Across the world, there is an unprecedented crunch for talented employees. While there will always be the self-employed, parents focusing on child rearing, and people who have temporarily left the workforce for other personal reasons, the crunch is really evidence that businesses are growing faster than the workforce is currently able to support. Jobs are getting more skilled and specialized experts are needed for an increasing number of traditions and though we know the ultimate solution lies in education and more streamlined job training, modern companies are facing a deficit of talented employees right now. The question is what to do about it.
Finding Talented Employees Where You Least Expect Them
The fact of the matter is that talented professionals with the exact skills you’re looking for are out there. Many countries are, for instance, bringing in professionals from other countries, enticing stay-at-home parents back to work as their parents go to school, and focusing on training their current talent to fill the needed roles. But there’s one segment of the professional population that’s almost always overlooked: the disabled. People who suffer from physical, sensory, behavioral, and social disabilities often become highly talented experts in occupations that can be done enjoyably with a certain amount of compensation.
Welcoming Professionals with Disabilities
Because people with disabilities face a higher difficulty when building an enjoyable career, they tend to look for jobs with companies that are willing to help them build an environment of reasonable compensation. The more welcoming your facilities, policies, and company culture are to the needs and limitations of disabled employees, the more competitively appealing your positions will be for highly skilled disabled employees. With only a few internal changes, you could gain an unexpected edge on this employment crunch, one your competitors may not see coming at all.
Improving Your Accessibility
The first step to any program that makes your company more friendly for disabled employees is physical accessibility. Do you have enough wheelchair ramps and elevators? How many pointless little steps up and down are there in your building? Are the desks far enough apart to accommodate someone in a chair or using crutches? Do a thorough assessment of your workplace to determine how you can make it more welcoming to the physically disabled. Of course, not all disabilities are the same and some are quite unique so be prepared to make special arrangements for any particular disabled employee.
Providing Technical Compensation
One of the great things about modern technology is how many ways we can now come up with to compensate for disabilities. People with vision problems can work with low-light, wear special glasses, use a screen magnifying lens, enlarge their resolution, or use a dynamic braille device. Hearing problems can be handled with an IoT-enabled hearing aide, flashing lights, special tones, and vibrating devices. Physical disabilities can be compensated for with a number of chairs, mechanical arms, soft-touch tablets, the possibilities are endless. To more knowledgeable your company is on possible compensations and the more accommodating you’re willing to be, the more disabled employees you will be able to support and gain the benefit of their expertise.
Professionals with disabilities need welcoming work spaces to hone their craft, build their skills, and enjoy the careers they’ve worked so hard to build. While most are used to dealing with reluctant employers and half-compensatory measures, if you want to find truly skilled employees to fill your open positions, consider making your company a shining example of positive disability policies. The more advanced, high-tech, and supportive your policies are, the more disabled professionals will happily join your workforce.
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