The Costco Connection - December 2016

Zaha, a Costco member, to hire additional employees with disabilities, like Bisbee.

Supportive employment programs can be found at both large and small businesses, from warehouses to retailers to insurance o;ces. ;e work varies, as do the levels and types of disability and required accommodation.

A good example is Microso;, based in Redmond, Washington. It has partnered with PROVAIL ( provail.org), a Seattle nonpro;t that aids people with disabilities, to implement an active hiring program aimed at attracting and supporting talented people on the autism spectrum. ;e program includes a two-week hands-on academy that focuses on developing ability, team projects and skill assessment, while also giving candidates ways to showcase their talent. So far, 16 people have gotten high-paying jobs as so;ware developers, data scientists and in other roles.

And the number of workers supporting the sprawling Microso; campus has soared, too. In 2013, the company’s Real Estate & Facilities (RE&F) department decided to become more focused on finding jobs for people with disabilities. Microso; changed its model to more aggressively work with vendor partners to ;nd opportunities. ;e number of supported employees who work across the Puget Sound campus in cafés, landscaping jobs and other roles rose from 28 to 200.

“Microso; has a huge presence in the Puget Sound, and we have a responsibility to our community,” says Rob Towne, director of Microso; RE&F. “;at’s 200 stories—unique stories that have changed people’s lives.”

The challenges ahead

All involved in supported employment say there is vast room for improvement. For example, in Microso;’s home state of Washington, while the employment rate for all working-age ( 18 to 64) state residents is about 76 percent, the corresponding overall rate for state residents with disabilities is about half of that. Nationally, the stats are even worse.

Experts caution against viewing people with disabilities as a monolith. Each person has his or her own abilities and circumstance.

Allison Wohl, executive director of the Association of People Supporting Employment First ( apse.org), based in Rockville, Maryland, says people with disabilities o;en face a number of barriers to work, including low expectations, stigma and bias, transportation issues and uneven on-the-job support. Still, she sees hope. “We are seeing a positive trend of many employers—large and small—coming to the realization that hiring workers with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, but is also good for their bottom lines,” she says.

Supported employment requires cooperation. States and counties fund service providers who serve the job seekers and employers. ;e agencies assess the client’s issues and capabilities and try to secure employment. ;e providers also work with companies and the worker a;er placement to ensure success. Some people may require one-on-one support.

Sometimes e;orts don’t work, but no one gives up before they try because people can surprise you. In 2011, AtWork! connected Direct Interactions with Brookens, who started working with augmented communication devices when he was 8. Now, he listens to recorded customer service calls on his MacBook Air computer, which he controls with small head switches, and assesses the skill of the call takers. His good work helped embolden Direct Interactions president Matt Storey to employ about 35 employees with disabilities nationwide.

Employers say that people with disabilities
add to the diversity of their workforce, while
o;ering each employee a social setting. Being
;exible, however, is an important accommo-
dation. “Because all our people work from
home, we really don’t have a culture, per se,”
says Storey, who was named At Work! 2015
employer of the year, “but working at home
o;ers important ;exibility. For some of our
employees just the hassle of getting to the
worksite can be a lot to deal with.”
Storey also allows employees to make
their own hours. Brookens tires easily and
o;en works only a couple of hours a day. Still,
Direct Interactions values his work and pays
him $15 an hour.

;e o;en-overlooked partners in supported employment are the parents, siblings and/or other loved ones. Bob Brookens not long ago treated his family to lunch. A small thing? Not to him and his father, Doug, a Costco member. Both beamed with pride before the ;rst bite.

“I’ve o;en found myself saying, ‘No, Bob would never be able to do that,’ ” says Doug, “only to be proven wrong. His job is much more than something to ;ll his days. It represents an accomplishment of which he is quite proud.” C