Category: job

Press Release: NOD Releases Important New Findings from Campus to Careers Demonstration Project in Time for College Graduation

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Roadmap Identifies Strategies and Solutions for Employers and Universities to Create Better Access to Job Opportunities for Recent Graduates with Disabilities

 

NEW YORK (April 25, 2023) – A new report released by the National Organization on Disability (NOD) and The Burton Blatt Institute finds employers reporting significant difficulties identifying and recruiting students and recent graduates with disabilities. At the same time, those students with disabilities are faced with challenges long before they even begin to look for work.  These unfortunate circumstances were the motivation to launch NOD’s innovative Campus to Careers Demonstration Project.

The Campus to Careers Project, supported by lead funder The Coca-Cola Foundation, and in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Work Without Limits Initiative, has served as a living laboratory to test, to evaluate and share ideas and strategies among dozens of employers, universities, colleges, and students. The findings are now available in NOD’s Campus to Careers Roadmap. It provides practical recommendations, including checklists and video assets, for employers and universities to understand the challenges employers experience in engaging students with disabilities; the obstacles students with disabilities experience in transitioning into their chosen field; and the important role career and disability services play on campus. The Campus to Careers Roadmap can be downloaded free here.

“Recruiting college talent is becoming more competitive every year, and employers need a solid strategy to compete for skilled and diverse graduates,” said NOD President Carol Glazer.  “A productive recruitment strategy requires a dedicated commitment and can take some time to develop, but employers will see a return on investment by including people with disabilities who have incredible talent in their employment process.”

As part of this project, NOD and its partners met with college and university students who shared their job search and recruitment experiences which uncovered surprising realizations for students with disabilities. Some examples include:

  • “Career services told me to go to a temp agency…they said that was the best I could do.”
  • “What I immediately look for these days is screen reader accessibility. That’s usually an indication of the company’s commitment to equal opportunity employment.”

“Students with disabilities are an important asset to any organization,” said Felicia Nurmsen, managing director, employer services for NOD. “In addition to the skills all college graduates have, they bring intangible life experiences and attributes that are not immediately apparent on a typical college transcript. Our corporate partners have demonstrated a strong commitment to hiring well-qualified college students with disabilities, but it was apparent that these employers were still facing challenges identifying and recruiting people with disabilities. Our Campus to Careers Roadmap materials highlight the incredible talent that people with disabilities bring to the table and how to make them part of your team.”

As one University Director stated in the research, “There is a real fear on the part of our students. They have had negative experiences and may think ‘if my professor who I’m paying to be in their class is disrespectful to me, I’m certainly not going to say anything to an employer about my disability.’ Or ‘Why would I go into a position actively identifying myself as a person with a disability when I feel like that automatically makes me more vulnerable?’.”

“It is essential to create equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities to ensure everyone can contribute to society and demonstrate their talents”, said Saadia Madsbjerg, president of The Coca-Cola Foundation. “By partnering with NOD, The Coca-Cola Foundation is helping these individuals acquire the necessary skills and resources to be competitive in the job market. This collaboration is empowering students with disabilities as they transition into the workforce.”

“Partnering with NOD to develop the Campus to Careers pilot program was an important step in furthering our mission of equal employment for people with disabilities,” said Kathy Petkauskos, director of Work Without Limits, a program of ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School. “Employers recognize the value of the program and are prepared to recruit and hire from a talented candidate pool. It is so important to work together to provide opportunities for employers to connect with job seekers, and NOD has opened pathways to employment with Campus to Careers that were not there otherwise.”

The Campus to Careers Demonstration Project was made possible by the generosity of The Boston Foundation, The Coca Cola Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Roosevelt Warm Springs Foundation, and The UPS Foundation.

 

About NOD

The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to increase employment opportunities for working age Americans with disabilities who are not employed. To achieve this goal, NOD offers a suite of employment solutions, tailored to anticipate, and meet leading companies’ workforce needs. NOD has helped some of the world’s most recognized brands be more competitive in today’s global economy by building or enriching their disability inclusion programs. For more information about NOD and how its portfolio of professional services, Leadership Council and Employment Tracker™ can help your business, visit www.NOD.org.

