Why Inclusion Works in Employment

Kristina Brewster loves college football, as in, really loves college football. “UGA all the way,” said Brewster, throwing her hands in the air as if signaling a touchdown. She also pulls for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets – when they aren’t playing the Dawgs, of course – and can tell you all about past Heisman Trophy winners, Southeastern Conference champions and just about anything else you’d like to know that involves a football.

Brewster’s appetite for the sport makes her job at the College Football Hall of Fame in Downtown Atlanta a perfect fit. But there’s so much more that comes with the title of “fan ambassador” – sharing her knowledge with guests, having her very own team of coworkers, being held accountable. “They treat me like any normal person,” says Brewster, who is diagnosed with Down syndrome.

There is another thing that Brewster likes about her job. “I like getting paid,” she said. “I like getting paid a lot.”

Across the State, people with disabilities are filling all kinds of jobs and, even more, establishing all kinds of careers. They are employed in big law firms, insurance companies, universities, hospitals and tourist attractions. They are working for mom and pops and some with an entrepreneurial bent are setting up their own businesses. All of these workers are a collective, real-life testament to why inclusion works, which also is the theme of this October’s National Employment Disability Awareness Month.

Different factors are driving the increasing number of people with disabilities in the workplace. It’s been 26 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted to protect individuals from discrimination in all areas of life – school, transportation, housing, and yes, the office. Now a new federal law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), is seeking to dramatically improve the opportunities for a person with a disability landing a job working alongside a person without a disability – and getting paid the going rate.

The Impact of WIOA
WIOA was signed into law in 2014 to better ensure that many more people get the opportunities and skills they need to excel at what they do best – or competitive integrated employment. The legislation promotes competitive integrated employment, or employment in which people with disabilities work alongside people without disabilities for the same pay.

In September, a committee advising US Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez on how to make these goals a reality issued a report on what should happen next. Among its recommendations: The US Department of Labor (USDOL) needs to work with federal agencies to develop clear policies that make competitive integrated employment a funding priority for people with significant disabilities. Another priority is strengthening opportunities for young people with disabilities so they can enter the workplace.

“Transforming the workplace for everyone will require transforming the way our federal and state systems aim to support people with disabilities, and have done so for a very long time,” said Doug Crandell, an employment expert with the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Institute on Human Development and Disability. He also works with the USDOL, advising state agencies and providers.

“What our systems have done in the past is look at labels and based on those, figure out how to program someone’s day,” Crandell said. “I spend most of my time working to get people to understand how they should look at someone’s strengths rather than their weaknesses, then take that information and connect with an employer. When we think in those terms, labels don’t matter.”

Attracting and retaining students with disabilities is something Georgia’s colleges are grappling with. Georgia State University recently introduced academic coaching for students with disabilities – about one-third of whom fall on the autism spectrum. “If we can help students manage their disability in the classroom, hopefully that will transfer into the workplace,” said Georgia State’s Dean of Students and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Darryl Holloman.

The bigger goal is to make one of Georgia’s most diverse student bodies even more so. “Students with disabilities not only are exposed to others, but others are exposed to their sense of difference,” Holloman said. “Once we can recognize our differences, we can work through those to be able to recognize our similarities.”

Current State of Employment
At the same time, companies are increasingly deliberate about diversifying their workers. While they want to show that they are good corporate citizens, there is something else at play. Hiring people with disabilities is just good business. “Otherwise businesses wouldn’t be doing it,” said Jennifer Briggs, owner and founder of Briggs & Associates. “A company might start out thinking that they want to hire someone with a disability because it is the right thing to do. Then they begin to see the value that person brings. That is very cool.”

The US Chamber of Commerce and the US Business Leadership Network, a national nonprofit that helps companies use inclusion to leverage business, echoes Briggs’ experiences in a new report. “Successful businesses recognize that incorporating disability in all diversity and inclusion practices positively impacts a company’s bottom line,” the report states. “Corporate CEOs understand that it’s cost effective to recruit and retain the best talent regardless of disability.”

Even as the jobs forecast is rosier for people with disabilities, there is a lot of ground to make up. Labor force statistics estimate that only about 27% of individuals with disabilities ages 16 to 64 are employed, compared with 71% of those without a disability. The disparity is even greater for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). And individuals served by the public mental health system are unemployed at three times the rate of the general population.

Those numbers will change only when more employers, families and even people with disabilities adopt the posture that the workplace is a place for everyone. “We’re committed to setting an example for other states in employment for people with disabilities,” said Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) Executive Director Greg Schmieg. “We believe that everyone who wants to work can do so, and we’re here to help them along the way.

