimated 4,000 employment kiosks in 2000 • Albertsons deployed an estimated 2,300 employment kiosks in 2003 • Sports Authority and Sears have greatly increased use of kiosks

  32. 5.The news is not all bad! Trends that make disability inclusiveness a source of competitive advantage • Customer-demand for social responsibility & disability inclusiveness • Disability inclusive workforce strategies will become increasingly key to competitive advantage and talent management efforts • Disability is diversity--Disability inclusiveness and diversity

  33. What a company “stands for” matters for how customers make buying decisions Cone Cause Survey, 2007 • 87% respondents will switch from one product to another (price and quality being equal) if the other product is associated with a good cause (an increase from 66% in 1993) • Brands that can engage customers emotionally command prices significantly higher than the competitors • 72% of employees want their employers to do more to support a cause (up from 52% in 2004)

  34. What a company “stands for” matters for how customers make buying decisions A University of Massachusetts & Harris Poll study found that 93% of customers surveyed said they would PREFER to patronize a business that has people with disabilities in their workforce (Sipersteina, et.al., 2005)

  35. Disability inclusive workforce strategies will become increasingly key to competitive advantage and talent management efforts Employers are still aware of an upcoming talent shortage due to skills shortage & retirement wave (SHRM Outlook Survey, 2008) Our workforce is aging—disability inclusiveness will become key to retaining talent

  36. Employers are aware of an upcoming talent shortage, but are postponing their response • 2006 survey of organizational leaders. • The most commonly cited concern for respondents’ business future is lack of talent and inability to retain and develop talent (Wellins, & Caver, 2006) • According to the SHRM 2008 Survey • 21% of employers said retaining retiring workers is part of their HR strategy for 2009 • 61% said it would be part of their HR strategy within the next five years • What does this mean? Despite the current economic meltdown, there is an upcoming “teachable moment” for VR professionals to reach employers

  37. Disability inclusive workforce strategies will become increasingly key to competitive advantage and talent management efforts Increasing realization of the real cost of turnover Return on investment of reasonable accommodation as a means: To prevent turnover To enhance productivity To prevent off-work time

  38. Diversity and disability inclusiveness • Disability IS Diversity Most employers have a diversity plan or initiative in place Disability is often not considered in current diversity initiatives (Ball, et.al., 2005)

  39. 6.Let’s have a look at a program that is based on these ideas… • Funded by the Kessler Foundation of New Jersey • In progress—112 people have participated • Seven more sessions planned • Blended learning approach • Targets both disability service providers and employers

  40. Let’s have a look at a program Discovering Untapped Talent: Disability Inclusiveness as Competitive Advantage • Blended learning approach • Two different kinds of learning… • Face-to-face learning for emotional engagement, conversation, reflection • Online learning for information around business case & connection to competitive advantage

  41. The journey beyond legal compliance “Are There Wheelchairs in Heaven?” Ben Maittlin, NPR Morning Edition, Dec. 7, 2005 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5042181 41

  42. Let’s have a look at a program Discovering Untapped Talent: Disability Inclusiveness as Competitive Advantage • Blended learning approach • Online program • www.FindTalentnj.org • (Contact me for log in information) • Supplements in-person workshop • Online tutorial for disability service providers • Online tutorial for employers

  43. OK—what are your thoughts? Implications for VR professional practices? Implications for VR education & training?

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