Disability work force management and accessibility

Management of disability workforce is a big challenge in government, non government and corporate organization due to lack of awareness about  working stile of individuals with disabilities, inaccessibility at workplace  and unskilled human resource with disabilities. Government organizations are hiring persons with disabilities on large scale not considering their potential and capabilities but to fill their backlog of reservation which is the reason that Employees with disabilities do not get suitable job and duties. It seems that most of the Corporate organizations are also willing to hire persons with disabilities to showcase that they are equal opportunity employer. Several organizations really wish to make themselves as an equal opportunity employer. But they don’t have proper approach and strategy for retention of disability work force. Employers are hardly able to understand requirement of employees with disabilities and follow best practices for disability work force management.

This extended abstract presents an accessibility model for disability work force management in an effective way as a solution for the problem. It is the outcome of the author experience in the area of accessibility and assistive technology training in last 8 years.

It is a five steps implementation model that provide sequential and systematic points for hiring and retention of disability work force.

1.        Set up diversity and inclusion unit: 

      Diversity and inclusion unit shall be set up in the organization which will be responsible for addressing all the matter related to disability work force such as accessibility of workplace, procurement of assistive technologies, training and sensitization to staff about employees with disabilities, accessible recruitment, orientation, training, retention etc. It shall have representatives from board of directors, VP HR, a person with disabilities from middle level management and a technical person from middle level management along with a small team of HR and web accessibility. Each organization should have clear policy and procedures for disability workforce management which will be monitored by diversity and inclusion unit. Small organizations can avail such services from the experts outside of the organization.

2.       Make the workplace accessible:

Workplace accessibility is the crucial part of retention of employees with disabilities and their productivity. Therefore, It is essential for organizations to ensure accessibility at workplace before starting recruitment. All the infrastructure including digital and built infrastructure should be made accessibility compliant as per appropriate standards and regulations. services like web portal, web mail services, human resource management system, inventory management system, customer relationship management system, sales and distribution system etc should be made accessibility compliant. Built infrastructure such as building corridors, restrooms, staircases, furniture, parking, cafeteria and recreational facilities etc should be made accessibility compliant as per appropriate standards and regulations. Appropriate assistive technologies should be made available to the employees with disabilities to access the systems.

Accessible workplace ensures productivity of employees with disabilities and organizations can use their full potential and capability.

3.       Accessible recruitment planning:

Before starting recruitment, organizations must ensure accessibility compliance at workplace. Experts in disability matter should be deployed for job identification. These experts will analyse various available portfolios in the organizations and segregate them with the consideration of specific disabilities. All the recruitment activities like job advertisement, recruitment place, aptitude test, group discussion and personal interviews, communication of results and offer letters should be made accessibility compliant with the consideration of appropriate accessibility standards and regulations.

4.       Retention planning:

After accessible recruitment, the activities like job orientation, training and work culture should be made accessible. Appropriate assistive technologies shall also be provided to the employees with disabilities by understanding their need. All the peer staff of the employees with disabilities in the organization should be sensitize about persons with disabilities and their specific need so that all the people in the organizations will be aware of challenges of persons with disabilities and they will help include them all the activities. Employees with disabilities will have perfect inclusion in the entire work force and their subordinates will also be get motivated by them. Diversity and inclusion unit of the organization shall provide concern support service and consultation about identification of specific need of employees with disabilities, procurement of assistive technologies, assistive technology training and sensitization in all the employees in the organization.

5.       Budget and control:

Understanding  business case of equal opportunity employment, Appropriate budget should be allocated for accessibility implementation and retention of employees with disabilities at organizational level. This investment for accessibility compliance and equal opportunity employment be helpful for the organization in long run growth. and On bench employees can be engaged for creation of accessible work culture. Job extension of interested employees can also be done for ensuring accessibility compliance.

Conclusion:

A comprehensive model in the form of step by step procedure for disability workforce management in the entire setting of the organization is developed from personal user and research experience that can be referred by any government or corporate organization. It is applicable for organization of any size and type.