Too many people with disabilities who work are being unfairly paid, government officials and advocates agree. Inadequate compensation not only can have a detrimental effect on someone’s standard of living, it can also affect how they value themselves in an economy where wages and raises and promotions are seen as common measures of job performance.

“Employment matters to people and it matters to our communities,” Briggs said. “Our communities aren’t going to be whole until everyone is participating and valued, and valued at the going rate. It is true that we still have a long way to go. I still say we have come a long way.”

Playing to People’s Strengths
Some 630,000 Georgians of working age have a disability, according to GVRA. The agency has set goals of serving 100,000 clients and placing 50,000 in jobs over the next three to five years. To meet those numbers, GVRA will have to add to the partnerships that it already has with many employers, including Kroger, Publix, Lowe’s, the Federal Aviation Administration and Sedexo, a food services and facilities management company.

Another close partner of GVRA is The Home Depot. “Having a diverse workforce that includes people with disabilities, many of them veterans, is important to the company,” said Beatriz Rodriguez, The Home Depot’s director of diversity and inclusion. For one, it upholds the company’s core values of respecting all people and caring for its associates. Doing so means focusing on the skills that people bring to the workplace. “It is very important to remove obstacles and to make sure individuals are measured on what they have to offer, not what their limitations are,” Rodriguez said.

One of those obstacles is that some employees or job applicants are reluctant to ask for accommodations if needed. “It is a matter of pride and perception and peer pressure,” said Rodriguez, who recognizes those traits in her own son, a high schooler who is on the autism spectrum. “It is OK to say, ‘Can you please offer me the tools I need to be successful?’ ” she said.

At The Home Depot, people with disabilities work in the company’s distribution centers, corporate offices and call centers. The company also has employees at 72 stores nationwide through its partnership with Ken’s Krew, a nonprofit that trains and places people with I/DD. “Our associates are the lifeline of our business,” Rodriguez said. “They represent us with our customers and the communities where we do business.”

And do-it-yourselfers coming into a store to buy drywall or lighting fixtures appreciate the company’s efforts to be inclusive. “I have heard many success stories from customers recognizing our values and spending with us because of that,” Rodriguez added. Her observations are backed up by studies that show that consumers feel more positive about companies that employ people with disabilities.

Like The Home Depot, the Georgia Aquarium has made a concerted effort to add people with disabilities to its payroll for a long time. The popular tourist attraction mirrors the inclusive mindset of Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot and driving force behind the aquarium as well as its biggest benefactor. Marcus also founded the Marcus Institute, which offers services to children and adolescents with developmental disabilities. “He wanted to make sure that the aquarium reflected the diversity of Atlanta as well as Georgia and the world,” said Camille Hannans, the aquarium’s vice president of human resources.

People with disabilities work across the aquarium, in guest services and guest programs, education programs and photo services. “From my standpoint, it enhances the hospitality feature of the aquarium when you see someone who is passionate about the mission,” Hannans said.

Given that the aquarium attracts some two million guests a year, interacting with such large crowds can be overwhelming for anyone, with or without disabilities. “That has been a challenge,” Hannans said. “We have been able to work with career counselors so that they can pinpoint who is going to be comfortable in any role that we might have.”

The aquarium recruits through Briggs & Associates, which works with some 800 clients with I/DD and mental health diagnoses in communities across the State. For the most part, the agency approaches employers and helps them design jobs to fits clients’ talents. It also provides job coaches and supplements whatever training is needed. In addition to the aquarium, the employment agency has placed clients throughout Emory Healthcare, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Children’s Museum of Atlanta, Toys R Us and Topgolf.

Valuable Employees
As WIOA expands its reach and national programs such as Project SEARCH expand to different locations across the country and Georgia, employers who have hired people with disabilities resonate the same sentiments of success.

The Project SEARCH High School Transition Program is a unique, one-year, school-to-work program for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that takes place entirely at the workplace. This innovative, business-led model of school-to-work transition features total workplace immersion, which facilitates a seamless combination of classroom instruction; career exploration; and hands-on, worksite-based training and support. (Read more about Project SEARCH on page 6.)

Hiring people with disabilities is also valuable to the operations a company has to maintain every day and can help reduce turnover rates in entry level or administrative jobs.

“People with disabilities bring time management, attendance and a determination to work,” said Jessica Williams, youth department supervisor at Georgia Mountains Regional Commission, Workforce Development. “A lot of the younger generation doesn’t want to do some of what you might consider menial jobs and if something better comes along, they are going to just move on. We have a lot of people with disabilities who have that drive, that determination to work. They want to be at work and their attitude shows it.”

