What Do You Do If You Can't Ask Them?
Recruiters Dream Big
Tools: On the Web
Tools: In Your Hometown
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What Do You Do If You Can't Ask Them?
There's lots of content in eSight Careers Network's Employer Resources about why any smart company needs to hire qualified job candidates who happen to have a disability.
- A demonstrated track record of productivity, reliability and longevity among employees with disabilities.
- Tax incentives for hiring people with disabilities.
- Improved awareness about how to effectively serve consumers within the large disability market.
- The requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar laws.
- A desire to present a more inclusive workplace to stockholders and other stakeholders as well as consumers.
Robert, a recruiter for Washington Mutual, says, "I'm looking for motivated job candidates. That motivation is, in my opinion, the most important qualification a job seeker can have." When we responded that disabled people, in general, are very motivated workers, he agreed enthusiastically. "This is a bottom line issue, too," he continued. "When you lose a worker, you not only lose money on lost productivity and new training for a new hire but you also lose all the value that employee's experience with the company represents. Employers lose a lot of money, if workers don't stick around. Disabled people make very loyal workers."
Steve Kendall, MR Atlanta West, explains, "Companies are continually being reviewed to see if they are hiring people fairly and often want to hire people who qualify as an EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) candidate"
But, for professional job recruiters, there are really only a couple priorities: to get their companies or clients the best candidates and to fulfill a specific request for more representation of candidates with disabilities for any and all job openings.
Kendall continues. "The dilemma, (however), for most recruiters is that, when they have clients wanting to hire people who qualify as EEO candidates, they can't ask the question without being open to a lawsuit for illegal hiring practices. We cannot ask someone if they are qualified due to being disabled, a minority, over 40 years old etc."
The solution is to make sure job seekers with disabilities have access to your job announcements. You can hope they are in line with everyone else to find out about your openings through classified ads, job sites, placement services, professional networks and job fairs. But you can't rely on it. You must make a special effort to reach this pocket of job candidates.
Very few recruiters, whether for paid jobs or volunteer positions, appear to have any idea about how to reach qualified candidates with disabilities. Through no fault of their own, they don't know "where the disabled people are." Disabled people, after all, are not - well -- centralized. We are a diverse group of individuals with disabilities that require radically different adaptations and accommodations. Even within a specific disability such as blindness, there are incredible variations in terms of type, severity and need.
Disabled people also come from every other subset of humanity: gender, age, race, ethnicity, affectional preference, education, religion, ability, interests, politics, income, values etc. We do have disability organizations, but we are even more likely to form relationships with groups which address other interests: political parties, hobbies, places of worship, classes, professional organizations or sports activities. How do you find people who are everywhere?
We asked several job recruiters on recruitersnetwork.com and at the ACCESS 2001 job fair in Seattle, Wash., to think about the perfect tool to help them get their job opportunity information out to people with disabilities so they can reach the broadest pool of qualified candidates as possible.
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Recruiters Dream Big
Recruiters need tools that give them access to information about job seekers who meet the qualifications for open positions set by their companies or clients. The individual resume is the primary tool for this task. Many mainstream job sites on the Web are, in essence, huge databases, much like a massive filing system. They are popular with recruiters because, unlike paper files, they can be easily searched to find candidates with unique characteristics or qualifications.
The recruiters we interviewed expressed a strong preference for this type of tool over the more arduous and time-consuming task of simply finding places to post jobs. That these mainstream web sites allow job posting, too, simply strengthens the advantage such sites give recruiters.
It is not surprising that our group of recruiters dreamed of a similar tool for finding job seekers with disabilities. Many referred to it as "one-stop shopping." Gerri Deach of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions said, "I'd want a job site that is easy to post jobs on and easy to search for qualified candidates." With a smile, she added, "And it should be free!"
Several recruiters at the Seattle job fair mentioned America's Job Bank as a mainstream model for any job-matching web site with a disability focus. For recruiters, its most popular features include the following (taken directly from the site):
- Search through an extensive resume database.
- Post unlimited jobs.
- Get tips for creating job listings.
- Create a resume scout to search out potential employees.
By itself, the fact that any job announcements would, by definition, go to disabled job seekers specifically would solve the problem of making sure disabled people have access to the jobs you open. Such a tool dedicated to disabled candidates would attract even more recruiters, if it had some added features. Robert, the recruiter for Washington Mutual at the job fair, dreamed of a site that would connect all the disability job sites -- allowing him to submit one job announcement and have it posted on all.
Others said their ideal site would include articles about disabilities, jobs, and accommodations -- written specifically for recruiters. Recruiters felt that they would be more comfortable going into a conversation with a disabled candidate and then presenting him as a candidate to a hiring manager, if they were prepared with details about specific disabilities and what adaptations can be made to make certain jobs accessible.
For instance, one said, "I think I'd like some information where I can learn about the candidate and his disability, so I know what he can do. Maybe if I could talk to a rehab counselor or something." Her eyes widened when we suggested asking the candidate himself. "Well, yeah, that would work," she admitted. "And it would be easier and faster!"
