NEHRA News

In early 2010, Work Without Limits, a public-private partnership whose mission is to strengthen the Massachusetts workforce and advance work opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities, conducted five roundtable discussions with the primary purpose to engage employers and other stakeholders in an open dialogue on the opportunities and barriers that exist for businesses to include people with disabilities in their work places. A secondary purpose was to identify how businesses and government can work together to facilitate increased employment opportunities and outcomes for this particular pool of workers. In attendance were nearly 40 employer representatives from 27 Massachusetts companies, 20 state agency and nonprofit service providers, and 7 people with disabilities and/or family members.
One focus of the discussions included asking participants, particularly employers, to articulate the business case for employing individuals with disabilities. Roundtable participants reviewed current literature on the business case and were asked to build upon it. Currently, literature suggests that businesses benefit from hiring people with disabilities by:

• Achieving an expanded talent pool for hiring¹ that will also combat the estimated shortage of 10-15 million workers in the upcoming decade;
• Increasing worker productivity² by way of reduced employee turnover, increased morale and increased loyalty;
• Increasing diversity³ as more than half of the working population will be minorities by the middle of this century, and individuals with disabilities represent the country's largest minority group;
• Increasing market share⁴ as individuals with disabilities represent a market for goods and services with $220 billion in discretionary income and $1 trillion in aggregate income; and
• Fostering good public relations⁵ as literature has found that consumers have positive attitudes towards businesses that hire individuals with disabilities.

Employer representatives at the roundtable discussions agreed that these are important factors in making the business case. They also identified additional ways that they specifically benefit by employing people with disabilities including:

Strengthened Capacity of the Workplace

A diverse workforce. With the increasingly nontraditional workforce, many employee populations are in need of diverse accommodations, such as for the aging, immigrants and the virtual workforce, and the ability to provide accommodations is a competitive advantage for any company. Also, sources have found that two-thirds of accommodations for employees with disabilities cost less than $500, with many costing absolutely nothing.⁶

Expected labor shortage. An aging population in sectors that already have traditionally lower work participation rates contributes to projected labor shortages.⁷ Corresponding to current literature, Massachusetts employers underscored that accessing the talent pool of individuals with disabilities provides a solution for an anticipated labor shortage, and broadening the talent pool prepares companies for the projected exodus of Baby Boomers.

Federal contract compliance. Employing people with disabilities allows companies to meet federal contract compliance as regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Employers that engage in business with the federal government must comply with contractual obligations to provide equal employment opportunity. Businesses must also develop programs to recruit, hire, and promote employees who often face discrimination in the job market, such as people with disabilities.⁸ One employer specifically mentioned that federal guidelines require them to advertise to organizations that specifically include people with disabilities and veterans.

Competitive Advantage

Diversity leads to innovation. A diverse workforce brings diverse perspectives. Employers shared that employees with disabilities offer different perspectives and contribute to innovation within a company. Employing people with disabilities differentiates a company globally from those who do not. Hence, there is a distinct competitive edge gained by accessing this broader labor pool and hidden source of talent.
Leadership development. With the fostering of inclusivity within the workplace, managers report that they benefit as much as their employees with disabilities. Managers build flexible management abilities such as interpersonal skills and advance their own personal development and self-awareness. Managers also increase their technical skills in change management and job design while addressing employee needs such as requests for accommodations.⁹ As one roundtable participant stated, "It's a leadership lesson when people connect with their own sense of humanity."

Reinforced External and Internal Brand

Good corporate citizenship. Employers said there is value in building an external brand of inclusion, in demonstrating that they are a good neighbor and corporate citizen. Not only does that message attract individuals with disabilities as their customers, but it also helps to grow their workforce. Employers want to build a culture of caring and inclusion, and employing individuals with disabilities is a strong expression of a company's culture, values and mission. Inclusion is also an appealing message to employees who are parents of children with disabilities or who have other family members with disabling conditions.

Corporate social responsibility. The younger generations of employees have been raised with public school inclusion and as a result value corporate social responsibility. Employers who hire employees with disabilities shared that they experience a recruiting advantage with the younger generations. Corporate social responsibility sets a company apart and attracts desired talent.

As a result of the roundtable discussions, Massachusetts employers discovered that many businesses are engaged in activities aimed at hiring people with disabilities, and even those competing for the same consumer dollars are looking to collaborate for the benefit of people with disabilities without regard to competition. However, businesses also acknowledged that there is more they can do to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities including: developing an outreach and network strategy with each other to share resources, promising practices and benchmarking data; supporting inclusive human resource and diversity policies and practices within their own organizations; and working in partnership with state government to increase the number of public and private sector employers who want to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by becoming 'employers of choice' in the disability
community.

Employers represented a variety of industries, including:

• Biotech
• Education 
• Business Services 
• Manufacturing 
• IT 
• Human Services 
• Retail/Wholesale 
• Medical 
• Engineering 
• Arts/Culture 
• Government

Position titles represented:

• Executive Vice President, Regional Vice President, Director, Manager, Account Executive, and Inventory Analyst
• Vice Presidents, Directors and Managers of Human Resources
• Senior level representation from Diversity, Staffing, Recruiting, Training and Development, and Employee Relations
• Directors of Disability and Accessibility 
• From the non-profit side several Executive Directors and CEOs as well as a state agency Commissioner and two Deputy Commissioners

Lastly, employers said some things should be done just because they have intrinsic value and not because of a cost-benefit analysis, and dealing with employees as people first takes away the "labeling" and the isolation.

About the authors:
Kathleen A. Petkauskos is Sr. Program Director and Anita Tonakarn-Nguyen is a Project Director for the Work Without Limits initiative housed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Disability, Health and Employment Policy group. Kathleen can be reached at kathy.petkauskos@umassmed.edu and Anita at anita.tonakarn@umassmed.edu.

Footnotes

1. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, Survey of Employer Perspectives on the Employment of People with Disabilities, Technical Report. Retrieved December 2009: http://www.dol.gov/odep/documents/survey_report_jan_09.doc.
2. DePaul University, "Exploring the Bottom Line: A Study of the Costs and Benefits of Workers with Disabilities," 2007.
3. US Department of Labor, Diversity and Disability. Retrieved December 2009: http://www.dol.gov/odep/archives/ek96/diverse.htm.
4. Cheng, 2002. Retrieved December 2009: http://disability-marketing.com/newsroom/diversityInc.php4.
5. Siperstein, et al. 2005, A national survey of consumer attitudes towards companies that hire people with disabilities. Retrieved December 2009: http://www.mdworkforcepromise.org/docs/business/National%20Survey.pdf.
6. Retrieved August 2010: http://www.dol.gov/odep/pubs/fact/ada.htm.
7. Retrieved August 2010: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2009/11/art1full.pdf.
8. Retrieved August 2010: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/fs503.htm.
9. Retrieved August 2010: http://www.realising-potential.org/six-building-blocks/professional/.

My favorite story and the one my clients and employees seem to remember with the most enthusiasm has to do with Brady's ability to deal with the "blitz." This isn't a true story (as far as I know). It is a story of my own imagination but it just as well could be true . . .

Brady is widely recognized by football experts and fans as one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the game today. He is especially known for staying cool under pressure when so-called "unplanned contingencies" are thrust upon him. He has a unique ability to react in a split second and make a good choice when most of us just see chaos. He responds exceptionally well and is unusually successful under the pressure of what has come to be called, both in sports and in other domains as "game conditions". In my view there is no better metaphor for an unplanned contingency than the football term known as "the blitz."

For those who aren't football followers, the players who constitute the defense of the opposing team have the job of stopping the progress of the offensive team (led by Brady). Out of the eleven players on each side, normally just three or four on the defensive side are called "linemen." They are the first line of the defense and they "rush" the quarterback when he calls a "pass play" (throwing versus running the ball). If they are successful they will either tackle Brady before he can pass the ball or force him to pass prematurely or erratically (and miss his target) due to their pressure.

