What is Workforce Diversity in the Context of Recruiting & Hiring

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Diversity at your workplace is more than just checking off those government boxes when it comes to your annual Affirmative Action Program or asking candidates to complete their voluntary self-identification questionnaire.

As business leaders and recruiters, we must go beyond the standard view of workplace diversity. It isn’t some ill-funded and obligatory program that your Diversity Director is enthusiastic about. It isn’t just fulfilling your affirmative action plan requirements by advertising your job openings with a women’s or veterans job board or magazine. Diversity is bigger, deeper and farther reaching that a handful of US requirements and laws. It is the future of a successful company.

Diversity is about diverse experiences, backgrounds, education and life choices. Sometimes that translates into creating a women-in-technology program at your organization and other times it means creating an job training program for professionals with visible and invisible disabilities. Recruiting a diverse workforce has numerous benefits on your corporate success far beyond the legal implications.

Companies who are recruiting a more diverse workforce will see results on not only the bottom-line but the following:

Connection to the customer: Unless your company is extremely niche the biggest benefit to having a diverse workforce is being able to understand your customer. Employees bring different cultures, backgrounds, and skills to the table. When working a diverse customer base it’s important to also be diverse in your workforce so you’re able to connect with customers on several different levels.

Employee innovation: A clear benefit to hiring a more diverse workforce is the innovation that comes along with it. Working with the same people, same ideas, and same thought-process means your company isn’t going to grow. A diverse set of people is essential for company growth and innovation on all levels.

Employee recruitment and retention: A workplace that emphasizes interests and concerns for its employees, as people will make it easier to attract a higher-quality workforce. Companies who tout recruiting a well-rounded workforce will attract smarter individuals from different backgrounds.

Employee motivation: A more diverse workplace means people will be seen and treated with the same respect as everyone else. When there are no special treatments based on whatever diverse trait you posses employees feel better about their workplace and the company they work for. This is one of the best ways to get organic motivation. When employees are happy their productivity and motivation increases.

When a company is known for hiring a diverse workplace whether it be for those who are disabled, veterans, women, or different ethnicities it makes the recruiters job a whole lot easier because they’re not recruiting for a company that has a solid reputation in recruiting practices. Never underestimate diversity hiring and the impact that it can have on all facets of your business.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

The Untapped Talent Pool of Candidates with Disabilities

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

We will first define the word disability and discuss how HR professionals often associate employees with disabilities purely within the context of common employment laws like Americas with Disabilities Act.

Disabled workers in my experience are some of the most productive and with just a small amount of accommodation at companies I have worked at, I was able to make an impact for the employee and my team. Mind you, I worked in the private sector and where requirements where much different. Even so, I saw an immediate return on investment and the impact one individual can truly make on a team.

Whether you are a private company or a government entity, the benefits of hiring and retaining the disabled workforce is far reaching. The talent pool is an eager one. They are engaged and ready to put their skills to work and most importantly learn at your company.

According to ADA.gov, a qualified individual with a disability is:

A qualified individual with a disability is a person who meets legitimate skill, experience, education, or other requirements of an employment position that s/he holds or seeks, and who can perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation. Requiring the ability to perform "essential" functions assures that an individual with a disability will not be considered unqualified simply because of inability to perform marginal or incidental job functions. If the individual is qualified to perform essential job functions except for limitations caused by a disability, the employer must consider whether the individual could perform these functions with a reasonable accommodation. If a written job description has been prepared in advance of advertising or interviewing applicants for a job, this will be considered as evidence, although not conclusive evidence, of the essential functions of the job.

Once you’ve successfully followed the definition of a ‘qualified individual with a disability’ it’s important to understand how to work them into your recruiting strategies to enhance your talent pool with these candidates. In a previous post we described six valuable disability recruiting and hiring resources that’ll help recruiters get a jumpstart on governmental resources that’ll help them hire stronger disabled candidates.

