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Perspectives of the Hospitality Sector on the Disabled Workforce
Brigida Hernandez, Ph.D.
Katherine McDonald, Ph.D.
DePaul University
Study commissioned by disabilityworks in collaboration with
David Hanson, Commissioner
Rosemary McDonnell, Project Coordinator/EO Officer
Mayor's Office of Workforce Development
Karen Tamley, Commissioner
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities
Gerald Roper, President and CEO
Peggy Luce, Vice President
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Karen McCulloh, Executive Director
Joe Chiappetta, Managing Director of the Chicagoland Provider Leadership Network
Jennifer Schindl, Managing Director of Chicagoland Business Leadership Network
Sarah Lawrence, Executive Assistant & Community Outreach disabilityworks
Funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (Grant #02-79114). The opinions expressed here are of the authors and not necessarily of the funding organization.
Project Overview
In the United States, approximately 51.2 million individuals have a disability. Although they represent one of the largest minority groups, the disability community experiences the highest rate of unemployment. Current figures indicate that 65 to 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed (National Organization on Disability, 2004; U.S. Department of Labor, 2005). Despite federal and state initiatives to combat this employment crisis, progress has been painstakingly slow.
Mayor Richard Daley recognized that the Chicagoland area needed to take action and made the employment of disabled individuals a local priority. In 2002, he commissioned the Mayoral Task Force on Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Task Force). This Task Force assembled leaders from the local city government, private businesses, not-for-profits, and universities to promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities. One of the initiatives that emerged from this Task Force was the Economic Impact Study (EIS), which aims to examine the economic costs and benefits associated with hiring people with disabilities. This study will involve approximately 24 businesses from three sectors (healthcare, hospitality, and retail) and will track and compare data on workers with and without disabilities across a number of variables (for example, tenure, absenteeism, and performance ratings).
The EIS involves five phases:
(1) Advisory Group: An advisory group for each business sector provides feedback on the research design and instruments, and assists with participant recruitment.
(2) Focus Groups: Participants attend a project orientation session, contribute to a discussion on their experiences with hiring individuals with disabilities, and coordinate a disability training session at their site.
(3) Survey Administration: Participants collect cost-benefit data on their employees with and without disabilities.
(4) Feedback on Results: Participants provide reactions to research findings.
(5) Educational Campaign: Research findings are disseminated to Chicagoland businesses.
This report highlights findings from the Hospitality Focus Group (Phase 2), which explored participants' experiences with hiring people with disabilities. These data were collected in April 2006.
Participants
Five individuals from four hotels were represented in the hospitality focus group. These participants included:
- Directors of Human Resources (3)
- Assistant Director of Human Resources (1)
- Human Resources Manager (1)
All participants had been involved in the hospitality sector for several years.
In addition to participating in the focus group, participants completed a brief survey on disability practices and procedures at their hotels. One survey was completed per organization for a total of 4 surveys. From the surveys, we learned
- Three participants reported being very knowledgeable about the ADA (75%) - Three sites offered ADA training to their managers (75%)
- Two sites offered disability sensitivity training to their managers (50%)
- Two sites offered ADA training to their employees (50%)
- One site had an ADA compliance officer, department, or division (25%)
- All four sites had a reasonable accommodations policy (100%)
- Three sites trained their managers on their reasonable accommodations policy (75%)
After completing the survey, participants took part in a focus group that lasted approximately 90 minutes. Focus group questions explored: - recruiting, interviewing, hiring, retaining, and promoting people with disabilities - providing accommodations for disabled workers - perceptions of costs and benefits associated with the disabled workforce
A verbatim transcript of the focus group was produced and analyzed to identify core themes. As a reminder, participants in the focus group were associated with upper management in Human Resources.
Findings
Recruiting Individuals with Disabilities
Relationships with Youth Employment Programs
Three of the sites (75%) reported that their hotels had existing relationships with programs that assist youth with disabilities in obtaining job training and job placement. These youth included both high school and college students. Often, youth of these programs went on to become successful hires at the hotels.
Usefulness of Disability Employment Agencies
Participants have also benefited from relationships with more general disability employment agencies. These relationships have helped provide applicants with disabilities and supports (for example, a job coach) to ensure their success on the job.
However, participants stressed that disability employment agencies needed to maintain their relationships with the hotels. Many well-established relationships had dissolved over time. While participants noted that there was a mutual responsibility to maintain such relationships, they felt that it was important for employment agencies to sustain regular contact. Without regular contact, the hiring of individuals with disabilities is restricted to those who apply independently.
Commitment to Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
According to participants, a personal commitment to hire people with disabilities is critical. This commitment translated into HR Directors and Managers becoming personally involved in hiring the disabled workforce. This involvement entailed selecting departments that would be good fits for workers with disabilities, using creative approaches to present new hires to immediate supervisors (for example, having a supervisor first meet an applicant with a visual impairment over the telephone), assisting new hires with complicated job applications, and serving as an advocate for employees with disabilities during their tenure.
Manager Bias
Participants reported that some managers were biased against individuals with disabilities. According to participants, these managers held beliefs that productivity would suffer, supervisory time would increase, and frequent absences would occur, if individuals with disabilities were hired in their departments. Participants noted a variety of factors that may have contributed to these biases, including lack of experience with the disabled workforce, lack of knowledge on how to communicate with individuals with disabilities, and fear and prejudiced attitudes toward individuals with disabilities (shaped in part by negative media portrayals of the disability community).
"Hiring managers have to tweak a little bit the way they present an applicant to the management."
"There are certain department heads that ... I wouldn't forward that candidate to that person because I wouldn't think that [the hiring manager] would have the ability to work through the disability."
"There is a need perhaps for some advocates within the company ... to advocate for the people with disabilities when things don't go well."
