Labor Market Signals U.S. Employers To Embrace Hiring People with Disabilities

By LeighAnn Jarry

Editor’s Note: Employers seeking to expand their workforce are encountering challenges due to the tight labor market. Despite offering generous benefits and higher compensation, it is difficult to find employees. But there is a virtually untapped pool of applicants – people with disabilities.

Now is exactly the right time for employers to turn their attention to a population of individuals who are qualified, ready, and willing to reenter the workforce: former employees with disabilities.

The Ticket to Work, Employment Networks, and Work Incentives

Most employers are more than willing to hire individuals with disabilities, but they are often uncertain where to locate them. And what many don’t realize is there is a hiring framework in place to support their needs. This framework includes Employment Networks. The primary goal of ENs is to prepare individuals with disabilities to return to work through resume guidance, interview prep, and helping people who are looking for work to find jobs that are the right fit.

“Often these individuals have been working for decades, experienced a life-disrupting medical issue, and needed time away for treatment and recovery,” said Diane Winiarski, director of vocational rehabilitation for Allsup Employment Services. “Now they’re back and ready to work.”

Millions of these unemployed individuals are available immediately to fill open positions across the country. By engaging with them through ENs, employers could solve their hiring problems and create a more diversified workforce in one fell swoop.

ENs are service providers with the Ticket to Work program, a voluntary program administered by the Social Security Administration that connects people with free employment services to help them return to work. The TTW assists individuals with disabilities who have been out of the workforce begin the process of preparing to return to work with their prior employer or to pursue a new career – while at the same time protecting their Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Long-term, their goal can be to leave the SSDI program and earn more for their financial futures.

The TTW includes work incentives, which help to eliminate the risks surrounding the return to work for these job candidates. The work incentives allow individuals receiving SSDI or other benefits, such as Medicaid or Medicare, to keep them while transitioning back into the workforce. If an individual needs to stop working or leave the workforce for any reason during the transition, the TTW enables participants to continue receiving their benefits.

Improved Financial Performance for Employers

There are many advantages to hiring employees with disabilities, aside from filling jobs quickly during this labor shortage. According to research from Accenture, companies that prioritized the inclusion of individuals with disabilities were four times more likely to outperform their competitors in shareholder returns and had – on average – 28 percent higher revenue, double the net income, and 30 percent higher profit margins. Employee retention is also higher in a diverse workplace environment, which comes with the bonus of less money spent on recruitment and training.

A change in perspective could be incredibly valuable for employers interested in taking the next step forward in hiring more individuals with disabilities. “Be more open to looking at applicants with the necessary qualifications, experience, high motivation, and teachability,” Winiarski said, “regardless of whether or not they have a medical condition.”

Individuals with disabilities may have significant gaps in employment, but are more than qualified to handle the positions for which they apply. Employers need to be willing to at least offer these individuals the opportunity to interview for the position — especially when qualified workers are harder to find.

Interim and Contract Work

Another important way to ease the transition back to work and encourage more individuals with disabilities to apply is offering an interim work opportunity or contract position. Giving employees a set time period of several months to complete a project allows employers to see if the individual is a good match. It allows candidates to perform the job and show employers they can carry out the responsibilities required of them. Clearly, the TTW program offers a wide variety of powerful incentives that help beneficiaries test their ability to return to work as they evaluate their job placement, health stability, and adaptability to returning to work.

Prior to the pandemic, employers may have been hesitant to hire individuals with disabilities out of concern that the disability would interfere with the person’s ability to perform the essential functions of the position. The scarcity of workers currently applying for open jobs provided an ideal opportunity for employers to move past this outdated notion and diversify and improve their hiring practices going forward with the help of Employment Networks and the Ticket to
Work.

About LeighAnn Jarry

LeighAnn Jarry has written 1 posts in this blog.

LeighAnn Jarry has more than 17 years of experience in the disability insurance industry as a technical expert and advocate for those seeking Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. As Assistant Vice President, she is responsible for overseeing Allsup Employment Services (AES), a national SSA-authorized Employment Network (EN) that provides specialized help to people with disabilities who are returning to work through the Social Security Administration’s Ticket to Work (TTW) program. She proactively identifies, defines and champions new growth opportunities while incorporating strategies to produce better quality results and customer experiences. LeighAnn also leads the company’s Continuous Improvement Committee. Most recently, she was the Director of Sales and Account Management for commercial business where she directed the delivery, performance, service and retention of commercial clients. She joined Allsup in 2017, following prior leadership roles in sales, client relations, account management and operations for disability insurance organizations. LeighAnn holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from The University of Massachusetts and EDPNA Certification from the Social Security Administration.