Just as the job seeker with a disability needs support to find work, so too will they need support to maintain their place in the workplace through systems, staffing, management, and product changes. This support must be ongoing and client-centred. Training in how to facilitate effective post-placement support used to be compulsory within the disability employment sector. Sadly, this is no longer the case, with services sometimes reduced to only phone contact.
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Although it's not the primary function of a disability employment service, community connections are vital to a well-rounded life. Networks provide the opportunity to make friends, learn, and share pastimes. Many work opportunities come from within our own web. The job seeker is more likely to stay in work when they are supported by a strong group of family, friends, colleagues, and neighbours.
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According to Joe Graffam from Deakin University, staff turnover in the disability employment field runs at 50 percent. This doesn't happen if the service provider respects the role, conducts relevant and timely training, and generally provides support where staff need it. Effective employment service staff need to care deeply about their clients. In turn, staff need to feel cared for.
Links:
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The easy way to find work is to hop on the Internet, ring a business, and ask if they'd like XXX dollars to employ so-and-so. The harder yet more sustainable approach is to know the job seeker, understand the job market, and research a good fit between the two. Finding work that suits the candidate rather than sourcing candidates that fit the work may appear like a subtle difference, but it is a vital indicator in long-term job satisfaction and job retention.
Links:
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Many punitive systems exist whereby the job seeker is punished for not showing up to meetings or activities. Instead, job seekers need a supportive system that engages them in training and job-seeking program and, wherever possible actively involves them in their own job seeking.
Links:
www.facebook.com/novaemployment
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Generally, the disability employment sector doesn't ask employers to consider the value of a job seeker with a disability will add to their business. Instead employment services lead with a subsidy. However, 'best practice' leads with the job seeker's strengths, frequently doing away with subsidies while investing in good job matching and post-placement support.
Links:
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People with a disability are rarely encouraged to 'aim high' with their goals. Often their lives have been defined by others making it OK for them to aim low. Time and again, with proper support, people with disability can and do work effectively and efficiently in open employment. The concept of aiming high is also true for employment service staff.
Links:
www.facebook.com/novaemployment
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People with a disability are frequently subject to staffing changes willy-nilly, yet both evidence and experience show that consistent and personalised attention is necessary for good outcomes. Understanding a job seeker's skills, goals and interests make it much easier to match them to a suitable job. Job retention increases when the person who listens to a job seeker's dreams and helps them acquire the right skills is also the person who finds employment and supports the new worker to stay there.
Links:
www.facebook.com/novaemployment
>> Buy the book <<
Many assessment processes are based on identifying job-seeker deficits. It's very easy to point out someone's faults and then discount them because of those faults. Instead, a quality employment service will lead job-seeking campaigns with their client's strengths.
Links:
www.facebook.com/novaemployment
>> Buy the book <<
It's too easy for the hardest-to-place job seekers to be relegated to the end of the employment service's list. This means the most vulnerable of society's most vulnerable are often ignored. By contrast, services practising a zero-exclusion policy serve clients on a first-in first-served basis. No one is in the too hard basket.
Links:
www.facebook.com/novaemployment
>> Buy the book <<