About The Coca-Cola Foundation

Established in 1984, The Coca-Cola Foundation has invested more than $1.5 billion globally to protect the environment, empower women to thrive and to enhance the overall well-being of people and communities.

About Work Without Limits  
Work Without Limits, a program of ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School, is a network of employers, educational institutions, employment service providers, state and federal agencies, and individuals with disabilities and their family members. Through collaboration and partnership, our goal is to provide programs and services that increase employment for people with disabilities.

 

Media contacts:

Steve Aaron | 717.554.8614 | [email protected]

Kim Lehman | 717.599.0891 | [email protected]

Focus Atlanta – Hiring Diversity

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Tuesday, February 6, 2023

In a recent interview with Focus Atlanta, NOD Chairman Luke Visconti discusses the increase in employment of people with disabilities during the Pandemic, as well as the tapering off of that success as the Pandemic has eased. 

Watch the interview to learn about why self-ID rates of employees with disabilities have recently decreased and what employers can do to help these employees feel comfortable in the workplace. 

Original post at cbsnews.com

Navigating Workforce More Challenging For Those With Disabilities, Advocates Say

Posted on by Daniel Golden
modernized handicapped sign is affixed to a door at the The Mall at Millenia in Orlando, Fla.

Originally posted January 31 2023 on ksby.com by Scripps National News

Remote work has opened up more opportunities for people with disabilities but as more companies adopt hybrid work schedules or require people to return to the office, disability advocates are worried about losing the gains made during the pandemic.

They say a big concern is people not feeling comfortable telling their employers about their disability.

“Self-disclosure rates are going down, which to me indicates a diminishing of trust that people don’t trust their employer,” said Luke Visconti, chairman of the National Organization on Disability.

A new report from the National Organization on Disability shows companies tracking retention of people with disabilities are reporting a 40% turnover rate.

The rate of people disclosing their disability decreased by 11% in 2022. It decreased by 15% the year before that.

“It’s not about doing something special for people with disabilities, it’s about being nice, and that transfers to everything you’re doing. Your customers, your suppliers, your investors,” said Visconti.

Disability advocates say it’s on companies, not workers, to build a relationship that will make someone feel comfortable disclosing their disability.

“In my experience of over 40 years in these companies, there’s no downside to this. There’s all upside,” said Doug Conant, a board member with the National Organization on Disability. “And these people are dying to contribute. All we need to do is give them the proper opportunity, and make sure the companies are prepared to follow up and deliver that opportunity consistently.”

Advocates say disabled workers looking for a job can look for signs on a company’s website that indicate it would be a good environment for someone with a disability.

Original post at www.ksby.com

NOD Rallies for Companies to Commit to More Diverse and Inclusive Workforces in 2022

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Annual Employment Tracker Reveals an Increase in Hiring People with Disabilities, While Self-ID Rates Decrease

 

NEW YORK (December 8, 2021) – The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is encouraging all companies to look closer at the 80-percent of working age Americans with disabilities who are not employed and to make disability inclusion part of their overall business strategy in 2022. While recent reports and results from NOD’s annual Employment Tracker are trending positive with an increase in people with disabilities entering the workforce over the last 12 months, self-identification (self-ID) rates have decreased from 4.09 in 2020 to 3.68 in 2021.

The NOD Employment Tracker is the only free assessment tool available that focuses on the workforce, to help companies better gain a deeper understanding of how their key business practices correlate to improved talent outcomes related to hiring, retention and tenure. Companies can access the free NOD Disability Employment Tracker here.

“I am cautiously optimistic and encouraged by the latest reports that show the labor force participation rate for working-aged people with disabilities has increased by 11.3 percent over the past year,” said NOD President Carol Glazer. “This is tremendous progress for the disability community and for that we need to celebrate.  However, we can’t stop here. There is more work to be done to ensure that all people with disabilities feel comfortable identifying with a disability, no matter their type of disability or the environment within which they work.”

In its ninth year – and with companies who together employ more than 10 million Americans already taking the annual survey – the NOD Employment Tracker assists companies to make disability inclusion part of their overall business strategy and to find the right talent while removing inclusion barriers for good.  According to the 2021 Employment Tracker report, employers that track not only self-ID rates, but other talent outcome metrics, such as promotions of employees with disabilities, demonstrated self-identification rates three times higher than those that only examined self-ID.

