PWTD Rec & Retention

RECRUITING & RETAINING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

By John Bersentes & Mark Havard

www.TMPgovernment.com

Public sector agencies lag seriously behind in recruiting and retaining people with disabilities. And they’ve fallen behind despite substantial program incentives—many of them in force for years—from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and several other agencies. For all the efforts by these in-government advocates to encourage departments and agencies to reach out to people with disabilities, this population remains woefully under-represented in the federal workforce. The government’s own statistics indicate that the percentage of government workers with disabilities in its workforce has declined sharply (from 1.18% to 0.94%) between 1996 and its most recent measurement in 2006.1

To call this result perplexing is—at the least—an understatement. After all, there’s much talent and experience available in the disabled population. So why aren’t government agencies taking advantage of this? Research has demonstrated that the typical individual with a disability is a more engaged, more loyal, and more technologically-adept employee than the average worker in the general population.2 What’s more, the most widespread workplace disabilities—limitations in vision, hearing, and physical mobility—don’t influence intelligence, focus, creativity, facility with details, or the ability to work as a member of a team. And candidates with disabilities are certainly available to work: studies peg the percentage of Americans with disabilities who are unemployed at 68%. Within this group there’s a startling majority—fully two-thirds—who declare themselves willing and available to work.3

1 Source: The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC). http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/report/pwtd.html#SecIIA

2 Source: Darlene Unger, “Employers’ Attitudes towards People with Disabilities in the Workforce: Myths or Realities,” Employers’ Views of Workplace Supports: Virginia Commonwealth University Charter Business Roundtable’s National Study of Employers’ Experiences with Workers with Disabilities. (2002)

3 Source: National Organization on Disability, Economic Participation: Finding Good Jobs. (2003) http://www.nod.org/index.cfm? fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=13

Abstract

In response to the government’s looming retirement crisis, federal recruiters and hiring managers

can source a particularly promising pool of skills and talent. By acting now to recruit people with

disabilities into the federal workforce, the government can help blunt the impact of the coming

exodus of experienced public employees.


So why are public agencies responding so slowly to this opportunity for bringing in new talent, particularly when so many of their most knowledgeable and skilled team members are poised to retire? According to some commentators, the answer lies in widespread misconceptions about how well people with disabilities actually perform on the job; in assumptions that their physical limitations mean they can’t be as effective as their non-disabled counterparts; and that the physical provisions that federal employers must make to accommodate them are simply too complex or expensive. All these assumptions, though still pervasive, are patently false. One government advocate states the case bluntly:

Many in our society seem to believe that people with severe disabilities are simply not capable of performing as well as or better than the non-disabled population. Given the choice between an applicant with a disability and one without, hiring officials go for what makes them most comfortable, and that feeling of comfort is based on internal prejudices.4

How do we reverse these misconceptions? How about—as the Nike folks say—just doing it?

The impending retirement crisis certainly supplies the strategic justification for engaging this population more proactively, let alone assessing its potential more fairly and objectively.

These veiled prejudices are confidence-drainers for the disabled candidate, too. They know better than anyone how the snap judgments of hiring managers can shatter their chance to win a job. At TMP, we’re experimenting with new approaches for leveling the field for all government job applicants. Currently this initiative focuses on using the online “virtual world” Second Life as a venue for hiring and initial candidate evaluations that can take place on the Internet. For the candidate with a disability the premise is this: without any physical world

interactions, hiring managers have no basis for allowing personal prejudices to figure in their assessments. We’ve found that candidates, and particularly candidates with disabilities, feel empowered by this prejudice-free zone, if you will, and tend to present their true potential more confidently.

Recruiting and retaining people with disabilities

4 Confidential survey, TMP Worldwide 2008.

Second Life levels the playing field for job candidates with disabilities

Even the most talented and qualified job applicants are more than a little nervous when they face that initial interview. But for people with disabilities, first inperson encounters can be devastating. Who can say if a hiring manager will respond entirely objectively, or make a snap judgment based on their disability?

“It happens with depressing frequency,” says DisabilityWorks’ Jonathan Kaufman, “under the generally false assumption that a worker-with-a-disability individual can’t do the job as well as a nondisabled individual.”

With its Second Life Job Fairs, TMP is taking some of the anxiety out of these critical first encounters by staging them in the “metaverse”.


The federal establishment has a lot to gain if enough individual agencies ramp up their programs to recruit from this talented population. Integrating more people with disabilities into agency workforces won’t be enough in itself to reverse the retirement crisis, but it can help soften the blow. At the same time, the agencies who take the early lead in engaging people with disabilities will underscore the real-world value of a more inclusive workforce government-wide.