Benefits of hiring candidates with disabilities

Aside from practicing on an enhanced set of ethics and principals there are both branding and business benefits behind hiring those with disabilities.

Disabled workers tend to be more productive: According to a recent article in Salon, Walgreens stated that Americans with disabilities are the best workers that they hire. According to multiple studies conducted at Walgreen’s distribution centers shows that disabled workers are more efficient and loyal then nondisabled workers. Most can’t even tell the difference between who is who when it comes to working with a disabled workforce. The stigma is you’re disabled only if you’re noticeably disabled which isn’t the case for most disabilities.

Disabled workers allow companies several different tax breaks: For businesses that are looking for ways to reduce tax burdens, hiring disabled workers can offer a healthy option of tax benefits. For instance, making your workplace more accessible is a tax break in itself. Businesses are also able to qualify for an opportunity credit, which is widely available to companies that hire workers with special employment needs.

Companies who hire a disabled workforce are able to see numerous benefits from better employment branding, a more productive workplace, and tax relief.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

The Nine Faces of Your Workplace Diversity

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

When it comes to diversity, the EEOC or Equal Opportunity Employment Commission along with our government has an opinion and expectation on who and what is considered diversity.

Those individuals are workers who fall into what we refer to as a protected class as part of the hiring process under Title VII, ADA, GINA and ADEA.

1. Age (over 40),
2. Disability
3. Genetic Information
4. National Origin
5. Pregnancy
6. Race/Color
7. Religion
8. Sex

...and when it comes to hiring and recruitment there is a 9th, Veterans.

Government bodies like the EEOC, OFCCP and DOL exist to help organizations stay in compliance with the United States employment laws when effectively recruiting candidates specifically those who are minorities or members of diverse groups or communities. These nine faces of workplace diversity make up the entire ecosystem backing how your workplace operates, but what about those who don’t necessarily fit into one of these groups? For instance, just because someone is white doesn’t mean they’re not Native American which makes them a protected class.

In the next five to ten years everyone in the workplace will be a protected class. In order to create an environment where everyone belongs, no matter what class of people they belong in, companies need to start eradicating workplace stereotypes. The smaller your company is the easier it’ll be to implement a system and grow off the system as your company starts to grow.

In doing so, companies will be able to not only comply with federal regulations, but implementing these measures will strengthen their employer brand.

Assessing the need: It’s important that before you start creating any type of diversity program you assess the specific needs of your company. Most companies know they have diversity issues but cannot pinpoint the exact location of the error of their ways.

Make the business case: Your key leaders are going to want to understand the business case for having a diversity program. Come up with a game plan and tell them how it’s going to affect the bottom line. Letting them know that by creating a diversity program their profits and competitiveness will increase.

Set clear expectations: It’s important to have a clear expectation when introducing a diversity program in your workforce. What do you want to gain? What is the overall goal of the program? How will you measure the progress of the program? How will negative behavior be dealt with?

Behavior that is clearly out of line with the expectations of the program should be addressed immediately. Regardless of items included in a performance document employee patterns of disrespectful behavior should be notated and dealt with. Send a clear message about what this program entails and why it’s important that exclusion should not be practiced at work.

Taking this initial step will allow you to start a conversation with your employees and eventually build your employment brand on a foundation of acceptance and understanding no matter what class someone belongs to.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

HR Tech & US Law Must Evolve When It Comes to Candidates & the ADA

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

The Americans with Disabilities Act is hands down the biggest and most important piece of employment law legislation that has occurred in the history of employment law. The legislation which was first became law in 1986 continues to be of important as more than 22 million American workers have a disability according to a 2010 study by Kessler Foundation and Harris Interactive.

Twenty-two million eager to work candidates is a talent pool worth considering and yet many employers do not. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed believe their disability is keeping them from working let alone applying or even approaching a recruiting or hiring manager about an opportunity.

