Disabled workers: diamonds in the rough

As employers desperately seek to fill jobs in today's superheated employment market, many companies have discovered diamonds in the rough-disabled workers. According to statistics, not only are disabled workers capable employees, they have an unusually strong work ethic and exhibit high levels of loyalty.

In fact, a recent report from Cornell University suggests businesses are overlooking what some researchers consider to be the largest untapped labor pool--disabled adults. The Cornell study notes that there are some 43 million working-age Americans with disabilities. However, this pool of workers is vastly underemployed largely because of workplace attitudes, lack of corporate leadership, and insufficient training.

"Clearly, many employers don't know how to level the playing field and engage people with disabilities in jobs," says Suzanne Bruyers, chief author of the Cornell report and director of the university's Program on Employment and Disability. The study examines surveys of more than 800 private and 400 federal HR professionals and was funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities.

In another statistical analysis, the U.S. Census Bureau's most current Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which was published in 1997, shows there are 29 million disabled Americans between the ages of 21 and 64 and half of them are working. This accounts for 14 percent of the labor force. Most of the disabilities involve impaired sight and hearing and back-related problems. The numbers of disabled workers is increasing, and it's likely the trend will continue--as the population ages, there's an increase in the likelihood of people developing disabilities.

The government made a major commitment to helping disabled workers with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1992. Title 1 of the law deals with employment. Initially, the law applied to all employers with or more employees. It was amended in 1995 to include firms with 15 or more employees. The law is designed to ensure equal opportunity for people with disabilities in all aspects of life, including employment. Its key provision is to prevent an employer from denying jobs to qualified people with disabilities.

To be disabled, under the law, means (1) to have a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more of the persons life activities, (2) to have a record of such impairment, and (3) to be regarded as having such an impairment.

In addition to complying with the law, companies have discovered some bidden benefits of hiring people with disabilities. "They have the most amount of loyalty to company and, in turn, save a lot of money in turnover costs," according to Glen Hughes and Brian Kleiner, authors of the article "New Developments in Disability Discrimination," published in Equal Opportunities International magazine. "The loyalty comes from the fact that most of the disabled did not have the opportunity to work before, and they appreciate the job, which in turn causes them to be extremely loyal," the authors write.

Pizza Hut is one company that fully appreciates these benefits. The company employs 3,000 disabled people out of a total workforce of 68,000. They report turnover among the disabled employees is only one-fifth that of other employee groups.

Marriott Corp. was active in hiring the disabled even before the ADA legislation. In 1989, Richard Marriott, then vice chairman of the corporation, founded the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities. One of its main programs is Bridges from School to Work, an internship program for disabled high school students. The program is administered by local communities throughout the nation in concert with the foundation, the school system, area businesses, students, and parents.

In the decade between 1986 and 1995, the percentage of companies that hired people with disabilities increased slightly from 62 to 64 percent, according to Louis Harris and Associates surveys for the National Organization on Disabilities. The results are skewed toward large and midsize companies. On the other hand, smaller companies are less likely to hire disabled.

Case histories of companies that have hired disabled workers are compelling. American Demographics reports North Carolina businessman Phil Kosak observed some remarkably positive results from his hiring of disabled workers. Half of the 20 workers at his Carolina Snack Foods company have impairments ranging from vision and hearing loss to cerebral palsy and mental retardation. Before the disabled workers came on board, the company was experiencing an 80 percent turnover every six months. On any given day, one in five employees never made it to work, and productivity was just 50-60 percent of capacity.

Bringing in the disabled workers turned things around completely for Kosak. "They were just very interested in the company, its productivity, and what their job responsibilities were," Kosak points out. Their positive attitude rubbed off on coworkers as well. Productivity increased to over 90 percent of capacity and turnover ceased to be a problem.

DuPont has conducted studies of its workforce since 1950. These studies conclude employees with disabilities equal or exceed coworkers without disabilities in job performance, attendance, and attention to safety.

