Why you should hire someone with a disability

Author: Henry County Board of DD March 29, 2016
Young man in a tie with a laptop computer

Have you ever considered hiring someone with a disability? If you didn’t know, people with disabilities are great hires. Each individual employee brings something to the table that helps make and mold the team. Hiring those with disabilities also brings diversity into the workplace which is important to better serve your customer base.

Why should you hire an individual with a disability?

  1. It will diversify your workplace.
  2. It is an opportunity to work with reliable, passionate, and hard working individuals.
  3. You can give individuals with disabilities the opportunities they deserve.

Having individuals with different skills and abilities is going to make for a healthier workplace. Diversity is key in creating a truly effective and successful business. By including individuals with disabilities in your workforce, you are opening the doors to many new and exciting possibilities for your workplace; new talents, new skills, new personalities. All of these will contribute to a healthy and successful work environment.

When you’re looking to hire, what qualities do you look for in a person? Reliability? Passion? A certain skill set? When it comes to these qualities, you can be sure that you will find them in many disabled individuals looking for a job. Hiring an individual with a disability will give you a dependable employee that you can count on to do the job. More and more employers are now recognizing that those with a developmental disability are reliable and perform equal to or better than a non-disabled employee. When hiring a disabled individual, the turnover rate is also much lower when compared to hiring those who do not have a disability.  

As mentioned above, individuals with disabilities are passionate, reliable, and hard working people who simply want to get a job, contribute to their community, and be equal to those around them. With the right community services, individuals with disabilities can easily become a part of your workplace, acquiring the skills and talents that they need to be successful.

HOPE Services is always happy to connect individuals to job opportunities. We work both locally with our employers and with nationwide movements to help job seekers find the employment that matches their strengths. If you are interested in hiring an individual with a disability at your workplace feel free to contact Melinda Camp at 419-592-0126 Ext. 10 or via email at mcamp@henrydd.org.