The applicant tracking system or ATS was born out of the need for compliance to US employment laws and retention programs that have changed little since they were first developed in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. It was a simpler time when people still applied for job openings in person often at a kiosk or computer located in an office or designed application area at a company. It was a time when 50% of the job seekers weren’t searching and surfing for a job via their mobile phone like we are as of June 2014.

It was a time when candidates applied in person using a paper or electronic application with the likelihood that they would meet a hiring manager or personnel representative to ask question about the job posting and even request an accommodation as part of the hiring process or interview process as outlined by the ADA.

Job seekers requesting a reasonable accommodation must provide advance notice to employers and submit their request either verbally or written. How does a sight-impaired job seeker submit a written or verbal request to a recruiter using a 1985 developed ATS? How do they connect with a recruiter and a hiring manager when the technology is simply a one-way engagement from recruiter to job seeker and not the other way around?

Aside from legislation or case law to update the request for accommodation process, the solution lies in the recruiter and the technology creating software enhancements and a workflow to make it easier for candidates to request accommodation and ask questions. The application process should be a conversation where candidates regardless of their age, sex, ethnicity, veteran status and disability are able to communicate openly with the recruiter and their potentially new employer.

Developing a new way of thinking when it comes to HR Tech will allow employers a better means of dealing with ADA requests and other governmental rules and regulations. Before creating a new HR Technology product it’s important to take a look at how this product can help streamline and keep practitioners in compliance with all laws and regulations. The outdated way of thinking will only serve as a roadblock to practitioners using your product in their workplace. We all know the practitioner is the #1 compliance king or queen and suiting their needs should be your #1 focus.

For the practitioners, how much does compliance when it comes to ADA affect your choice in the HR Technology selection process? For tech companies, how often are you thinking about compliance when it comes to building your product or service?

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

5 Myths About Hiring Workers with Disabilities

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

When candidates identify themselves as being disabled its sometimes triggers human emotions and thought processes that simply aren’t true. When it comes to the disabled workforce there are lots of myths out there about the downfalls and obstacles employers have to overcome and jump through to maintain a profitable and smooth workforce. These myths create the wrong impression for new business owners and those who have zero to little experience in disability hiring. Take it from me; it’s not bad as they say it is.

5 myths dispelled about hiring workers with disabilities

Reasonable accommodations are expensive. Companies are required by law according to the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA to offer employees a reasonable accommodation to their job if they have a disability. The assumption is that these accommodations are expensive but this is not the case. The average cost of a reasonable accommodation to an employer is less than $500.

I don’t have any employees at my company who have a disability. Disabilities can be visible or invisible meaning that they can be seen or not. According to the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability employment policy, 19.1% of the American workforce is disabled as of February 2014.

Persons who are deaf make ideal employees in noisy work environments. Loud noises of a certain vibratory nature can cause further harm to the auditory system. Persons who are deaf should be hired for all jobs that they have the skills and talents to perform. No person with a disability should be prejudged regarding employment opportunities.

Hiring employees with disabilities increases workers compensation insurance rates. Insurance rates are based solely on the relative hazards of the operation and the organization's accident experience, not on whether workers have disabilities.

Under the ADA, an employer cannot fire an employee who has a disability. Employers can fire workers with disabilities under three conditions:

1. The termination is unrelated to the disability or
2. The employee does not meet legitimate requirements for the job, such as performance or production standards, with or without a reasonable accommodation or
3. Because of the employee’s disability, he or she poses a direct threat to health or safety in the workplace.

With these myths now dispelled it’s important that employers learn the benefits of hiring those who are disabled. It’s also important that job seekers don’t classify all disabled workers, as those confined to a wheelchair because there are hundreds of disabilities out there that most aren’t even aware of if the candidate didn’t flat out tell them. Be proactive and start hiring based on merit instead of looking at someone and disqualifying them based on disabilities.

How has your company taken strides to hire more disabled workers in your workplace?

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.