Attracting top talent should mean widening your search to include disabled candidates who may be able to lend a different skill set to roles you have advertised. How you go about this, however, might be a different ballgame as far as sourcing, recruiting, and retaining top disabled candidates goes. Here's how to approach this process as best you can, courtesy of GigWorx.
Creating an Inclusive Culture
Creating an all-inclusive workplace is perhaps one of the most important steps in establishing a culture that welcomes and accommodates candidates from all walks of life. This often starts from the bottom up in an organization by generating awareness amongst the public and amongst potential candidates that your aim is to include everyone who is suitably talented regarding your advertised positions.
Change Company Policies to Accommodate Diversity
Further to creating an inclusive company culture is implementing reasonable accommodations in the workplace to facilitate the recruitment process. It also means making sure that all employees are provided with the tools and resources to execute their functions successfully.
This includes making sure your workspaces are ADA compliant, including the restrooms. Upgrading restrooms for compliance is a pretty straightforward task for commercial plumbers. A local commercial plumber should be able to come out and give you a reasonable estimate for the work. Maintaining compliance is critical for supporting disabled staff.
Transforming Workspaces to Cater to Everyone's Preferences
Along with adjusting policies and procedures regarding how things are done, there may be tangible adjustments that need to be done to an office or workstation to make it more functional for those with various impairments such as incorporating screen readers, touchscreens, or braille embossers into an office setup or making the office more accessible by installing ramps within a space to make getting around in a wheelchair that much easier.
Good Housekeeping Rules to Abide By
Of course, there's no use going to all this effort without making sure your business is legally compliant too. For this, you'll need to ensure that your business is tax compliant and that you have an EIN (Employer Identification Number) to be able to offer your new recruits retirement benefits, as well as to ensure that all checks out in terms of payroll taxes for the IRS. Other things you'll want to consider as part of your general housekeeping rules include filling out a W-4 form, as well as informing your state's labor agency of your new employment status.
Changes in the Hiring and Onboarding Process
Of course, you're probably going to need to look at the recruitment and onboarding process differently than what you were used to. This may involve revising a lengthy application process to make it short and sweet as opposed to long and drawn out. In addition to the standard application methods, you may also need to look beyond these to include other simpler application methods such as a video interview rather than a written application to accommodate those who may not be able to complete a traditional application form.
Provide Avenues for Further Training and Skills Development
Employees living with disabilities may be feeling not as capable of achieving their goals compared to others. You could, therefore, think of ways to make furthering their education and skills easier by offering ‘learnerships’ or scholarships to those keen on progressing their careers further.
Making Positive Changes that Will Impact Generations
Most, if not all, businesses these days will need to take issues like hiring disabled candidates into account if they wish to be recognized in the marketplace. Because it is by catering to the needs of society that businesses are able to promote the positive and inclusive changes that the world wants to see. And it is only by recognizing and implementing these changes that businesses can be transformed to reflect a new workforce that includes each and every one of us, no matter our differences.
For help finding gig work and healthcare talent, visit GigWorx today!
