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Perspectives of the Retail Sector on the Disabled Workforce
Brigida Hernandez, Ph.D. DePaul University
Katherine McDonald, Ph.D. Portland State University
Study commissioned by disabilityworks
in collaboration with
Mayor's Office of Workforce Development
David Hanson, Commissioner
Carole Ko, Project Coordinator
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities
Karen Tamley, Commissioner
Carolyn Jones, Assistant Commissioner
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Gerald Roper, President and CEO
Peggy Luce, Vice President
disabilityworks
Karen McCulloh, Executive Director
Joe Chiappetta, Managing Director, Chicagoland Provider Leadership Network
Lindsay Caldwell, Managing Director, Chicagoland Business Leadership Network
Sarah Lawrence, Healthcare Industry Coordinator
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 (U.S. Census, 2006). Although representing 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 20 businesses from three sectors (healthcare, hospitality, and retail) and will 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 of company leaders and senior Human Resources (HR) representatives for each business sector provides feedback on the research design and instruments, and assist with participant recruitment.
(2) Focus Groups: Company leaders and senior Human Resources (HR) representatives 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: Participating companies collect cost-benefit data on their employees with and without disabilities.
(4) Feedback on Results: Company leaders and senior Human Resources (HR) representatives provide reactions to research findings.
(5) Educational Campaign: Research findings are disseminated to Chicagoland businesses.
This report highlights findings from the Retail Focus Group (Phase 2). These data were collected in October, 2006.
Participants
Four individuals from three establishments were represented in the retail focus group. These participants included:
· Human Resources Representative (1) · Human Resources Manager (2) · District Store Manager (1)
All participants had been involved in the retail sector for several years.
In addition to participating in the focus group, participants completed a brief survey on disability practices and procedures at their sites. One survey was completed per organization for a total of 3 surveys. From the surveys, we learned
· Two participants reported being somewhat knowledgeable about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (67%). · One site offered ADA training to their managers when they began their management positions (33%). · No sites offered additional disability training to their managers or employees. · One site had an ADA compliance officer, department, or division (33%). · Two sites had a reasonable accommodations policy (67%). · No sites trained their managers on their reasonable accommodations policy.
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, three of the participants in the focus group were associated with upper management in Human Resources. One individual was a district store manager.
Findings
Recruiting Individuals with Disabilities
Commitment to Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
Participants expressed a strong commitment to hiring individuals with disabilities, with one retailer sharing that their mission was to have 20% of their workforce be individuals with disabilities. Participants shared that workers with disabilities diversify their companies and positively impact their workforce and customers.
In addition, these retailers reported having many entry-level positions that can be readily filled by people with disabilities (including baggers and bus persons).
Despite an expressed commitment to hiring individuals with disabilities, one store noted that they are unable to recruit an adequate number of employees with disabilities. This may be due, in part, to a perception that retail positions are a poor fit for individuals with physical disabilities.
Manager Bias
Participants also noted that one barrier to hiring individuals with disabilities was manager bias. In some cases, this bias appeared related to a lack of experience with workers with disabilities. In other cases, it appeared related to a previous negative experience with a disabled employee. Participants acknowledged that managers needed more education and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act and more experience with hiring disabled individuals.
Relationships with Employment Programs for Individuals with Disabilities
All three sites reported that their retail stores had existing relationships with programs that assist individuals with disabilities obtain employment. Some of these relationships were stronger and more successful than others. Most applicants referred by these agencies had developmental, learning, or hearing disabilities.
One retail store was initially concerned about hiring individuals with disabilities, given the physical and fast-paced nature of their positions. As a result, they worked closely with one social service agency to ensure positive experiences with hiring disabled workers. The social service agency referred qualified individuals for positions and supported, with the assistance of job coaches, these employees throughout various phases of employment. To date, the collaboration with this agency has been a successful one.
Other stores' experiences with such social service agencies have been less positive. They have not received the same level of support for new employees with disabilities and feel that some agencies are more interested in the quantity of placements than the quality of placements, and thus are not making appropriate referrals.
"Our mission in retail is 20% of our workforce should have disabilities ... we're having difficulty attracting people with disabilities. So far the only alternative is to target social service agencies to attract that population in."
"Managers have been on board because they're interested in fulfilling some of our mission to increase diversity with the workforce and they recognize the benefits that having a person with a disability provides."
"I would say that the training piece [on disability issues] for the managers is absolutely not where it needs to be."
"I think that people with physical disabilities might be a little disinclined to apply in our stores just because of the physical nature ... I don't know that we create the environment that really says, "Hey, we're welcoming to those who are physically disabled." Promoting Individuals with Disabilities
Reluctance to Seek Promotions Participants reported that promotions among workers with disabilities were limited. Instead, their disabled employees tended to stay in their original positions. The low promotion of this group may be related to many employees having developmental disabilities. However, as employees gained experience and skills overtime, some received title changes (reflective of a promotion) and wage increases within their job classification. A few employees attempted new positions to discern whether these positions were a good fit, some doing so successfully. Employees with other types of disabilities (for example, hearing and physical) tended to have higher promotion rates.
Costs and Benefits of Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
Costs
Costs associated with accommodating workers with disabilities were not substantial, nor were costs a major concern among retail representatives. Accommodations provided at these sites included sign language interpreters for meetings, stools, special lighting, signage for employees who are deaf or hard of hearing, and translating an employee handbook into Braille.
Participants were not aware of instances in which essential job duties needed to be modified for employees with disabilities, nor had there been any complaints regarding increased supervision of or absenteeism among disabled workers.
Lastly, participants did not report concerns with health care costs for employees with disabilities.
Benefits
Participants noted multiple benefits associated with hiring individuals with disabilities including gaining reliable and hardworking employees, who displayed positive attitudes toward their work.
In addition, workers with disabilities furthered the stores' commitment to diversifying their workforces. This diversity then had a positive impact on non-disabled employees and customers.
"Some have expressed interest and we let them try - give it a shot. They can always go back to their old job...we've had limited success."
"Costs are minimal or the instances have been minimal."
"He's been with us for 35 years [worker with a disability]. He's never missed a day and he's never late. Whenever there's a snow storm, he prepares to get to work on time and most of the time the manager's not there. So we look at that individual and say, "Wow! We need more guys like that."
"The customers really appreciate it [associates with disabilities]."
Recommendations
As we make recommendations based on finding from this focus group, it is important to keep in mind that only three companies were represented. Therefore, recommendations reflect the nature of their experiences. However, it is our belief that others from the retail sector may have had similar experiences and may benefit from these recommendations as well:
1. Among our participants, training on disability issues and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was quite limited. Thus, there is a great need for disability training to be a core component of managers' training. In addition, this training should be ongoing and in-depth.
2. Managers would also benefit from having more direct experiences with the disabled workforce to combat biases they may have toward people with disabilities. Therefore, opportunities to recruit and hire people with disabilities should be strengthened. In addition, attention should be paid to promoting the success of such endeavors.
3. Although participants had existing relationships with social service agencies to employ people with disabilities, some of these relationships were less positive for some employers than others. The support of job coaches throughout various phases of employment seemed vital, particularly for workers with developmental disabilities. As a result, there is a need to establish supports (for example, job coaches) for workers with disabilities to be successful with new employment opportunities.
4. Retail companies 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 colleges and universities may be a potential resource for such an effort.
5. Given that many employees with disabilities were not seeking promotions, retail stores may benefit from actively encouraging promotion opportunities with existing employees who are disabled, and recruiting more professionals with disabilities.
