The Buzzz June 2009

At Gettinghired.com we are celebrating the arrival of 11 new employer partners. When they all come on board in early June, job seekers with disabilities can look forward to accessing more than 2,000 additional job openings. The list of new Gettinghired.com employers include Microsoft, Panasonic, The ServiceMaster Company, Pepsi, Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago, Western Illinois University, Duff & Phelps, Boehringer-Ingelheim Corporation, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Abilicorp, and Delta Dental. Try these links to view their jobs as they come onboard, set job alerts for those that are still ramping up and be the first to apply!

We congratulate them all for making their commitment to their communities a tangible reality.  These employers understand that the frequently untapped pool of people with disabilities offers them the opportunity to hire qualified, motivated, productive, and reliable employees while, at the same time, they enhance their reputations for affirmative action, workplace diversity, and positive community involvement. 

A recent study conducted by the University of Massachusetts at Boston confirms that companies who hire people with disabilities achieve a higher placement in the public's collective esteem than employers who either may not hire people with disabilities or don't bring attention to their hiring policies with respect to people with disabilities. Among surveyed consumers: 92 percent felt more favorable toward companies that hire people with disabilities; 87 percent said they would give their business to companies that hire people with disabilities; the employment of people with disabilities ranked third as an indicator of a company's commitment to social justice; and

98 percent of respondents who had been served by a worker with a disability reported that they were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the service they received. According to Working Together, a group of businesses in Maine who collaborate to meet their goal of hiring more people with disabilities, and who reported the results of the UMASS Study referenced above, there are real, bottom-line benefits for companies who look to the often untapped resource of job seekers with disabilities to fill staffing vacancies.  These include:

Increased Market Share:  According to recent census data, nearly one in five Americans has a disability.  This population has a total annual income in excess of a trillion dollars, and a discretionary income estimated at $200 billion.  People with disabilities prefer businesses that are sensitive to their needs and that represent their population, and companies have found that it makes good business sense to have a workforce that is representative of the communities they serve.  According to research conducted by Simmons Market Research Bureau, 48 percent of people with disabilities are the principle shoppers for their families.  They have influence over not only their own spending decisions, but those made by other family members as well.

A Highly Productive Workforce:  A 35-year-long study conducted by Dupont indicated that employees with disabilities consistently perform as well, if not better, than their non-disabled colleagues.  Study results included these intriguing statistics:  86 percent of workers with disabilities are rated "average" or "above average" for attendance; 90 percent of workers with disabilities are rated "average" or "above average" for performance; 97 percent of workers with disabilities are rated "average" or "above average" for safety.

Lower Staff Turnover:  Employers have found that they can significantly reduce turnover costs when they hire people with disabilities, who generally have a lower attrition rate than employees without disabilities.  According to a survey conducted by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), 96 percent of employers reported they saved money by hiring or retraining people with disabilities and by making necessary job accommodations.  Fifteen percent of employers reported savings of up to $5000, while 20 percent said they had saved between $20,001 and $50,000 in employee replacement costs after hiring or retraining people with disabilities.  According to the Job Accommodation Network, For every dollar spent on making an accommodation for an employee with a disability companies received $34.58 in benefits.

Workplace Diversity: According to a 1994, Federal Glass Ceiling Commission study, organizations that excel at making the most of their employees' diversity achieve better financial performance in the long run compared to organizations that do not treat diversity as an opportunity.

We congratulate our new employer partners for deciding to take advantage of all these benefits associated with hiring people with disabilities, and all of our job seekers who will, undoubtedly, find the kinds of jobs they are looking for through GettingHired.com's partnerships with the employers who have joined our online community.

If you are one of our job seekers at Gettinghired.com, remember that completing your online profile is the prerequisite for being matched with the jobs available with these and other Gettinghired.com employer partners, so if you haven't completed the profile yet, now is the time to get that done.  To all of our job seekers and our employer partners, do let us know about your successes finding work, and finding just the right workers to meet your companies' needs.  At Gettinghired.com, we are proud of offering a service and a community that facilitate matching job seekers with such a variety of impressive skills and talents with employers who need to hire motivated and talented workers to meet their staffing needs now, and in the future.