"I don't have people ringing my phone, saying, 'Hey will you hire these people?'"
"I think they're scared, there's fear there. Not knowing ... how to communicate with the individual, not knowing what their limitations are."
Interviewing Individuals with Disabilities
Concerns with the Legal Aspect of Interviewing Applicants with Disabilities
When interviewing applicants with disabilities, participants acknowledged that there is fear about asking "wrong" questions from both legal and sensitivity standpoints. The lack of experience with the disabled workforce and knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) employment provisions contributed to these fears. It is interesting to note that none of the hotel representatives recalled an ADA-related lawsuit during their tenure with the company.
Moreover, some participants reported that they did not have sufficient knowledge of disability issues themselves to adequately train others in their organizations. It was striking to learn that many participants felt that more attention was paid to accommodating customers with disabilities than to employees with disabilities.
Another concern raised by participants related to the increase use of online job postings and applications, and the possibility that these materials may not be accessible to many members of the disability community. There were genuine concerns that the number of individuals with disabilities applying for jobs may be significantly reduced, given the many companies are relying on electronic means to disseminate and gather employment information.
"It's nerve-racking in some cases because you're kind of afraid of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing."
"I don't feel like I'm educated enough to come in and train my managers as to how to deal with working with someone who is disabled."
Having Individuals with Disabilities in the Workforce
Successes and Challenges
Overall, participants reported positive experiences with hiring people with disabilities. They highlighted how job-training opportunities often led to employment opportunities in their hotels. At times, participants felt that the support of job coaches were critical to employment success.
Although not the norm, participants also reported some problems related to attendance among employees with disabilities. They attributed the absences to a lack of adequate communication between employees and managers. Participants also feared that these infrequent negative experiences might lead managers to over generalize and assume that others with disabilities will display similar behavior. Thus, advocates within the organization are essential to combat such beliefs.
Providing Accommodations
The interview process was viewed by some participants as an ideal time to address issues of accommodations. During this time, they ask prospective employees whether they are able to perform the essential functions of the job, and, if needed, engage in a discussion of job-related accommodations.
One hotel representative spoke about amending job descriptions for some workers with disabilities to ensure positive employment outcomes. At times, these amendments would lead to reduced pay because job responsibilities had been reduced significantly.
"We have amended job descriptions for people with disabilities. And, then amended the pay rate, based on fairness as to what aspect of their job they are doing."
Promoting Individuals with Disabilities
Reluctance to Seek Promotions
Participants reported that their employees with disabilities tended to remain in their positions, and typically did not seek promotions. Participants attributed this to employees' comfort, satisfaction with, and loyalty toward their current positions. One hotel representative noted that it was not common for the employer to encourage promotions among employees with disabilities.
"I think it's by choice ... they are happy with their jobs and they want to stay where they are."
"There is a pride aspect too, they have a level of experience that ... a lot of other associates don't have."
Costs and Benefits of Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
Costs
According to participants, financial concerns related to employing individuals with disabilities have been largely overstated. They added that the costs of accommodations did not inhibit them from hiring people with disabilities.
However, participants acknowledged that there were some costs to employing individuals with disabilities. These included: - Additional time needed to train some employees with disabilities (including re-training) - Training to colleagues of employees with disabilities (for example, teaching colleagues how to communicate with a co-worker with hearing loss) - Financial costs related to the provision of assistive technology and/or sign-language interpreters
Overall, participants did not report a strong concern with healthcare costs for employees with disabilities. However, a few participants wondered whether workers' compensation costs were higher for the disabled workforce when compared to the non-disabled workforce.
Benefits
Participants reported that employing people with disabilities has brought many benefits to their organizations. Workers with disabilities were viewed as loyal, reliable, and hardworking.
Moreover, hiring people with disabilities has helped affirm the hotels' commitment to the diversity of their workforce, and, in turn, has fostered a positive work environment.
"[The] biggest factor that I have to overcome is this person's feeling they're going to have to spend more time helping this person."
"I don't think any of us have probably experienced any really huge costs where we've had to remodel something."
"You have the loyalty, you have the longevity, you have people that are hardworking. What better benefit can you ask for?"
"I get wonderful feedback from our associates who ... will say, 'It's so nice that we work for a company that looks at everybody'."
Recommendations
Based on findings from the Hospitality focus group, a number of recommendations are suggested:
1. Although participants reported that disability training is already offered at their sites, based on their responses, there is a great need for disability training to be ongoing and in-depth. In particular, the interview process and job placement of disabled workers presented some challenges. Given that the hospitality sector employs a great number of individuals, it may be worthwhile to establish an ADA compliance officer, division, or department to help facilitate the successful employment of workers with disabilities.
2. With the interview process, there was also concern that company websites used for job postings and online job applications may not be fully accessible to the disability community. This may result in fewer individuals with disabilities applying for positions. It is recommended that sites contact their regional Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center at 1-800-949-4232 for more information about making their websites and application materials accessible.
3. Manager biases were evident in the responses of participants, and are an area of concern. Manager would not only benefit from disability-related information and education, but they would also benefit from having more direct experiences with the disabled workforce to combat their biases. Therefore, opportunities to recruit and hire people with disabilities across all departments should be strengthened.
4. Although participants reported great success with employing people with disabilities through disability employment agencies, some of these relationships have dissolved. Thus, there is a need to reestablish connections with disability employment agencies to increase the pool of applicants with disabilities and to obtain supports that may be needed to help with their employment success.
5. Hotels should also increase their efforts to recruit qualified disabled applicants, who are not associated with disability employment agencies. For example, disability services programs at local college campuses are a potential resource.
6. Given that many employees with disabilities were not seeking promotions, hotels may benefit from actively encouraging promotion opportunities with existing employees who are disabled, and recruiting more professionals with disabilities.