Consider the extensive range of physical and cognitive conditions that the disabled category covers. The Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act5 set the bar, framing the category to encompass any person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as hearing, seeing, speaking, thinking, walking, breathing, or performing manual tasks. Nearly 20% of the American population qualifies under this standard.

“That statistic always seems to surprise hiring managers, both in the government and in the private sector,” notes Jonathan Kaufman, President of DisabilityWorks, Inc.6, a consulting firm advising clients on disability recruitment. “And anyone, his or her past state of health notwithstanding, can join this twenty percent at any moment through illness or accident. The disabled population is the only federally-protected minority where this is possible.”

At fully 20% of the American population, people with disabilities are all around us. And the statistical likelihood of our joining their number increases markedly as we pass the age of forty. But it’s not just about you and me. Think about our military veterans, many of them returning to the stateside workforce with disabilities incurred in the war. They’ve certainly earned the right to serious consideration for federal employment, and just as certainly, our government could put their skills and experience to productive use as the pace of senior retirements quickens.

As for the costs of accommodations, studies have demonstrated that they generally cost less than a few hundred dollars per person entering the workforce.7 For a government on the verge of a severe skills and experience crisis, doesn’t this seem like a reasonable price to pay?

The government sponsors an array of programs to assist you in recruiting people with disabilities. Perhaps the most immediately applicable is the Excepted Service appointment process8, which authorizes hiring agencies to fill vacancies at all levels with qualified individuals with disabilities, without posting vacancy announcements.

The Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP)9, led by the department of Defense, provides work-related adaptive technology for people with disabilities working at some 60 agency partners. Several other departments and agencies (including Education, Housing and Urban Development, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Social Security Administration) sponsor their own adaptive technology programs.

5 29 C.F.R. Parts 1630, 1602.

6 http://www.disabilityworks.com

7 Source: U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy, Myths and Facts about People with Disabilities. [2003] http://www.doleta.gov/disability/htmldocs/myths.cfm

8 See http://www.opm.gov/disability/appointment_disabilities.asp

9 See http://tricare.mil/CAP

10 See http://www.eeoc.gov/initiatives/lead/resources.html

Recruiting and retaining people with disabilities (Continued)


The LEAD (Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities) Initiative10 was launched by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2006 to coordinate interaction among agencies interested in making use of special hiring authorities—like Excepted Service and several others covering disabled veterans—to recruit and integrate people with disabilities.

The federal Disability Workforce Consortium11, a cross-agency working group comprised of senior-level participants from four cabinet departments (Commerce, Labor, Transportation, and Treasury), has taken the lead in advocating disability employment.

Either with or without direct support from the formal programs that we’ve discussed above, an agency can do a lot to improve the workplace climate it creates for persons with disabilities. This in turn is likely to prompt job-seekers with disabilities to consider this agency favorably, even as it helps current non-disabled employees to see first-hand that inclusive cultures make sound mission sense. Here are a few ideas.

11 See http://www.fdwc.info/

Recruiting and retaining people with disabilities (Continued)

Here candidates and hiring reps meet online, in a virtual world, under the guise of “avatars”, i.e., self-representational characters whose appearance they create and control. For a disabled candidate, this is a chance to highlight his or her best qualities free of potential snap judgments that a disability may trigger in an interviewer. So far this approach has enjoyed phenomenal success in attracting candidates. TMP has sponsored Second Life Job Fairs under its Network in World (NiW) program, and has slated a third, focused largely on government hiring, for candidates with disabilities. Says TMP’s John Bersentes: “We’ve made a special effort to encourage candidates with disabilities to attend our Second Life Job Fairs. This is a rich opportunity for any government agency that’s looking to recruit from this under-represented population.”


Either with or without direct support from the formal programs that we’ve discussed above, an agency can do a lot to improve the workplace climate it creates for persons with disabilities. This in turn is likely to prompt job-seekers with disabilities to consider this agency favorably, even as it helps current non-disabled employees to see first-hand that inclusive cultures make sound mission sense. Here are a few ideas.

Establish a disability council. Create an advisory group of employees to help your agency recruit and retain persons with disabilities. It should be sized appropriately. The objective is to produce a visible impact not just on your planning to engage the disabled population, but on your concrete results as well. Too small a group could result in overtaxing its members with too ambitious a slate of activities, or creating the impression among your other employees that your disability council has no real power and shouldn’t be taken seriously. On the other hand, if you make your disability council too large, it may become unmanageable, drifting into “honorary” stasis with no real momentum and fewer results.

