Canadian survey says employers have anxiety about hiring disabled people

The JOIN press release:

TORONTO -- On behalf of the Job Opportunity Information Network (JOIN-Toronto), COMPAS Research conducted a detailed employer study in summer 2009. COMPAS spoke to 110 Human Resource Executives from a cross-section of Ontario-based firms, including public, private, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. The study examined employers' perceptions related to hiring persons with disabilities.

The biggest obstacle to hiring individuals with disabilities — anxiety

The biggest obstacle to hiring a person with a disability is employers' concern that they will be unable to manage a potentially underperforming employee with a disability. When polled 36 per cent of Senior Human Resource Executives said they were discouraged from hiring a person with a disability because "it's harder to dismiss an underperforming person with a disability than one without a disability."

In a tough economy, worry about the bottom line is another factor hurting job prospects. