TIE THAT BINDS
October 2015
Volume 19, Number 12, Issue 228
Circulation 711
ATTITUDE IS THE REAL DISABILITY
The Feds are Hiring
From an article by Emily Kopp on August 17, 2015
Government officials are starting to brag that, despite budget cuts and hiring freezes, the Obama administration will have achieved an ambitious hiring goal by the end of next month: To add 100,000 new employees with disabilities over a five-year period. The government added more people with disabilities to its rolls in fiscal 2014 than at any time in the 34 years since it began tracking the data. More than 20,000 people with disabilities started full-time, permanent federal positions last year. Nearly 2,400 other employees began part-time or seasonal jobs last year. They represent about one-fifth of new federal hires, according to datafromthe Office of Personnel Management.
He said the executive order kick-started the process. But other policies have helped. Agencies can appoint veterans who are at least 30-percent disabled to jobs without going through the normal hiring process. Veteransmade up nearly half of the new hires with disabilities in 2014.
While he said he believes agencies will achieve that goal, he acknowledged that the government is not yet the model employer of people with disabilities that it has striven to be under successive presidents. For one thing, people with more severe disabilities — known as “targeted disabilities” in OPM parlance — represent 1 percent of the entire civilian workforce and a similar fraction of the new hires with disabilities.
For another, people with disabilities are much more likely than other federal workers to quit or be fired because of a performance-related issue. “It’s a matter of a lot of things: education, having good matches for the jobs from the very beginning, having reasonable accommodations in place,” said Murray.
Before joining OPM, Murray advised companies on employing people with disabilities. He said the government could learn from Wal-Mart, which pre-approves 500 types of accommodations for employees who need them.
ACICIEID
Well that title is a mouthful. It is the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities, commonly known as the “Committee”. This committee is part of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. Their area of concentration is transitioning from high school to work.
For more than 25 years there has been a federal policy that focused on youths with disabilities that addressed their barriers. There is body of evidence that indicates that competitive integrated employment during high school years is a predictor of successful post high school employment.
I suspect that many of these employment opportunities are transitional as students sample different types of work in 6 week or 9 week segments. Many of these jobs are unpaid and last for an hour or however a class at the high school lasts.
In some school systems, students are dually enrolled in high school and some college courses. Do they receive dual credit for this? This is a great advantage for college bound students.
In the mid-1970s I was a Distributive Education teacher in Michigan. The students received credit for their work experience. This was a great advantage for non-college bound students. They learned about work before their peers learned about work and had an advocate when they had youthful lapses in judgement at work. Can this be replicated for high school students with disabilities, not intending to pursue college?
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC VICTORIES
A few years ago I read Steven Covey’s 7 Habits. To be effective you need to put things in order. The first was to have victory over your private life. The second area was to be effective in your public life.
The three areas to have a victory over in your private life are; 1.) Prioritize, do the most important things first. 2.) Control your own destiny or someone else will. 3.) Take responsibility for your life and your actions. By keeping these things in mind you have a direction and goal.
Being effective in your public life I remember that there are 4 areas. 1.) Seek to understand and then to be understood. 2.) Win-win. 3.) Work together to achieve more. 4.) Renew my own energy periodically. This seems easy, if everyone comes to the table with the same mindset. When everyone in the room is not on the same page, I have found that I can still have some type of victory by relying on point 1 and point 4. The real victory comes when I can fall back on the points in private victory. This is what I can control and still be effective.
No Experience
“I would hire someone, but they don’t have the skills or experience we need.” This is an objection that job developers hear often. I would like you to send me some responses that you use.
1. Many employers find that a person with no experience or skills brings no bad habits. You can teach them how you want the job done.
2. Our on-site trainer can teach the person the way you want the job done.
3. The only guarantee I can make is that I will send someone with the skills you need or I will not send anyone.
4. Hiring is a crap shoot. The people from my program have the work ethic you have mentioned. Our on- site trainer can assist them in reaching the production and quality you are looking for.
Contact
Mike Sass
520 West Summit Hill Dr.
Knoxville, TN 37902
865‐594‐6756 (office)
Fax: 865‐594‐6535
Email:
Website: www.clee.utk.edu.
Training site: http://tiny.cc/tnvrtrainings
Of all the liars
In the world,
Sometimes
The worst are your own fears.
- Rudyard Kipling