© Disability Business Technical Assistance CenterNortheast 1 Welcome! Reaching Employers: Unpacking...

© Disability Business Technical Assistance Center—Northeast 1

Welcome!Reaching Employers: Unpacking Barriers to Disability Inclusiveness

Dr. Hannah RudstamDisability and Business Technical Assistance Center—Northeast

National Council on Rehabilitation EducationSan Antonio Texas

February 21, 2009


If you would like a copy of this presentation sent to you, please email me at [email protected]

(It’s on the card in your packets)


In a nutshell—Goals for today…

1. Barriers to disability inclusiveness—broadening the conversation

2. Who should we be reaching? The gatekeepers3. How does work get done? General workplace trends &

context factors 4. How are hiring decisions made? About hiring trends &

techniques5. It’s not just about barriers—Getting employers’ attention6. Have a look at a program

7. Implications for VR research & practice—Your thoughts


Indirect context factors

Not specific to disability

1. Barriers to disability

inclusiveness—broadening the conversation


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)


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

By the numbers*…

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.


Direct discrimination

factors:Attitudes, beliefs,

expectations directly related to

disability

Indirect discrimination

factors:Not directly related to disability-- subtly

but powerfully impact how

decisions are made about anyone who appears “different”

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).

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

2. Who are the key

players?The emerging

importance of reaching mid-level managers as

hidden 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

3.How does work get done?

General workplace trends & context factors—the perception of

gatekeepers


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.


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


And what has this meant?

Jane Shwartz

Ed Ellis Jane Jones Joe Smith

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…


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


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


200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

Software industry

Mngmnt Consulting

Eldercare

Computer systems

Voc rehab

Ambul healthcare

Water/sewage worker

Data entry/process

Childcare

Temp empl. Services

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



Increased productivity

expectations

(Which are likely to intensify)


U.S. workforce productivity has risen dramatically over the last decade

53,000

54,000

55,000

56,000

57,000

58,000

59,000

60,000

61,000

62,000

1998 2000 2002 2004

US Workforceproductivity rate

Productivity in $/worker

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 2006



The embedding of health insurance in

employment & rapidly rising health care

costs


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)


•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

4.How are hiring decisions

made? About hiring trends & techniques


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)


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2005 2006 2007 2008

EE Index

Employment Expectations

Index:

The % of HR Prof.s who expect hiring in their organizations to

increase minus the % who expect it to

decline

Source: Society 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.

The Service Sector


0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

EE Index

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: Society 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.

The Manufacturing Sector


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


Changes in hiring methods & techniquesHiring 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


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”


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


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


Rapid rise in number of employers using standardized assessment tools in hiring

Types of standardized assessments:CognitiveEthics/deceitfulnessSkills/interestsTraits/personality/temperament

Assessments are often timed

May be a response to increase in negligent hiring lawsuits


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)


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


•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

5.The news is not all

bad!Trends that make disability

inclusiveness a source of competitive advantage


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)

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)

What a company “stands for” matters for how customers make buying decisions


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

Disability inclusive workforce strategies will become increasingly key to competitive advantage and talent

management efforts


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


Increasing realization of the real cost of turnover

Return on investment of reasonable accommodation as a means:To prevent turnoverTo enhance productivityTo prevent off-work time

Disability inclusive workforce strategies will become increasingly key to competitive advantage and talent

management efforts


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)


•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

6. Let’s have a look at a program that is based

on these ideas…


Let’s have a look at a program

Discovering Untapped Talent: Disability Inclusiveness as Competitive Advantage

Blended learning approach

Two different kinds of learning…

1. Face-to-face learning for emotional engagement, conversation, reflection

2. Online learning for information around business case & connection to competitive advantage

© Disability Business Technical Assistance Center—Northeast 41 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


Let’s have a look at a program

Discovering Untapped Talent: Disability Inclusiveness as Competitive Advantage

Blended learning approach

Online programwww.FindTalentnj.org(Contact me for log in information)

Supplements in-person workshop• Online tutorial for disability service

providers• Online tutorial for employers


OK—what are your thoughts?Implications for VR professional practices?

Implications for VR education & training?

© Disability Business Technical Assistance CenterNortheast 1 Welcome! Reaching Employers: Unpacking...

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