Why taking a person-centric approach to disability employment can reap long-term benefits

The federal government has begun a wide-ranging overhaul of the Disability Employment Services (DES) programs in Australia, including recently announcing eight programs will be discontinued due to poor performance. This includes one provider with hundreds of clients, almost $900,000 in government funding, but only placing one person in a job that lasted more than a year. 

As someone who has worked in and with DES programs before, it’s not difficult to understand the challenges and gaps in our systems. Unfortunately, a lot of disability employment services focus on placement, not outcomes. This often involves shoehorning people into things they’re not interested in, ultimately setting them up for failure in a new job and further adding to stereotypes that people with a disability are difficult to work with or keep as long-term employees. 

Taking a person-centred approach isn’t complicated

Many employers and recruiters assume that taking a more personal approach to finding, securing, and empowering people with disabilities throughout their employment journeys is complex and time-consuming. The reality is that taking a one-size-fits-all approach is what creates more work for the industry long-term, leading to the frustrating stats around disability unemployment rates which have barely changed in decades. 

A simple solution is to ask people what they enjoy doing and what they are interested in. Rather than overlooking candidates for what they cannot do, or forcing them to take a job because it seems to tick a box, it could be as simple as creating a menu of roles or tasks your company needs and supporting the candidate to try as many of these tasks as they feel comfortable.

This approach allows the individual to get to know the broad culture of the organisation and gain real insight into the role that best suits their abilities and interests.

Supporting candidates to choose their own destiny is effective because most of us gain satisfaction from things we are good at.

The unfortunate barrier is employers often don’t give candidates the chance to gather intel on what they’ll be good at.

Employment service providers can be a key link to overcome this barrier if they think past the short-term.

It’s understandable that many corporates need to generate revenue and, to a certain extent, employees need to do as they’re told, but the more that employers, recruiters, and employment service providers can work around the interests and passions of an employee, the better the outcomes will be for everyone. 

How corporates can partner with the NDIS more effectively

Despite significant investments into the NDIS and other disability employment services, people with disability are still twice as likely to be unemployed as people without a disability. Research shows there are also significant barriers to getting that first career break or returning to work, with 93% of unemployed people aged 15-64 with disability experiencing difficulties in finding employment. 

A significant part of the problem is information is not being shared across the industry. For example, with the eight DES programs that have recently been shut down, in hindsight, it is obvious that greater collaboration with other and more effective DES programs, more interactions and data sharing with the NDIS to understand how other people with disability in similar situations to their client load may have had more career opportunities, and more open lines of communication with employers looking for staff could have led to more positive outcomes and more effective use of the government’s budget. 

When organisations work in siloes, there is a clear and negative impact on job seekers with disabilities. This often means employees rarely have long-term job prospects they are supported in, and need to start all over again every time they apply for a job, facing the same hurdles multiple times while trying to start or build a career. 

The NDIS is meant to be a plan for life, so is the only tangible way the industry can address the revolving door of employment issues and people with a disability going into and leaving jobs where they aren’t empowered to succeed. 

With the government’s Jobs Summit taking place in September, many employers of people with disability — including us — will be anticipating tangible change and an actionable plan for how the industry can shift the focus from placement to being about meaningful and fulfilling outcomes for people with disabilities, which will inevitably have tremendous outcomes for our workplaces and economy. 

Geoffrey Smith is CEO of Australian Spatial Analytics.