How Disability Makes You A Better Employee
o really! If you remove the barriers to working, we actually make the best employees, here's why!
Higher retention rate
Once we are in the door, we are far more loyal. A lot of this is down to the fact that so few employers make the changes needed for disabled workers that if a business does make the effort, we stick around. Also, adjusting to a new commute, new schedules and new colleagues can be emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting, so if we can find a workplace and team we’re happy with we tend to be a committed bunch.
Finding a job that suits your disabilities is invaluable, so yeah, if we like the job we’re there for the long run!
Greater efficiency
If you have lived a life where your very existence is neither thought of nor catered to, you get extremely good at swiftly resolving issues and thinking outside the box. Creative problem solving is just everyday life for the disabled community, and it’s another valuable transferable skill. We have to know the quickest, easiest and most efficient way to manage tasks to save ourselves energy and time, while avoiding duplicating labour. This ability to assess a situation and swiftly determine the most efficient way to manage it can benefit the whole team by progressing projects in a smarter way.
Market reach
Most businesses don’t cater to disabled customers and by doing so they miss a massive opportunity. By having someone on your team who is disabled you will be able to tap into this market far more authentically. A diverse workforce will better reflect the reality of a diverse population, instantly opening the customer base up. If you only have people on your team who look the same, with similar backgrounds and similar abilities, you will only have a limited range of input and opinions that are likely to just mirror each other. Diversity of people instantly brings diverse viewpoints and perspectives – an invaluable resource.
Diversity equals success
These are just some of the perks to hiring disabled people that research has shown (no, it’s not just me singing the praises of disability but cold hard facts!)
All of which can make a massive, long-term difference to the success of a business.
So yes, at first you may have to make adjustments to include disabled employees but once you do, you can reap the rewards.