The Tracker data also showed NOD’s Leadership Council members performed better and were more effective at implementing best practices, programs, and policies. Specifically, these members have 38% higher self ID rates and are better than non-members at adopting the most effective disability inclusion practices.

Glazer added, “I would encourage all employers to take advantage of our Employment Tracker to access how they benchmark against more than 200 participating companies and receive pertinent information to create a diverse and inclusive workforce.”

For 2022, NOD will continue to partner with Talmetrix, a national employee feedback, research and insights company. By using recent market research, the two organizations created a dynamic disability benchmarking tool that provides companies with the cutting-edge, outcome-based data metrics they need to build a more inclusive workforce, which is proven to enhance innovation and increase engagement with employees and customers.

Companies who complete the Tracker by March 11, 2022 will receive a free Scorecard report, benchmarking their performance against all other participants in key workforce inclusion areas: (Strategy, Talent Outcome Metrics, Climate & Culture, Talent Sourcing, People Practices, Workplace Tools & Accessibility, and Veterans (optional). The 2022 Scorecard reports will be available for participating companies in early summer 2022. In addition to receiving this powerful benchmarking tool, top performing companies are eligible to compete for NOD’s annual Leading Disability Employer Seal.  A list of the 2021 Leading Disability Employers can be found here.

 

ABOUT NATIONAL ORGANIZATION ON DISABILITY 

The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to increase employment opportunities for the 80-percent of working age Americans with disabilities who are not employed. To achieve this goal, NOD offers a suite of employment solutions, tailored to meet leading companies’ workforce needs. NOD has helped some of the world’s most recognized brands be more competitive in today’s global economy by building or enriching their disability inclusion programs. For more information about NOD and how its professional services, Leadership Council and Employment Tracker™ can help your business, visit www.NOD.org.

Are We Beginning to Narrow the Gap on Disability Inclusion in the Workplace?

Posted on by Daniel Golden

By Carol Glazor, President of NOD

 

After decades of seeing no real change, something finally may be shifting, and more people with disabilities are finding jobs.

NOD’s 2021 Employment Tracker shows that the percentage of new hires with disabilities among major employers is increasing. While the numbers are still too low, it is more progress than we have seen in a generation.

I believe the reason is a convergence of a few things. The constant drumbeat about the need for disability inclusiveness in the workforce from organizations such as ours. People with disabilities also have been caught in the more recent rising tide of awareness about discrimination and inequity, along with other marginalized groups.

Even though people with disabilities are disproportionately represented in low-wage, high-contact jobs that can’t be done remotely, others of us who for years asked for remote work as an accommodation, won that right during the pandemic.

And there’s always the economy. While job openings reached historically high levels in the spring, businesses are scrambling to find workers. Increasingly, they’re turning to previously-untapped labor sources.

We still have a long way to go, especially as nearly 1 million people with disabilities lost their jobs during the beginning months of COVID. But the numbers are ticking upward. The labor force participation rate for working-age people with disabilities increased from 32.7 percent in September 2020 to 36.4 percent in September 2021, up 11.3 percent or 3.7 percentage points. For people without disabilities, the labor force participation rate also increased, but at a much lower rate — only 0.8 percentage points, from 75.7 percent in 2020 to 76.5 percent in September 2021.

In other good signs, NOD’s Leadership Council made up of companies seeking to better their disability workforce numbers, added eleven new members in 2021, the largest increase we’ve seen since the Council was created. The number of companies filling out our Employment Tracker survey that gauges performance in disability workforce inclusion increased by 20%, to a new high of 228 companies.

And we could see even bigger gains. The Biden administration is focused on increasing funding for “Home and Community-Based Services,” which will allow more people with disabilities to get and hold jobs, and is asking Congress to provide grants to states to phase out subminimum wages for people with disabilities.

This is all positive, and as we close out National Disability Employment Awareness Month, I am happy to have more to say this year than the usual list of apprehensions and negative statistics about job numbers. This is no time to celebrate, however. More companies need to include everyone when they have job openings, and Congress needs to act on behalf of people with disabilities.