Why Hire People With Disabilities
Inclusion makes business sense
Hiring workers with disabilities can positively impact a company’s bottom line. Here’s why:
- People with disabilities are an untapped resource of skills and talents. In many countries, people with disabilities have skills that businesses need, both technical job skills and transferable problem-solving skills developed in daily life.
- People with disabilities represent an overlooked and multibillion-dollar market segment that market is disabled persons and their families and friends. Ignoring this market may mean losing not only the disabled consumer but his or her family and friends. As the population ages, so does the incidence of disability. It makes sense to have employees who know first-hand about the product and service needs of this consumer segment.
- Hiring people with disabilities increases workforce morale. Many employers report that teamwork and morale improves when disabled workers become part of the staff.
- People with disabilities make good, dependable employees. Employers of disabled workers consistently report that, as a group, people with disabilities perform on par or better than their non-disabled peers on measures such as productivity, safety and attendance.
- People with disabilities are more likely to stay on the job. The costs of job turnover, such as lost productivity and expenses related to recruitment and training, are well known to most employers.
- Reputation - according to a university of Massachusetts survey, 92% of the American public view companies that hire people with disabilities more favourably
- than those that do not.
SOURCE: businessanddisability.org