Recruitment & Attracting Workers with Disabilities
By making an effort to recruit and attract people with disabilities, companies demonstrate the understanding that a diverse workforce is something to be prized.
Fifth Third is a leading partner of Project SEARCH. The bank provides on-the-job training, a managed learning environment, and on-site working and classroom space complete with computers, training stations, and furnishings of a central office to support the successful management of the program. To date, Fifth Third trained 163 and hired 21 people with disabilities through Project Search.
Recruiters of Pacific Gas & Electric attend job fairs targeted at people with disabilities. The company also has third-party partnerships with a staffing firm for people with disabilities.
A task force formed by WellPoint HR managers and associates collects disability hiring data and reviews external opportunities to engage, recruit and hire people with disabilities. The group meets quarterly and reports progress to leadership.
OfficeMax works with Turning Pointe Autism Foundation, sponsoring training environments and providing trainers for a distribution center and a retail store. Once a Turning Pointe client is trained, they are eligible for open positions within OfficeMax locations.
Hiring Policies
By including hiring and advancement policies targeted at employees with disabilities, companies prepare the groundwork for a diverse workforce and allow themselves to attract the best candidates.
Fifth Third’s EEO/AA policies convey commitment to hiring, promoting and retaining talented people with disabilities. The company is building relationships with community, government, and state vocational rehabilitation partners to utilize resources and promote placement of people with disabilities.
KPMG has specific training and programs in place to recruit, retain, and support partners and employees who have disabilities or who are caregivers for someone with a disability.
WellPoint has a talent acquisition consultant role who supports disability and veteran hiring initiatives. They also regularly attend targeted job fairs and events.
OfficeMax embarked on a company-wide People with Disabilities and Veterans Initiative in 2009. The purpose of the Initiative was to improve outreach to the disabled community and increase hiring of those individuals. The company works with Aspire of Illinois, which helps identify qualified candidates with disabilities for hire.
Fully serving clients requires harnessing the energy and creativity of a diverse workforce. CSC realizes that diversity and inclusion, in any arena, serves as a catalyst to foster innovation. CSC believes strength comes from the company’s ability to unite people of different backgrounds around common principles.
It’s good that there are companies willing to hire workers with disabilities. This is a great step towards recognizing that disabled persons can work, they have talent and they are important too. I hope that other companies will also follow suit.