Recruiting and Retaining Employees with Disabilities

This video features employees with disabilities and employers discussing the benefits of employing individuals with disabilities and steps they've taken to recruit and retain employees with disabilities. Also available with audio description: https://youtu.be/AWxSS9-CvkA

>> Sean Marihugh:
My name is Sean Marihugh

and I work at Microsoft.
I’m an escalation engineer

on what's called the
Disability Answer Desk

which is a free
technical support service

for customers with disabilities.

>> Jean Hodgson:
I'm Jean Hodgson.

I work for PROVAIL.

We're a nonprofit organization

that advocates for
folks with disabilities.

We help them get into
the mainstream job market,

into mainstream jobs
working with Americans

in the fields of all
different types of work.

>> Sam Sepah:
I'm Sam Sepah.

I am an HR professional
and I have worked

for a variety of tech companies
over the last 10 years of my career.

And now I'm focusing on
recruitment for software engineers.

>> Susan Sears: I'm Susann Sears
and I work for the University of Illinois,

specifically with the Disability Resources
and Educational Services office.

>> Mike Forehand:
I'm Mike Forehand.

I work in the recruiting space

with a focus on
creating diversity outreach

primarily towards the
disabled community.

>> Tony Baylis:
My name is Tony Baylis.

I work at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory

that's in Livermore, California.

It's one of 17 Department of Energy labs.

Our focus is on national security.

[music]

>> Sean Marihugh:
People with disabilities

are in general fairly underrepresented
in a lot of fields.

Computing’s definitely one
of the top drivers--- top fields there.

I think it's really critical
that we, that students,

feel encouraged and empowered
to pursue fields of computing

because I think they
can pave the way

to make everyone else's experience
with technology better.

>> Tony Baylis: How are we
supposed to solve societal problems

if we're not representing
society as a whole?

And in that regard,
you need to be inclusive

with the individuals that you're serving
and that's the entire population.

If you have 2 billion
people with disabilities,

how can you ignore that?

How can you ignore not inviting
them into the discussion?

>> Sam Sepah:
Candidates with disabilities

have a unique thought process
to bring to a company.

Our country is diverse so the
marketplace needs to attract

a lot of diverse people who will

use the products that we're selling
or the services we're providing.

If a country is diverse, your team
needs to be diverse as well

to parallel what our
country's demographics are.

>> Mike Forehand:
As team members

they're just as passionate
about making a contribution

and being a part of a broader team
as everyone else is,

the difference being that
they look at the world

and they have different
problem-solving and coping skills

that lead them to
different solutions.

>> Sean Marihugh:
I don't think it's the case

that someone with a disability knows
everything about everyone else's disability,

but I think they bring a
certain empathy to a company

so they'll understand people
have different experiences

and having interns and
employees with disabilities,

I think they can bring
that perspective.

>> Tony Baylis: I think having people
with disabilities in your culture

actually helps people
to better understand

about our cultural differences,
about our learning differences,

about how you can have
different perspectives.

>> Sam Sepah:
More sensitivity is needed

when you're talking about interviewing
these type of candidates.

You need to think about the support
that they're going to need

in the interview beforehand.

And have more of a streamlined process

that makes the candidates feel welcomed
right at the start of the interview

so that they feel welcomed
into the team.

They know what's going to
have to be happening

in the process
of the interview.

It empowers them
and really allows

for that magic to happen
in the interview process.

>> Jean Hodgson: We work currently
as a partner with Microsoft

on their autistic hiring program.

We help them recruit,
we help them obtain lots of individuals

that they might include
in their hiring pool.

We coach the folks that are
going to be interviewing them,

we coach the interviewees

in helping them through
some of the difficult areas

like phone screenings,

making a little bit of a
softer job interview process

so that you can get to the core
of the skills of the individual

and see if they are a great fit
for your employment.

>> Sam Sepah: One study
that really inspired me

that I read about was asking
customers in the marketplace

if they learned about a company
that hired people with disabilities.

What they found out was that customers
that found this out about companies

would be more willing to buy
their products and services

and we learned that it's because
customers have more respect

for a business that does that

not only because it's
the right thing to do

but because they're really
taking charge of that responsibility.

They're committed to diversity
and hiring a diverse workforce,

including people with disabilities.

>> Jean Hodgson: Anytime that inclusion
is part of a goal, everyone benefits.

And when there's technology
that is inclusive,

such as videos
that are captioned

or websites where it's more accessible
to someone with any type of difficulty,

then there’s a more
expansive audience,

there’s more expansive
ability for profiting.

>> Susann Sears: I think that
the investment in everybody's future

has to do with building and
designing things that are accessible

from the very beginning.

It's an investment for
all our futures,

not just the person,
individuals, with disabilities.

None of us know what's going
to happen to us individually.

In a matter of seconds,
your whole life can change

and you yourself may join
the disability community

and need these accommodations,

so it's not just about, you know,
hiring and recruiting people

but it's an investment
for all of us.

>> Tony Baylis:
I think we have a challenge,

but to include
people with disabilities

we have to start to work on
shedding biases in general,

these implicit and unconscious
biases across the board

and that’s even with
people with disabilities.

I think we'll have
a long road, unfortunately,

but I think it's a road
that we can work together.

I think we need organizations
and companies

to collaboratively
work on this effort.

>> Mike Forehand:
In an environment

where industry is based on
cross-cultural collaboration

and everything is
kind of team-oriented,

having a completely different
point of view is invaluable.

>> Sean Marihugh: When we're
bringing the perspectives of,

at least considering the different
perspectives that other people have,

I think we can make our products
way more inclusive,

make our culture,
make our workplace

just way more inclusive
and a better place to be.

>> Susann Sears: Truly,

attitudinal access is the most
important part of being inclusive.

It's not physical access.
It's attitudinal access.

So we have to impact culture
and I know that takes a while

and that can be challenging

but I think starting out small
and having one good success

is an incredible start and then
you build momentum from there.

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