University of Iowa law professor Peter Blanck has been tracking a group of mentally disabled workers and their employers for a number of years. In a 1990 survey, he found 96 percent of the employers surveyed were highly satisfied with the attendance of the mentally disabled employees and six in 10 were satisfied with their productivity and initiative.

These studies conclude that complying with the law is one thing, but many employers are discovering hiring the disabled is just plain good business.

The ADA has specific rules concerning how employers should deal with job applicants with disabilities. The government requires that employers make accommodations for both current and prospective employees to perform the "essential functions" of the job. To do so, the employer is required to use an interactive process.

Step one is to define the job. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) is inclined to believe functions are essential if they're (1) mentioned in the job description when the job is first advertised and (2) reviewed when interviewing applicants. Employers may compile such a list of the job's duties by asking current jobholders to evaluate these duties based on how important they are in performing the job and determining how often these duties are performed.

Another way to pinpoint essential functions is to ask the following questions:

* Would removing the function fundamentally affect the job?

* Is performing this function the reason the job exists?

* Can other employees perform this function instead?

* Does the function require a special skill that a new employee is expected to have?

To quantify essential job functions, the employer might want to prepare a knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics (KSAP) matrix. Once the matrix is created, each of the four functions should be rated on a one-to-10 basis in terms of importance, with one being unimportant and 10 being essential. Then rate each function as to how often it's performed, with zero meaning the duly is never performed and 10 meaning the duty is performed constantly.

The next step is a conversation or interview with the applicant where there will be a discussion as to how the person's disability will affect performance of these essential functions. Using the KSAP matrix can be particularly effective during the interview to keep the conversation focused on the essential skill sets.

A key area of concern is "undue hardship," which is defined as either a significant difficulty or an expense that would be a financial burden to the organization. Another reason for refusing to hire a person with a disability is the "direct threat" criteria. You can refuse to hire a person with a disability if that person poses a high probability of hurting others.

If you can't find away to accommodate an applicant without undue hardship, an employer may qualify for financial or technical assistance from the government. For example, a $2,400 tax credit is available for hiring disabled workers referred by the government. Assistance is also available from such sources as the ADA Regional Business and Disabilities Technical Assistance centers, the Job Accommodation Network, and the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

Technology has great potential for people with severe disabilities. Take the story of Mitch Green, a 29-year old blind Tampa man. Determined to rise above poverty, he began studying to become a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, a job that pays $40,000 a year. He's currently trying to support his wife and three children on $1,000 a month in Social Security benefits. Green is pinning his hopes on the extremely tight Tampa job market. With unemployment below 3 percent, employers are desperate to fill jobs. More are turning to the nontraditional labor pools such as seniors, stay-at-home mothers, teenagers, and that diamond in the rough-the disabled.

James T. Berger is a Chicago-based freelance magazine writer who makes his living as a strategic marketing consultant.

RELATED ARTICLE: Disabled are Underutilized and Underpaid

Not only are the disabled underutilized, they're underpaid as well, according to data furnished by the U.S. Census Bureau in its 1997 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

According to the SIPP, there are 152.8 million Americans between the ages of 21 and 64. Of those Americans, 119.7 million (approximately 78 percent) are employed and 27.7 million (approximately 18 percent) are classified as being disabled. Of those Americans with disabilities, 17.3 million are considered "severely" disabled and 10.4 million are classified as "not severely" disabled.

The median income of nondisabled Americans is $23,645 and the average income is $31,045. In contrast, of the 8.5 million working Americans with a "not severe" disability, median income is $20,469 and the average income is $26,449. For those classified with a "severe disability," only 31.1 percent are employed, and for those among that 31.1 percent, the median income is $13,234 and the average income is $18,582.

It's important to note the difference between "severe" and "not severe" disabilities. The definitions are somewhat complicated. Individuals are considered to have a severe disability if they: (1) use a wheelchair, a cane, crutches, or a walker; (2) have any other mental or emotional condition that seriously interferes with everyday activities; (3) receive federal benefits based on an inability to work; (4) have Alzheimer's disease or mental retardation; or (5) are unable to perform or need help in performing a wide variety of other activities.

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