Top Reasons To Employ Persons With Disabilities
Dependable
One of the main problems most employers worry about when employing someone new is if they don’t come to work every day when they should. However, when you actually look at the typical attendance statistics for disabled persons, you’ll see this is not something you should worry about.
According to a study, persons who have disabilities were found to be 40% less likely to be absent from work by taking time off or even going on sick leave in comparison to other types of workers.
Additionally, persons with disabilities also typically stay with companies much longer. In one particular call centre, they found that staff with disabilities usually stayed with the company for about 4.1 years whereas staff without any disabilities usually stayed for only about 3.2 years.
Many people believe that persons with disabilities get more injuries, however, they actually have much fewer accidents and injuries while at work.
This means that employers can easily enjoy a stable and better workforce by hiring persons with disabilities which will result in significant savings.
Different outlook
There is a typical misconception that persons with disabilities won’t be able to perform well at work. However, this is completely untrue and they actually perform in the same manner as any other employee. Of course, this is dependent on them being in the correct job.
There are also lots of employers who have staff with disabilities and they are their most productive employees. Also, they bring a different perspective and provide another way of thinking as well as life experiences that can help to solve work-related problems.
Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising since these persons are usually able to adapt quite well to different and challenging situations.
Additionally, when employers make it a point to hire diverse groups of people, this results in staff that are a lot more innovative, productive and a lot better at solving problems.
Provides more insight on customers
In Australia, every one in five persons has a disability. So, this means that many of your customers are likely also disabled.
Now, given this fact, it is important that companies include persons with disabilities in their staff.
By hiring persons with disabilities, you’d get more information on how to meet the needs of your customers with disabilities. Basically, an entire workforce without any disabled persons is similar to having a workforce that doesn’t have ethnic diversity. This is not only very limiting but also morally wrong. For more information, you may want to see ‘disability in the workplace‘.
Increases company likeability
Most people like companies that make it a point to be inclusive. This means not only customers but also employees.
There was a study that showed as many as 87% of people prefer to use businesses that hire persons who have disabilities.
In a similar fashion, persons who are looking for jobs also prefer businesses that also have a diverse workforce. This makes them more confident that the company isn’t discriminatory or unfair.
Basically, if a company wants to be a highly sought after employer, then it is important to avoid close-mindedness during the hiring process.
Excellent work ethic that spreads to other employees
As mentioned previously, persons with disabilities have many unique skills. Also, they not only have these skills but are able to share them with other employees.
Most people who have disabilities in a workplace tend to greatly improve the overall employee morale in the company while also increasing productivity and quality of work done.