Source | www.ere.net | Matt Craven
Every year we hear about how a diverse workforce is critical to the success of an organization.
Sadly, so many organizations miss a huge segment of diverse workers. It’s not because of the lack of awareness. It’s because these groups of people are not a part of organization’s strategic plan.
The reason is that hese diverse groups of people represent a very small segment of the total global population. Add the perceived risk/reward component that scares companies away from putting in the effort.
These highly motivated, capable, and willing people are hungry to work. Most of these intelligent and educated people are classified as “unemployable” in some cases, having an unemployment rate of over 50 percent. rately trying to get into the game…
These are people with disabilities.
I’ll be focusing on a people who are hearing impaired.
There are various levels and types of hearing loss. Understanding this will help you better understand, learn, and be able to influence your organization this talent pool deserves to have the same opportunities as everyone else.
- Did you know those who are deaf or have profound hearing loss have an employment rate between from 48-59 percent? This is a completely untapped labor resource!
- Did you know in 2018 there were over 3 million working age people (21-65) in the United States were deaf or severely hard of hearing?
- Did you know due to barriers to be employed, often people who are deaf or profoundly hard of hearing are in physical labor jobs, not because they aren’t capable to work in professional settings, but because they are not given a chance to be considered for them?
- Employers who offer people who are deaf or profoundly hard of hearing jobs tend to pay near the same as those who can hear (because they realize they are quite capable).
- Did you know those who have a disability and are given opportunities are more likely to be loyal to the company that gave them the opportunity (better retention) and work harder to prove to their employer they can do the job?
