Creating a Level Recruiting Field

Summary:
What can you do, as an employer, to help create a "level" recruiting field for job candidates with disabilities? Resolving these four issues, eSight members say, could give them a fair shot at mainstream jobs.

Guideline: Evaluate Job Candidates on a Level Recruiting Field

Need: Resolve Four Issues Which Can Skew Results

Approach: Conduct Job Interviews as Open Dialogues



Guideline: Evaluate Job Candidates on a Level Recruiting Field

The annual professional football draft in the U.S. is based on performance statistics obtained under uniform conditions, the most basic of which is a level playing field. Anything else can skew results and put the best performers (and the teams involved in the draft) at a potential disadvantage.

The same holds true for evaluating and selecting job candidates. The recruiting process must be conducted on a level playing field so you end up hiring the right job candidate for the right job -- and you don't overlook star performers whose potential is not readily evident.

More than a dozen individuals on eSight's "Swimming in the Mainstream" (SiM) blog discussed how to level the recruiting field for themselves as job seekers with a disability. Their discussion question was this:

When have you felt at a disadvantage in terms of employment due to your disability? What were the circumstances? What did you do about it?

You can review their complete discussion about this topic on the SiM Blog.

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Need: Resolve Four Issues Which Can Skew Results

I've selected some snippets from that conversation to illustrate four issues job seekers with disabilities often face in seeking employment in the mainstream job market. Since they all involve, to some degree, gaining a larger perspective, they are not insurmountable.

Here are the four issues I have identified from the SiM blog discussion:

1. Assumptions About Disabilities
   
2. Cart-before-the horse Job Preparation
   
3. The Relationship Between Disability and Skills
   
4. The Unresolved Internal Issues of an Employer

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Approach: Conduct Job Interviews as Open Dialogues

Citing the over 70 percent unemployment rate among people with disabilities, Barney, one of the SiM blog participants, writes:

"The hiring interview must be an open dialogue. Anything less and I can predict the outcome without too much error..."

So let's set the stage for more open job interviews with candidates who have disabilities by highlighting some of the key recommendations SiM bloggers have suggested for resolving each of these four issues.

1. Assumptions About Disabilities
   
   
   "...My experience since relocating (from the UK) to Orange County, California, has been decidedly different. At the age of 45, I think age-related discrimination as well as false, negative assumptions concerning my blindness is working against me...
   
   "I have to ask the question of employers: 'What do I need to do to convince you that I can do a better job than my sighted counterparts?' Come on, step up to the plate, employers, and give me the opportunity to demonstrate that my skill-set could be deployed in your non-profit organization to add value to you and your client group.
   
   "This is certainly not whining. I wouldn't tolerate that from anyone. I just want the opportunity to use my natural, God-given talents to benefit my local community whilst being responsible to my wife and stretching myself mentally. I want the chance to learn, to grow, to expand into a broader role where I can bring the greatest benefit to the greatest number. Is that too much to ask?"
   - Mike T.
   
   (Let's) "avoid the classic vocational rehab trap: believing that 'there are a finite number of jobs that people who are blind can hold...' I have had to create every job that I've had..."
   - R.M.
   
   "The problem... lies with those who spread myths about blindness. I'm not naming names, but I'm referring to the one-size-fits-all mentality embraced by a lot of blind people, and consequently this is the approach taken by most, if not all, vocational rehab agencies.
   
   "Each of us is an individual, and we have our own ways of thinking and doing things. We can make our own decisions as to which job coach to work with, based, of course, on our own individual experiences as well as the experiences of friends and others who are acquainted with said job coach. ...Perhaps it is just me, but I really think this one-size-fits-all mentality is very daunting and alienating."
   - Jake
   
   
2. Cart-before-the horse Job Preparation
   
   
   "Coupled with that one-size-fits-all mindset, I feel, is the notion that one has to obtain a job first before brushing up on his or her orientation and mobility skills. How the heck are we supposed to find our way around the work site, let alone get there and back, if vocational rehab agencies will not lighten up on this approach?
   - Jake
   
   "(Resolve this) Catch 22 situation: You want to work, you have skills, but, to be employable, you must have compatible assistive technology with the firms you are applying to. Yet vocational rehab can't provide this assistive technology unless you are already employed in a job that requires this particular assistive technology. Making the workplace compatible with assistive technology commonly used by individuals who are blind (JAWS, WindowEyes, Magic) is one solution to this common problem."
   - Roger
   
   "I think one way to have a very successful job interview is to tell the employer about the adaptive technology we use and possibly offer to give a demonstration of that technology. I for one, having been a JAWS user for several years now, am very willing to demonstrate the program to anyone. One great advantage of JAWS is that a single user can install it on more than one computer at a time. I don't know if this is necessarily true with the new Internet-based authorization scheme, but it is definitely true of the disk-based authorization."
   - Jake
   
   
3. The Relationship Between Disability and Skills
   
   
   "The skills to do the job do not exist despite the disability. The disability has simply created additional issues to be resolved to prove my capability.
   
   "It is about what I can do, not what I cannot do. No one is hired for what they cannot do. The focus must be on how I can contribute, which means the hiring manager must focus on the person -- not the disability."
   -Barney
   
   
4. The Unresolved Internal Issues of an Employer
   
   
   "There are several ways to provide the hiring manager with knowledge of my competency and skills:
   
   
   • "Offer to do a project for free -- not a money maker, but it will demonstrate loud and clear what I am capable of.
     
     
   • "Offer to work for a trial period for free -- not a money maker but one that says I will put financial stability on the line to prove that I am capable..."
     -Barney
     
     
   "I think people sort of expect us (and other underrepresented groups as well) to provide advice and work for free.
   
   "I think we need to remember that finding a job in nontraditional arenas is a real challenge and that regular failures may have more to do with employer issues than with the skill set of the applicant with a disability."
   - Peter
   
   

Be sure to view the offering statements of each of these SiM blog participants.

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