Compose your advisory council with an eye on results, and take pains to include disabled members who are widely respected by their peers, and who have demonstrated creativity and initiative in their own work. In this way you start with a team that enjoys high prestige among your workforce, and one likely to inspire confidence among the people with disabilities who already work at your agency. Build credibility at this stage and you will end up with a built-in community of rank-and-file allies for your program as it begins to make a difference.

Draw on experienced support from other organizations. Even if you have started auspiciously on your own, you’re missing an opportunity if you don’t explore the resources available to you through non-profit advocacy organizations

that champion the hiring of persons with disabilities. These organizations range widely in emphasis, from a general focus on the disability category, to specific targeted disability conditions, to specific populations of people with disabilities, for example, disabled veterans.

Collectively, these organizations can provide a wealth of practical advice and useful background for your efforts. On the previous page, we’ve assembled a roster of these organizations, along with their URLs. Use our list as a starting point, but bear in mind that it represents only a sample of the scores of similarly helpful resources available through the Internet.

Remember too that other federal departments and agencies are already tackling this challenge and can provide you with the benefit of their experience as well. These agencies can offer what is likely to be the most immediately practical guidance for your efforts. We suggest you start at the department of Labor’s website for its Office of Disability Employment Policy12 (http://www.dol.gov/odep) and/or the Office of Personnel Management’s site for federal Employment of People with Disabilities13 (http://www.opm.gov/DISABILITY). Both are excellent sources of guidance on hiring persons with disabilities for government service.

Take stock of your situation before you implement a disability strategy. While the good will and enthusiasm are critically important, you’re not likely to make a lot of progress until you get a handle on the dimensions of your challenge. This means understanding where you are, quantitatively speaking, before you begin, and then setting reasonable short-term goals that will mark early-stage success. A few quick wins will take you far in winning hearts and minds, both inside your agency and among the disabled populations you set out to engage.

12 See http://www.dol.gov/odep

13 See http://www.opm.gov/DISABILITY

What you can do to help create a disability-friendly workplace


Start by understanding your agency’s current distribution of people with targeted disabilities. You should build an accurate profile of where persons with disabilities are currently working in your organization. This informal census provides a benchmark for your program. It can also uncover favorable surprises, e.g., notable successes in individual units already, or even unit Best Practices that you didn’t know you had going for you. And if you have a disability council, this census is an ideal kick-off project for this group.

“Brand” your agency or department as a culture of inclusion. One particularly effective way to reinforce the progress you make is to subtly remind people in all your communications, internal and external, that your agency or department is committed to a culture of inclusion that welcomes and supports people with disabilities.

This simply means that the language and visual/photographic imagery in which you customarily communicate about your activities underscores your commitment to an inclusive workplace culture. On your website (and not just your “Careers” micro-site), in your print materials, events, and multimedia presentations, you should make it clear that you respect the contributions of all team members. This doesn’t necessarily mean obtrusively trumpeting your integration of people with disabilities, but simply showing all segments of your inclusive workforce in action as they contribute to your mission. Your audiences will get the point, and word-of-mouth will go much farther than self-promotion in building your agency’s reputation as an inclusive and productive culture.

Communicate with your workforce and your potential recruits in more than one cognitive mode. We’re all so accustomed to making ourselves clear in purely textual modes that we forget how effective the use of other communication styles can be. Broadening your agency’s communication “bandwidth” to include what has come to be known as rich media can enrich your interactions with not just Generation-Y (a no-brainer), but with team members with certain disabilities as well.

One last point: this is more than a chance to do the right thing in hiring disabled candidates. This is a chance to make your workforce more like the real America, and to take practical steps to bring in much of the talent you’ll need to counter the experience drain that’s about to hit with a vengeance.

14 Available at http://data.bestplacestowork.org/bptw/demographics/large/hispanic_09

What you can do to help create a disability-friendly workplace (Continued)


Government Websites Americans with Disabilities Act (DOJ).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ada.gov/ CAP: Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.tricare.mil/cap/acc_sol/CAPTEC.cfm DisabilityInfo.gov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/ federal Employment of People with Disabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.opm.gov/disability/ Hiring Individuals with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.dol.gov/compliance/topics/hiring-disabilities.htm Job Accommodation Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.jan.wvu.edu/ National Council on Disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ncd.gov/ National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) . . . . http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/nidrr/index.html Office of Disability Employment Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.dol.gov/odep/ US Department of Health and Human Services Office on Disability . . . . http://www.hhs.gov/od/

