Benefits of Hiring Persons with Disabilities in Your Workforce

I have met a few people who believe that hiring persons with disabilities is not a good idea. They believe that disabled people can not be as productive in the office as able-bodied people. But this idea is completely misplaced. Persons with disabilities know what they can do and what they cannot. They take training in doing tasks that they can do without being hampered by disability. Therefore, disability does not necessarily make people under-productive in office.

On the contrary, there are several benefits of hiring disabled people in your office workforce. Today I am going to discuss a few of these benefits.

Advantages of Hiring Persons with Disabilities

You should, of course, hire a disabled person only after ensuring that she can perform the tasks intended for her. There are HR procedures for hiring in every business. One should follow these procedures while hiring disabled people as well. However, hiring disabled people could bring some extra benefits for your organization.

It Enhances Your Organization’s Image / Brand / Reputation

Providing equal opportunities to persons with disabilities sends out a message that your business cares for all sections of the society. International treaties like UNCRPD and national laws of most of the developed countries support the idea of providing equal opportunities to disabled people.

In the modern world, just a growing business does not ensure reputation or how the public sees your brand. All the businesses are expected to take part in collectively solving global issues like deteriorating environment, disability, rising population, poverty, hunger etc. If you hire disabled people, your brand would be seen as a more social and friendly brand.

It Gets Tax Benefit

To promote employment for the disabled people, many governments around the world provide tax exemptions to employers who choose to provide jobs to disabled persons. Therefore, if disabled people constitute a significant part of your workforce, you might be able to save quite a bit in taxes.

If you have to make some adaptations in the office to make it more accessible for disabled people, this cost can be deducted from your taxable income.

Gives You More Number of Eligible People to Choose From

Ignoring skilled persons with disabilities can significantly reduce the talent pool you can choose from. It is a misconception that disabled people can not perform on par with with able-bodied people. It is not advisable to simply ignore the educated and trained people just because they have some type of disability. You may even find better employees from the pool of talented disabled people.

Increase Morale and Corporate Culture

Persons with disabilities are highly motivated people. They have to face a lot of challenges in order to make themselves eligible for a job. Without great motivation, it is not possible to defeat challenges posed by disability and to get into professional world.

Presence of persons with disabilities in your workforce will make the work environment more lively and positive.

Attrition Rate Among Disabled Employees is Lower

Many studies have shown that disabled employees are less likely to quit the job. Living a disability requires a number of adjustments in one’s life. It takes quite a bit of physical and mental efforts for a disabled employee to make herself comfortable in an office. But one’s they get adjusted, they are less likely to leave the office and join somewhere else.

Of course, it depends a great deal on how you help disabled employees to feel comfortable. You should be sensitive towards the special needs of your disabled employees. For example, let’s say an employee who uses wheelchair needs a ramp to get into your office. But you do not get the ramp constructed. In such a case you can not really blame the employee if she quits the office for a more accessible office (and a more understanding boss!)

There are a number of other advantages of hiring persons with disabilities as employees. If you have hired employees with disabilities, please share your experiences with us. Thank you for connecting with WeCapable!