Occasionally the defense will "rush" more than the usual number of defensive lineman in an attempt to rattle Brady, making it harder for him to execute the play that has been called. In football terminology that is a "blitz." It could be any one of the additional eight players who typically start the play behind the lineman (and who are further away from Brady). Sometimes just one player will "blitz". Sometimes it will be multiple players. Sometimes the "blitz" will come from the left, sometimes from the right and sometimes right up the middle. It you think of all the different "blitz" permutations then imagine what Brady encounters when he doesn't know which variation it will be, on what play it will occur, or if it will occur at all. This is what makes him so special. He routinely shows an ability to recognize if he's being "blitzed," how many players are involved, where they are coming from, and how to adjust to this "unplanned contingency" the very moment it occurs. So what does this have to do with coaching a leader or helping an employee with a development plan?

A few years ago I was working with a very smart team leader (this part of my story is true). He was a technical expert which earned him his role in leading a cross functional product development team. The problem was that he didn't know much about leading without having direct authority and he was resistant to ideas that weren't his own (since he usually was "right").

His team was struggling as a result. There was a fair amount of unresolved conflict in the team and a lot of organizational "noise" started to leak out about his leadership. One team member in particular seemed to press a hot button at every team meeting, not because this team member was deliberately difficult but simply because he was direct with his questions which were then personalized as an attack by the team leader. You didn't know exactly when in the meeting this would occur and couldn't know what the issue might be but the event was entirely predictable. When it occurred you could see the physical reaction in the team leader. His face would start to turn red, his voice would rise and he would push back aggressively in a self-destructive pattern that closed down discussion and created a negative reputation for him. He literally became what I call "hijacked" by this event, time and time again. Then one day it came to me. The "blitz" faced by Brady was a perfect metaphor for the hijacking that he was experiencing at team meetings. The difference was how Brady reacted to it under the pressure of "game conditions."

So I offered the team leader this insight and as smart as he was, he instantly saw the parallel but couldn't understand how he could change the hijack into a manageable response. That led us to a discussion about another football term, the "audible."

Again for those of you who don't follow football, the quarterback huddles with the team and tells them what "play" has been chose for their next attempt to progress down the field. Sometimes it is a passing play where the quarterback throws the ball and sometimes it is a running play where the quarterback hands the ball to another player who will run with it. There are numerous variations and it isn't unusual for a team to have upwards of 100 different plays that they can use. An "audible" occurs when the quarterback, Brady, brings his team to the line of scrimmage to start the chosen play but then decides to change it. Often he does this because he sees something in the way the defense is lined up to suggest that they are about to "blitz" and he knows that a different play would work better. So he calls an "audible." It is a predetermined "code" such as "blue-24" which everyone else on his team instantly recognizes. So again, what does this have to do with coaching a leader or helping an employee with a development plan?

As I explained to the team leader, Brady appears to be the best quarterback in the league in reacting to the "blitz" when he calls an "audible" (to change the chosen play at the last moment in response to what is happening). While some of this is due to Brady's unique talents, it is also the result of how he and the team have practiced and prepared for the "blitz" during the week leading up to the game. Brady doesn't know on which play the "blitz" will occur. He doesn't know which player on the defense will be "blitzing". He doesn't know whether it will be coming from the left or the right or up the middle. All he knows for sure is that during the game it is going to occur numerous times. And when it does he is ready for it because he has an "audible" or two memorized and which he has practiced with his team so they are prepared to respond as it occurs. So when Brady looks like the best quarterback in the game in responding under pressure to an unplanned contingency (the "blitz"), it is because he has practiced his response to it time and time again. He may not be able to predict when it will occur but he certainly can predict that it will happen. And when it does he is ready for it because he has anticipated it and knows what he is going to do in the moment, "under game conditions."

The metaphor for the team leader was compelling. When he became hijacked in team meetings he was being "blitzed." If Brady could anticipate it and have a ready response why couldn't he do the same? That led to a discussion about the events that tended to trigger his hijacking. He realized that it was almost always the same team member who challenged him. That awareness enabled him to identify and practice an alternate response, effectively calling his own "audible" after recognizing the "blitz". With some coaching he decided to start by thanking the team member for the question and then repeating it back to ensure that he understood it. This also bought him some time to slow his breathing and appreciate the momentary change in how he was responding. His second level response involved posing the question back to the entire team to solicit their views and inputs.

This story subsequently became a key component of a training program I created on employee development. Recently I ran into one of the employees from the inaugural offering of this program. We hadn't seen each other for more than five years. As we reminisced about the impact the training had for him he spontaneously brought up "Tom Brady and the blitz." A good story has staying power.