Not-for-Profit & Private Sector Organizations and Websites Adaptive Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.adaptenv.org/ American Association on Health and Disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://aahd.webchoices.us/ American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.aapd-dc.org/ American Congress of Community Supports and Employment Services . . . . http://www.accses-dspa.org Association for Persons in Supported Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.apse.org/ Association of University Centers on Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.aucd.org/ Business Leadership Network: Disability at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.usbln.org/ Center for Personal Assistance Services (PAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.pascenter.org/ Disability Information for Students and Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.abilityinfo.com/ Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.dredf.org/ Disability Statistics Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://dsc.ucsf.edu/ DisabilityWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://disabilityworks.com/ Disabled American Veterans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.dav.org/ Disabled People’s International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://v1.dpi.org Disaboom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.disaboom.com/ International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . http://www.icdri.org/ Mobility International USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.miusa.org/ National Business & Disability Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.business-disability.com/ National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ncddr.org/ National Council for Support on Disability Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.ncsd.org/ National Disability Rights Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.napas.org/ National Organization on Disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.nod.org/ National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.npaf.org/ Paralyzed Veterans of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.pva.org TASH.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.tash.org WorkWorld: Empowerment through Decision Support Technology . . . . . http://www.workworld.org/ptfead.html World Association of Persons with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.wapd.org/ World Institute on Disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.wid.org/ United People with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://upwd.net/

Helpful Resources on the Web


Since the release of this whitepaper, the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Disability Report. demonstrates great strides in hiring people with disabilities; in fact the share of new hires is its highest in 20 years.

OPM announced that in FY 2011, federal employees with disabilities represented 7.41 percent of the overall workforce and 11 percent when the figures include veterans who are 30 percent or more disabled. The report also shows significant increases in new hires of persons with disabilities. Additionally, in FY 2011 people with disabilities represented 7.96 percent of all new hires and 14.7 percent when veterans who are 30 percent or more disabled are included – the highest percentage in 20 years. In total, more than 200,000 people with disabilities now work for the federal government, also the most in 20 years.

“People with disabilities are welcome in the federal family,” said OPM Director John Berry. “We need the talents and creativity of all people – including people with disabilities – to help do the work of the American people. We are doing anything possible to remove barriers to their employment, and the good news is that we’re moving in the right direction, and you can see it in the numbers.”

When President Obama signed Executive Order 13548 on July 26, 2010, he set a goal to hire 100,000 people with disabilities by 2015. In its own hiring, OPM leads all agencies in the first two quarters of 2012 with 4.2 percent of all new hires being people with targeted disabilities. In addition, in FY 2011, 22.4 percent of all hires at OPM

were people with disabilities, including those veterans who were 30 percent or more disabled. (For more on veteran recruitment, retention, and on-boarding see our whitepaper entitled Americas’ Veterans and the American Workforce.)

“We still have a long way to go to meet the President’s 100,000 benchmark but we’re well underway,” said Director Berry. “I’m confident that we’ll not only meet that goal, but that we will also add talented individuals to our team along the way.

Over 3,000 federal employees from more than 56 agencies have been trained on recruitment techniques and all cabinet level agencies have attended trainings hosted by OPM. The federal hiring community is better prepared to hire the talented members of the disability community by using the Schedule A accepted appointing authority to hire people with disabilities, providing reasonable accommodation via the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), and getting employees who become ill or injured on the job back to work.

15 To view the report, visit: http://www.opm.gov/diversityandinclusion/reports/disability/index.aspx

Addendum


Mark Havard is Senior Vice President of TMP Government, focusing on developing marketing programs to support the human capital programs of government clients. Based in Washington, D.C., Mark is frequently called on by TMP clients nationwide for his expertise in interactive engagement and workplace cultures. Before taking on his current role, Mark oversaw client development throughout North America for TMP’s advertising division. He holds a master’s degree in education/labor relations as well as a bachelor’s in political science/public administration from Virginia Tech. You can reach him at [email protected].

John Bersentes is TMP’s Vice President of Business Development, specializing in the federal government space. An expert in social marketing, multicultural outreach and online engagement, John manages TMP’s efforts to keep federal human capital leaders abreast of relevant new practices and technologies for workplace enrichment and inclusion. During the last decade, John has helped develop and launch leading diversity niche job boards like HireDiversity.com and WorkplaceDiversity.com. He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara. He can be reached at [email protected].

TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications (www.tmp.com) is North America’s largest independent recruitment advertising agency and the only recruitment advertising agency recognized among the top 50 U.S. interactive agencies. We are a single source for companies to communicate their employment offerings in order to recruit and retain the best talent. Through online and traditional communications, ROI campaign management services, creative and brand management, diversity enrichment and media planning, TMP delivers Solutions with an Interactive Edge, achieving industry-specific results across virtually every sector in business and government. Headquartered in New York City with offices throughout North America and affiliates around the globe, TMP continues to set the standard for measurable and cost-effective HR communications.

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