In the modern working world, talent can come from anywhere. By adopting a more inclusive work culture, it’s possible to appeal to the highest echelon of talent who have disabilities. Here are a few steps you can take to build a more diverse, skillful team.
Culture
Prior to starting the recruitment process, it’s important to build a culture of inclusivity. Ideally, this means building the infrastructure and shaping the behavior of the company to be welcoming, educated, and diverse with regards to differently-abled individuals. There are many ways to improve the understanding of your team – one of these is to introduce diversity seminars or other online courses.
It may also be worthwhile to implement diversity practices within your bureaucratic infrastructure to better support differently-abled employees. Review your company code of ethics, logistical expectations (working from home days, for example), disciplinary measures, and more. Your policies should be non-discriminatory, considerate, and inclusive – check other companies to see if these can be used as reference.
Accessibility
Accessibility applies to both physical and digital spaces. Your website can be adapted for better compatibility with assistive devices, allowing users to enlarge font sizes, access keyboard shortcuts, and utilize ARIAs (Accessible Rich Internet Applications). Your website can be an excellent advert when it comes to recruiting differently-abled talent, showcasing your inclusive culture.
The office itself should also be adjusted to cater to those with physical disabilities. This can be achieved with a few key renovations, such as accessible washrooms, height-adjustable desks, and wheelchair ramps – claimable as ADA incentives, which are available to small businesses with yearly revenues of under $1,000,000. You may also be able to make use of assistive technology focused on speech recognition, specially-designed listening devices, or other automated systems.
Recruitment
Hiring individuals with disabilities requires some presence of mind. It may even be wise to consult with local or national organizations to seek advice or hire a specialist to oversee operations. At the very least, be sure to understand inclusive language and protocols, ensuring that you respect candidates as individuals.
Another positive step you can take to incentivize candidates would be to establish an internship program designed to incubate diverse talent. By providing internships to those with disabilities, you show that your company is looking to give opportunities to individuals from any background, and it’s often possible to foster excellent employees using this strategy. An internship coordinator will be able to help you get the ball rolling and advise on the best policies for your company.
An additional key incentive would be to offer continuing education funding with an online university program. See your options in regards to remote learning, and you may find it’s possible for your new employees to earn a business degree whilst working full-time or tending to family obligations.
Administration
When it comes to recruiting new staff members of any background or origin, it’s important to be aware of basic housekeeping. This could involve establishing your business in the eyes of the state to maintain tax compliance and obtain an EIN. The IRS will use your EIN for payroll taxes, and you’ll need it when offering employees retirement plans.
When a company embraces diversity, everyone wins. Take a closer look at your existing processes and procedures to determine which changes can be made to refashion the business into one that appeals to and benefits differently-abled individuals.
Special Sib is a blog dedicated to the happy and not-so-happy moments of being a caregiver and running an occupational and yoga therapist clinic. Learn more about our services at: www.specialsib.com
Image by Pexels