Recruiters from Safeco Insurance expressed a preference for advice that is "not sugar coated." Referring to eSight's article, "Use Job Fairs to Recruit Visually Impaired Candidates, Enhance Corporate Success," one of the quartet stationed at the Safeco booth explained, "It wasn't rude, but it was direct. When disability information is too 'nice,' it doesn't help me feel comfortable. I feel much more at ease talking to blind people now that I know not only how to do it, but how not to."
It was interesting to us that a rather large percentage of the recruiters we met did not even think in terms of a useful referral tool such as the one described above. It may be that they had not thought about people with disabilities using sites such as Monster.com. Or maybe they assumed disability would not be revealed through the database entries of disabled job seekers. These recruiters puzzled over whether there were any local organizations for or comprised of disabled people they could contact. These recruiters were not wrong to include such resources in their plans. It's just that, relying only on such local organizations limits their recruiting potential among people with disabilities.
We spent a little time researching and found several existing resources that match some -- if not all -- of these recruiters' definitions of ideal recruiting tools.
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Tools: On the Web
Job Posting Sites
- recruitABILITY offers job and resume posting, a job search agent, a resume builder and other career search tools. Especially relevant: Tips for Recruiters. It has resources for agencies too.
- Virtual Career Fair for People with Disabilities
This site is hosted by Monster.com, which celebrates disabled employment in October as part of a national drive in the United States.
- Abletowork.org is sponsored by an alliance of 21 businesses and the National Business and Disabilities Council, including the Microsoft Corporation. The alliance was formed to increase employment opportunities for persons with disabilities through a new web site at Abletowork.org, which offers information about available jobs and job applicants.
- JobsAcccess offers job and resume posting, a job search agent, a resume builder and other career search tools. It includes a tool for applying to companies directly via the site.
- Choice Employment includes job and resume postings, a job search agent, a resume builder and other career search tools as well as information about adaptive technology.
- disABLED Resources, Employment Resources has job and resume postings, a job search agent, a resume builder, other career search tools and information about adaptive technology. Check this site's disability-specific information and financial-aid resources.
- About.com Resources for Disadvantaged Workers includes links to job sites for people with disabilities in the U.S. and elsewhere.
See also general diversity employment sites such as:
- Recruiters Network
- Diversity Careers Magazine
- DiversityLink
- Diversity Resume Event
Informational Sites
See some of the job posting sites, some of which offer information, as well as the following.
- eSight Careers Network contains a growing database of practical, real-world articles for and about employees and entrepreneurs who have visual impairments as well as other physical disabilities. It also includes information specifically for employers and recruiters about how to effectively tap the potential people with disabilities offer as employees.
- HireDiversity's People with Disabilities Channel is a general, diversity employment resources site which has news about employment of people with disabilities. It also includes job and resume postings, a job search agent, a resume builder and other career search tools.
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Tools: In Your Hometown
Job Placement and Vocational Services
- State or provincial vocational rehabilitation programs.
- Local university/college student employment and placement services and job fairs -- as well as disabled student services.
- Disabled job placement or support services.
- Staffing services. Companies like Bender Consulting, Just One Break and HirePotential specialize in placing workers with disabilities in temporary and full-time positions. Equality Staffing is a new placement service for professionals with disabilities.
- Job fairs sponsored by disability organizations.
- Employment listings in disability publications.
- Municipal work programs. Contact your mayor's office.
Community Education and Services
- Business networks fostering employment of those with disabilities. Check your local Chamber of Commerce. Example: Washington State Business Leaders Network
- Social services organizations for various disabilities. Many have public education programs. Contact your local community information center or United Way to find many of these organizations.
- Programs dedicated to helping people with disabilities pursue a variety of interests (including arts, recreational or other interests).
Consumer/Affinity Groups
- Consumer/advocacy groups, such as National Federation of the Blind, American Council of the Blind, Blinded Veterans and other such organizations.
- Clubs for disabled people who share certain recreational or social interests, such as blind amateur radio operators or wheelchair basketball tournaments.
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Be Prepared
You already have tools in place for recruiting new job candidates. But you must make sure the tools themselves are accessible. Have alternate ways to fill out applications, take tests, and interview people who may have limited vision, hearing or mobility. Make sure your job line has a TTY number for hearing-impaired people. Look for the hidden but built-in barriers that go beyond simply not receiving applications from disabled candidates but actually prevent it.
Finally, be prepared to throw out all of your assumptions about what disabled people can do. One fellow on recruitersnetwork.com told us he had no reason to try to reach more blind or visually impaired job candidates because he only recruits computer workers "and blind people can't use monitors." As an adaptive technology expert expressed it, "Really, monitors are just adaptive technology for visual people. The monitor is not the computer." There are non-visual means to working on a computer, so this recruiter's assumptions were sadly limited. And if you want to know what a blind or visually impaired person can or cannot do -- ask one.
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