Tanya Adcock, director of St. Mary’s Highland Hills Senior Living and Community Center in Athens, GA agrees that hiring people with disabilities has helped improve efficiency across the workplace.

“Our employees with disabilities work on tasks that need to be done daily such as helping in the dining room, assisting in the office and more. It’s multi-faceted and helps our frontline staff and overall, our resident care. Those are daily operations that have to be done to help us run our community successfully,” said Adcock.

That is probably what I have seen the most in my oversight with employees who have disabilities. It is the sense of accomplishment and confidence that it has given them because we give them purpose,” she added.

Additionally, health and wellness giant Walgreens had a desire to have a diverse team that included people with disabilities. It found that with the right mix of training, technology and awareness, the newest generation of distribution centers runs more efficiently and productively than older counterparts. It also determined that 40% of its staff in its new warehouses would be people with disabilities.

“They are full-time employees who receive the same pay, the same benefits, and are also held accountable the same way that any other employee is held,” said Julie Henderson, store manager with Walgreens.

But at the same time, Henderson adds, the employees with disabilities bring a level of expectation to the entire workforce. “Our employees with disabilities are showing up ready to work, are enthusiastic and they do what is asked of them with a smile on their face,” she said. “For me, it has almost raised the bar for other employees to meet the challenge that these people bring to the workplace. I have never seen people take more care in coming to work.”

A New Way of Working
Briggs & Associates approached the College Football Hall of Fame about designing the job that Brewster has held for almost two years. Brewster is one of 60 fan ambassadors who work at the 100,000-square-foot playground for college football fans. Brewster helps guests register, navigate the interactive displays and chats with them about what’s going on in college football, which she knows plenty about. She reads the sports pages and gets alerts from ESPN.

She shines at the other tasks and has earned bonuses for her work.

“Kristina adds a very positive energy and attitude,” said Robert Bready, one of her supervisors. “She is always on time. She always makes sure she has something to add during meetings. And she is very in tune with the current college football landscape and helps educate other fellow staff members.”

Brewster is also a big hit with guests. “The job requires somebody with just a general outgoing personality,” Bready said. “She earned her position here based on her ability to naturally entertain, educate and engage our guests. Honestly, Kristina is a high performer without grading on a curve at all.”

There are a few tasks that other ambassadors perform that Brewster is not comfortable with, like working the cash register. And that is a part of the bigger, inclusive story.

“We know that the employees with disabilities may have a dialogue that may be a little bit different, and we may need to get different players to the team if the person with a disability can’t speak for themselves,” said Adcock. “But, there is still the accountability piece. And that is very important because what we are trying to teach the staff is that they blend into our community, but we also need to blend into their world too.”

Brewster has some encouraging words for someone with a disability who may be afraid or discouraged about getting a job. “It makes you feel happy. You get to learn about more things. It makes you want to wake up and go to work,” she said. “Me, I see myself working for a long time.”

Working for Inclusion
Companies that do business in Georgia are making a concerted effort to diversify their workforce by hiring people with disabilities. Here is just a sampling of some of the ways they are attracting and supporting their employees.

AMC Theaters: AMC has created a national program to encourage and facilitate hiring and employing people with disabilities. Through collaboration with the Autism Society, job coaches and vocational rehabilitation agencies, the company has doubled its employment of associates with disabilities.

Federal Aviation Administration: The FAA is working with the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) to hire people with disabilities in a wide range of jobs, including air traffic control specialists, aviation inspectors and engineers.

Gwinnett Medical Center: With more than 6,000 employees, Gwinnett Medical Center is working with the GVRA to hire people with disabilities in jobs in its labs, pharmacy and nursing units.

Lockheed Martin: In 2015, Lockheed introduced a new initiative in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The company solicited its employees to become one of 25 “Able and Allies Ambassadors” designed to raise disability awareness, promote conversations on topics not traditionally addressed in the workplace, and build an inclusive workplace intentionally including Allies – those touched by a disability.

Shaw Industries: Shaw partners with Project SEARCH to offer an internship program for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The program takes place at Shaw and provides participants with work experience and skill set development. All associates in participating Shaw departments are educated on the program and gain understanding of how to focus on skill growth and potential of the participants, not on their limitations. Shaw has hired many graduates of the program.

Sources: Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency; Lockheed Martin; Shaw Industries; US Business Leadership Network; Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Continue reading Making a Difference Fall 2016: Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities' (GCDD) fall edition of Making a Difference quarterly news magazine covers National Disability Employment Awareness Month; Project SEARCH; Election 2016 and more. The magazine is available in PDF, Large Print and Audio below.

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