Should you hire more disabled people in your business? Chances are you already have. According to the Center for Talent Innovation, 30% of your employees may have a disability, with only 3.2% identifying as such.
Around one in five Australians live with some form of disability, which may involve hearing, sight, learning, acute and long-term illness, injuries and a whole range of neurodiverse. That’s two million Australians of working age with a disability.
For those that don’t keep their disabilities private, they experience a far more institutionalised exclusion from the workforce. For instance, people with a disability have an employment rate of just 48%, which is a huge gap between those that don’t identify with having a disability.
Many employers are unaware of the benefits that employing disabled people can provide, and have some serious misconceptions around the capability of disabled people in the workplace. In this article, we run through a number of advantages with engaging this segment.
What are the benefits for hiring disabled workers?
Let’s quickly run through some high-level facts around employing disabled people, according to JobAccess:
- 90% are as productive or even more so than other workers.
- 98% have average or higher safety records than their peers.
- 86% have average or higher attendance than other workers.
While it’s true that recruitment costs are lower for disabled people, hiring a disabled person on the cheap shouldn’t be the primary reason. Consider instead:
Improving diversity of thought in your organisation
We’ve often discussed the tangible benefits that organisations can receive when they build diverse workforces. From businesses being:
- 7 times more likely to be leaders in innovation
- Able to receive 19% higher financial returns
- 60% more adept at making decisions
Diversity doesn’t just make moral sense, it makes business sense too.
By employing disabled people in your business, you’re getting access to different backgrounds, approaches and alternative ways of solving problems. As we’ve said above, with one in five Australians being disabled, wouldn’t you want the ability to understand and engage with that market?
Access to a broader talent pool
While the great resignation might be more of an American phenomenon than an Australian one, there’s no denying that we’re in the midst of a severe talent shortage. According to Ai Group, 73% of businesses are expecting that they’ll have difficulty sourcing and retaining talent in 2022.
Now’s not the time to discount vast demographics of workers. By having a dedicated recruitment strategy towards disabled workers, you’re getting access to potential employees with the relevant skills, experience and qualifications to do the required tasks
Low attrition rates
According to a recent HR Industry Benchmark Survey, the average cost of hiring new workers has skyrocketed recently to $23,860. And the time to hire, train and deploy these workers has reached 40 days.
Employers report that disabled workers have higher levels of retention than other workers. Again, this is particularly helpful if your business is struggling to find and keep skilled workers.
That’s partly because companies with programs that purposefully seek to engage disabled workers often have accommodations and initiatives to keep those disabled workers. These programs, such as ergonomic desks or flexible working, don’t just serve to retain disabled workers, but your entire workforce.
Improved morale and brand reputation
According to a survey undertaken by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) and Deloitte, when employees feel that their organisation is committed to diversity, they also feel that their organisation is a successful one. An inclusive environment for all employees enhances teamwork and worker satisfaction.
What’s more, employing disabled people has a net positive improvement in an organisation’s brand in the market. A strong program for disabled workers resonates among customers, as well as being a significant factor when companies award contracts.
CXC’s support for disability recruitment
We augment our clients’ capabilities around attracting people with disabilities in the recruitment process.
CXC has developed supplier relationships over more than 30 years, with our initial offering managing and payrolling the independent contingent workers of recruitment suppliers. We have developed our knowledge, expertise and understanding of recruitment suppliers, payrates and the contingent workers themselves.
CXC has the ability to provide our clients with access to over 200 suppliers on pre-negotiated terms. We work with niche recruitment suppliers that have dedicated disability hiring practices. Our partner DFP Recruitment, for instance, has become the first labour hire Disability Confident Recruiter (DCR) agency in Australia in recognition of their commitment to advancing the inclusion of people with disability.
Resulting from our work in selecting specialist partners, our clients and candidates have confidence that in our practices treat every candidate with respect and our processes are equitable and fair. Combined with our inclusive recruitment practices, also assures our clients that we offer support for engaging people with disability into their workplace.
