Return on Disability: The Bottom Line

What if, rather than approaching disability inclusion from a philanthropy perspective, we approached it from a bottom line perspective?

That’s just what Rich Donovan, founder of Fifth Quadrant Analytics, believes will drive companies to truly make an impact on the pressing disability issues we face. Donovan helped develop the Return on Disability® Index, an equity index for U.S. and Canadian companies that are outperforming in the disability market. The methodology the index is based on is driven by the organization’s founding principle: treat people with disabilities as one would any other valuable emerging market. Why? Because …

Why We Need a Multi-Sector Approach to Employing People with Disabilities

Yesterday saw the close of the NISH Northwest and Pacific West Joint NCWC Conference right here in our hometown of Portland, Oregon. It was exciting to have the opportunity to share thoughts and strategies on increasing the employment of people with disabilities with other not-for-profit organizations working towards the same end. Moreover, it was encouraging to have leadership involved in the AbilityOne® program enthusiastic about the DePaul Industries’ model of using staffing to leverage business, in order to get as many people with disabilities into work as quickly and efficiently as possible. “NISH is very excited about the DePaul Industries model, recognizing that collaborating with business is crucial if we’re going to create a bigger pool of job opportunities,” said Bob Chamberlin, President & CEO of NISH. “NISH nonprofits, and therefore people with disabilities, can benefit from this staffing employment model.” In order to do this, we need a multi-sector approach—of which the biggest slice should be the private sector.

Here’s the reasoning:  In the United States, the rate of unemployment for people with disabilities is twice that of people without disabilities.

But it’s actually even worse than that: Of the total number of working-age people with disabilities in the U.S., only one-third of them are even participating in the workforce—with ‘participation’ here meaning that you either have a job or you’re actively looking for one. By way of contrast, three-quarters of working-age people without disabilities are participating in the workforce.

With this disparity as a backdrop, DePaul believes it must close the gap between unemployment of people with disabilities and people without disabilities by scaling its model to the fullest extent possible.

Running the numbers on these statistics, it will require that approximately 6.4 million jobs will need to be filled by people with disabilities in order to close this gap. While it’s important to leverage the current systems within the nonprofit sector and the governmental sector working to create jobs for people with disabilities, neither of those two sectors have the numerical capacity to create the total number of jobs needed. The only sector with the realistic capacity to create those jobs is the commercial sector.

This can all sound very daunting, but we believe that if the problem is big, you set your sights big. The key here is that isn’t just a theory or a pipe dream—we’re doing this every single day by listening to our customers, answering to demand, and providing them with workforce solutions that improve their bottom line. It just so happens that those solutions help people with disabilities get jobs.

We’re thrilled that NISH leadership and many fellow employment organizations walked away from the conference feeling engaged with a focus on the commercial sector. In order to achieve our vision of closing the gap of employment between people with and without disabilities, it’s going to take true collaboration across all sectors. With widespread adoption by nonprofit organizations, this employment approach has the potential to catalyze sweeping change in both the way we think about disability employment and the way that disability employment can improve the bottom line.

Interested in learning more? Find out about our current disability employment in Portland and beyond, hear about our model on a New Empire Builders podcast, or leave a comment below.

Disability Employment up 25%, Beyond Projections

Our Fiscal Year 2012 numbers are in, and we’ve got some excellent news: our number of hours worked by people with disabilities is up 25% from last year! This increase is beyond even our most optimistic projections, and means that our employees and customers are putting an even bigger dent in the problem of the lack of employment for people with disabilities.

Here are some highlights from the stat sheet:

     - The total number of hours worked by people with disabilities was 883,354 for Fiscal Year 2012, up by 25% from the previous year.
     - Of the 25% increase, 84% of those hours were worked by people with disabilities in the state of Oregon.
     - Our Project SEARCH program for people with significant cognitive or developmental disabilities increased its hours worked by 60%, thanks to our partners like OHSU, The Standard, and Providence.
     - All told, people with disabilities at DePaul Industries earned $12,642,000 in wages and benefits last year alone.

Those are our numbers, but we’re not selfish — One of the key statistics that we track is our attrition success rate. When one of our employees leaves us to go work for one of our customers or someone else, we consider that a success. We’re constantly working to better track how our former employees are doing, but we know for sure that last year, at least 275 of our employees left DePaul and headed off to another job, and that means 275 more people were able to come in and start work with us. We’re right on track to make even bigger headway in the disability employment arena in the near future.

This is all possible because of our customers—large and small private and public companies who hire our hard-working and dedicated employees to solve a business problem, increase their bottom line, and make their lives (and jobs) a little easier.

Classic win/win situation.

Disability Underemployment: Establishing a Workplace Culture of Accessibility

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs will host a disability underemployment symposium in Seattle next week (August 6 & 7). DePaul Industries’ CEO Dave Shaffer will be making a presentation on both days on Establishing a Workplace Culture of Accessibility — which, of course, means you have two opportunities to catch the presentation! Dave will share insight and experiences to help employers identify the impact that their workplace culture has on employees with disabilities, and unique ways to address potential issues.

The FREE event is chock-full of informative presentations highlighting and addressing the barriers that keep individuals with disabilities from reaching their full potential in the workplace. Panelists will discuss topics such as overcoming barriers to successful employment, general rights of employees with disabilities, disability disclosure, etiquette, culture of accessibility, reasonable accommodations and workplace design, benefits of disability employment, assistive technologies and online accessibility.

This event is FREE, but space is limited. Confirm your spot today!

Give Your HR Department a Break

Chances are, when you’re considering hiring seasonal or temporary employees, you need them in a pinch during an extremely busy period in your industry. While you may consider having your HR Department process the hires to save a few dollars, there might be a huge headache waiting in the wings during an already stressful and hectic time for your workplace.

Let’s say you need a bundle of temporary workers on short notice. Whether this is something you do often or just once in a while, there’s still a ton of work that goes into it. Your HR Department will need to:

• Develop and post job descriptions
• Determine pricing and benefit options
• Recruit via agencies, referrals, and ads
• Interview candidates and select them for hire
• Process background checks, drug screens, and reference checks
• Train new employees
• Process weekly payroll and benefits
• Manage employee issues, concerns, and workers’ compensation

So, the benefits? You can take a deep breath knowing that your staffing needs are taken care of, your HR Department doesn’t get overwhelmed, and you’re left free to focus on your strength: the business.

Want more resources? Check out this article on the benefits of hiring temporary workers. You’ll be glad you did — and so will HR.