WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Jane Anderson, DirectorMidwest Institute for Telecommuting
Education, Minneapolis MN
Project STRIDE Strategic Telework Research for Innovative Disability
Employment Preliminary Findings from National and Demo Inquiry
• Identify and describe the key elements of telework via a national inquiry and case studies
• Articulate these elements in the context of effective and innovative telework strategies through two demonstration sites
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Research Goals(slide master A)
• General Telework• Employees with Disabilities• Newly Hired Teleworkers with Disabilities• Types of job tasks and telework jobs
available
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Areas of Interest
• Pre-screening questionnaires to 15,782 human resource professionals and managers in the government, for-profit, and non-profit sectors
• 463 employers qualified and 235 of those completed the full questionnaire
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Summary of Findings
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
% of Respondents
Government Agency, 54
Technology, 8Education, 8
Financial Services, 7
Health Care, 7
Management Consulting, 6
Human Services, 5
Communication, 4
Research, 4
Other, 7
Custodial, Janitorial and Business Management;
Hospitality; Industrial; Retail Sales; Transportation,
1 each
Telework Respondents by Industry
Workforce Size Percent • 100-499 employees 26 • 20 or fewer employees 20 • 1,000-9,999 employees 19 • 10,000 or more employees 15 • 21-99 employees 12 • 500-999 employees 8
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Work Force Size Sample
• For-profit and non-profit (non-government) sectors offer more telework in general
• Employers that reported having teleworkers:– 76% of non-government respondents (54 of 71)– 60% of federal, state, and local government respondents (81
of 136)
• Excluding new hires, larger employers (+500) overall provide more general telework opportunities for persons with and without disabilities.
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Summary of FindingsGeneral Telework
Incidence• 25% of organizations offered telework to employees with
disabilities; 46% reported practice scattered throughout the organization
• 71% of teleworkers with disabilities worked in full-time positions and 37% of employers reported teleworkers had exempt employee status
• Conditions such as isolated employee situations (45%), teleworking only with supervisor approval (46.2%), and telework being offered in certain types of jobs (32.3%)
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Employees with Disabilities Transitioned into Telework
• 56.8% of employers indicated telework has been used as an option for short-term disability leave.
• Employers currently not employing teleworkers with disabilities expressed a strong preference towards a new employee with a part-time telework schedule
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Job Types• Office Functions (52.5%) • Administrative Jobs (49.1%)• Research and Analysis (45.9%• Technician (36.1%)• Customer Service (26.2%)• Claims Review (24.6%)
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
• Identifying jobs that appropriately fit telework tasks (47.7%)
• Difficulty in measuring performance (41.5%)
• Lack of priority placed on telework by management (33.5%)
• Supervisor resistance and uncertainty about managing remote workers (32.3%)
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Challenges
• 10% of organizations directly hired new persons with disabilities to telework, while 48% said they have not, and 40% said they did not know.
• Job Functions included research and analysis (62%); office functions (55%); administrative (52%); customer service (48%); and call centers (47%).
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Newly Hired Teleworkers with Disabilities
• A higher percentage of for-profit and non-profit respondents had hired new employees with disabilities than respondents from the government sector.
• Of employers who hired persons with disabilities specifically for telework, most (16 of 23) said they would encourage other divisions or groups to consider telework.
• 66% of employers indicated the decision would depend upon the job tasks; 53% said it would depend upon the employee skill levels and 40% said it would depend on the individual’s disability
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
• Difficulty assessing teleworker skills and work habits (53.6%); difficulties in training and monitoring performance of employees they can’t see (49.1%)
• Perception new employees need to work in-house first (45.5%)
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Challenges
• There were more opportunities for newly hired teleworkers with disabilities in employers with fewer than 500 employees.
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
• Assess teleworker skills before hire through training programs (43.3%)
• Implement training or work experiences to ensure teleworker is job ready (45.4%)
• Telework job try-out experience on a temporary basis before hire (42%)
• Combine specific repetitive functions in several jobs to one job the teleworker could perform
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Strategies
Thirty-one percent of respondents indicated
that telework is likely to increase in the next
five years.
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Future Trends
• Telework helps respond to specific employee needs and retain employees
• Also cited by respondents:– Increased productivity – Cost savings – Reduced operations costs
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Employer Benefits
• Minnesota Resource Center (Twin Cities)• Stout Vocational Rehabilitation Institute
(University of Wisconsin)• Hubert Humphrey Public Affairs• Goal: Place 40 teleworkers in MN and WI.
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Demonstration Sites – 2 yrs.
• Virtual call center trend is on increase.• Teleworker training offered quarterly (6 wks
minimum)• Refine training with employer collaboration• Looking for telework opportunities in other job
tasks such as data entry.
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Next Steps
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY LEADERSHIP
WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES:Ready for Tomorrow’s Jobs Today
Project STRIDE
Jane Anderson, Directorwww.mite.org