About the author:
Ron Weisinger is the Principal of DevelopmentLINKS Consulting, with 15+ years of experience as a strategic Human Resources Business Partner. He can be reached via email at ronweisinger@comcast.net or via phone at 781-721-6668.

After careful thought and strong input from member-driven committees, NEHRA is ready to repackage and redesign the professional development programs. Please keep an eye out for the news about the growth of the HR Basics Program, the transition of full-day PD programs to a new and more strategic approach to growing your career, and a new look for leadership development programs. The high quality programming will stay the same, but the look, feel and ease of access will all be improved and enhanced.

Stay tuned!

During her time as a manager of recruiters in a traditional staffing firm, Kim Dukes-Rivers constantly heard the same refrain from clients she visited.

"It was almost as if I had the same conversation with every client," she said. "They would say they were having a hard time identifying diverse candidates for positions. There was a basic need that wasn’t being filled."

For the full article, CLICK HERE.

James, 39, has spent the last 12 years building networks and relationships, bridging cultural and social differences and teaching problem-solving techniques to a wide array of corporate, nonprofit, government and community-based organizations.

For the full article, CLICK HERE.

• To become a fan of NEHRA on Facebook, CLICK HERE.
  
• If you are already a member of LinkedIn, CLICK HERE to join the NEHRA LinkedIn Community!

If you are not already a member of LinkedIn, you will need to follow the easy steps to create your profile. Once your profile is completed you can follow the steps below to become a member of the Northeast Human Resources Group.

• Find the tab for "Groups" on your home page and select "Group Directory."
• Use the search function in the upper right and type in "Northeast Human Resources Association."
• Click on "Join this Group."
• This will bring you to a description of the group and you will be asked to make selections about your preferences for display the group logo on your personal page.
• Enter a contact e-mail address, a digest e-mail address, delivery frequency, announcements and messages.
• Once you have made these choices click the button "Join Group."
• Your message will come to the NEHRA Group Administrator to verify membership and approve you for the group.

To Join a Community Forum Subgroup on LinkedIn

• Once you are a member of the Northeast Human Resources Group, select "Subgroups."
• Select all the groups you are interested in joining.
• Your request goes to the NEHRA Group Administrator for approval.
• You will receive a message that you are a member of this subgroup and you can begin to read and post information on the Subgroup page.

Current NEHRA Subgroups

• Learning and Development Community Forum
• Diversity and Inclusion Community Forum
• Consultants Community Forum
• Small Business HR Community Forum
• HR Technology Community Forum
• Talent Acquisition Community Forum
• Flexible Workplaces Community Forum

As you may know, NEHRA is continuing to evolve to better meet the needs of members. Therefore, we have created a new membership category: Group Membership.

This category is created to recognize the need, and often the desire, of many organizations to control spending and manage membership expenses for their employees.

What does this really mean for you? It means that if your company has five or more current members, you could experience a savings of 10 percent or more on the total cost of these NEHRA memberships through Dec. 31, 2011. In addition, the group membership allows you to renew all memberships at the same time—reducing the hassle and workload of individual renewal dates. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—it ensures that all members of your team have access to programming, to our new webinars, to resources and information at our website and to networking and professional development opportunities.

• How does the program work? All current members from your organization are renewed on a pro-rated basis—based on the individual membership type (NEHRA or NEHRA/SHRM), to bring them to a common renewal date, Dec. 31. Any new members are added and pro-rated, based on a Dec. 31 end date. The entire group is then renewed for another full year, based on this common renewal date.
• Can I add new members? New members can be added to your group at any time during your membership cycle, and their membership will be pro-rated to maintain them on the single renewal date.
• What if someone leaves? You can easily transfer that membership to another employee within your team, with one quick call.
• How does the membership work? Each group member is assigned an individual membership number, allowing them to access information on www.nehra.com and to register for events, webinars and professional development throughout the year.

This is an exciting new opportunity for you to expand access to NEHRA and save money!

If you are interested in learning more about the group membership or getting a quote for your group, please contact Carole Edson, Director of Membership and Alliances, at (781) 239-8705 or cedson@nehra.com.