Business has seen interesting times over the past year, to say the least. Economic recession began with the close of the 2007 fiscal year, and it was impacting employment numbers by the middle of 2008. Applications for Federal disability increased dramatically in mid 2008 as well, illustrating an increase in unemployment among those with disability (i). This trend was not unique to our most recent recession, however. Data suggests that those with disabilities are among the first to be fired and the last to be rehired when the economy begins to falter.
Unemployment Explanations: Worker Insecurity, and Disability Employer Fear
One explanation for the correlation between disability unemployment and tough economic times is worker insecurity. Workers with disability voluntarily leave the workplace when the economy begins to turn, seeking to replace their unstable work environment for the certainty of Federal programs that provide unemployment benefits.
Another explanation links the correlation among increased disability unemployment and a “recession economy” with employer fear. Organization leaders know that tough economies require efficient and productive business operations. Fearing insolvency, disability employers must move to cut costs while improving efficiencies across all departments. Downsizing seems inevitable, and employees with disabilities are among the first to be perceived as inefficient and expendable. In fact, research suggests that when recession strikes, employees with disabilities “may be the first to be laid off in a recession and the last to be hired when conditions improve” (ii). Deep, often unconscious prejudices about workers with disabilities may label the individuals as unproductive, fragile, or inferior, and thus subject them to unfair scrutiny or dismissal.
Increasing Worker Retention with Disability Education
Organizations must strive to increase efficiency, especially in stagnant or declining economies. Human capital must be retained, as it is the main driver towards production, innovation, and longevity. Diverse workplaces must recognize all workers as drivers towards recovery rather than superfluous costs, regardless of their physical or mental ability.
Disability education can help to build a culture where this ideal is held in high regard. By exposing employees to disability products that spread awareness, employers are able to accomplish two goals. First, they build an environment where workers with disability may feel comfortable, and thus less likely to leave. Second, disability training products build unity among all levels of an organization. This unity drives efficiency and productivity, two elements critical to surviving a down turned economy.
(i) Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2000 (Social Security Administration, 2001); Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2009 (Social Security Administration, 2010).
(ii) Douglas Kruse and Lisa Schur, “Employment of People with Disabilities Following the ADA,” Industrial Relations, 2003, p. 31.
Organizations often face the dilemma of strategic orientation. While this dilemma takes on many forms, the two most common are quality orientation versus production orientation. Providing high quality customer service, for example, usually consumes the time necessary to also maintain high quality internal production.
Overcoming Communication Barriers with Disability Education
One way to adopt high standards for both quality and production is to departmentalize operations. This is not a new concept; many companies have production departments that are separate and distinct from customer service departments. However, fragmented departments must be able to communicate effectively in order maintain overall operational efficiency. For disability employers, this issue takes on added difficulty because peer-to-peer communication is framed in an inclusive workplace with many challenges that must be met and overcome.
Employees of all ability levels must have a sense of disability awareness and advocacy in order to communicate effectively and maintain a streamlined flow of information. Employers who utilize disability education resources can help employees cultivate the skills necessary to work inclusively. The skills needed to work in inclusive environments are not attained overnight; ongoing disability education seminars are vital in bringing together and uniting employees of all ability levels.
Goal: Autonomy Through Disability Education
Disability education programs do more than build awareness and cohesion, however. For disability employers, ongoing education and awareness initiatives help to build a sense of autonomy in workers with disabilities. Studies are increasingly relating worker autonomy with increased job satisfaction, which in turn increases productivity.
Further, autonomy among individuals within separate departments drives quality production by facilitating worker communication and information flow. Managers are turning to programs and strategic orientations that increase worker autonomy for this very reason. For disability employers, the issue of developing worker autonomy is not so easily addressed. Internal disability awareness and education programs are instrumental, however they are just a starting point. Persons with disabilities often need supplementary disability products to aid in developing professional skills like autonomy and efficacy.
Program Development Associates offers a new product this month to help persons with disabilities cultivate these essential workplace skills: The Discovering Your Personal Power Curriculum. This guide helps those with developmental disabilities learn of their individual, inherent, personal power. With 30 full-scale activities on a CD-Rom that can be reproduced for use among several individuals, the Discovering Your Personal Power Curriculum represents an essential tool for disability employers looks to build worker autonomy.
Program Development Associates offers a variety of tools to minimize communication barriers among the members of an organization. PDA offers several multimedia resources to aid in establishing effective communication skills in the workplace.
Community Support for People with Disabilities
Providing a supportive community is the best way to facilitate effective communication. For those with disabilities, supportive environments add an element of inclusion that is critical for professional development. In order to construct an inclusive environment, an organization must be prepared to identify with the special needs of each member, regardless of mental or physical ability. Second, an organization must take strides to meet the special communications needs of each employee, once identified.
Augmentative Communication Strategies for Adults
PDA offers the Augmentative Communication Strategies for Adults book to give business professionals expert guidance in identifying a multitude of disorders and illnesses. Each section provides current and rich information as well as proactive measures to take when communicating. This guide also provides professionals with a CD-ROM of complementary tools to aid in assessing how much communicative support an individual needs.
Conversation Skills: On the Job and in the Community
The Conversation Skills book concentrates on illustrating the skill sets necessary for communicating with people with disabilities. Particularly beneficial for employees, this book helps those with disabilities become integrated and valuable organization members. Skill sets are built through brief 10 minute lessons, issued twice weekly over the course of 3 months.
Effective communication requires all parties involved to be aware that special communication needs may be necessary. In a diverse workplace, this disability awareness must be taught through disability training resources including DVDs, text books, CD-ROMS, and other interactive mediums. PDA has many disability training DVDs for business professionals to implement when issuing diversity training among employees.
Communication skills can make or break a diverse workplace. Organizations that hire persons with disabilities must recognize the fundamental need for improving communication skills, both on a macro and micro scale. Organizational leaders must be attentive to the communication practices between coworkers as well as those that are broadcasted throughout the organization as a whole.
This month, Program Development Associates features the Communicating with Tact, Candor, and Credibility D.V.D. to help organizations improve communication skills among their members. This digital resource explores the use of subtle mediation to effectively communicate with employees, members of interoffice teams, and upper level managers.
The point of difference in this training resource is the methodology it establishes to facilitate communication. This methodology teaches viewers to identify the individual with whom they are communication in terms of four typical conversational roles:
The Escape Artist
The communicator who sidesteps interrogation and often has a finger to point.
The Judge
An intellectual, this communicator uses ethics and morality to frame the actions of her peers.
The Scientist
Intelligent by nature, this communicator likes facts, figures, and statistics, quickly ignoring qualitative data.
The Beggar
Compassionate and empathetic, this communicator means well but often asks for more than they contribute.
By identifying the conversational role of the person with whom they communicate, viewers are better able to understand the motivation and necessity behind messages.
Once viewers learn to correctly identify the communication styles of their coworkers, they are given guidelines to further effective employee communication efforts. These guidelines include: Rephrasing, tactfully constructing talking points, quick message construction, scripting, feathered speech, and reconstructing corporate jargon.
In addition to the Communicating with Tact, Candor, and Credibility D.V.D., Program Development Associates offers a range of resources to foster communication skills. These resources include D.V.D.s, CD-ROMs, and other interactive materials exclusively designed with the diverse workplace in mind.
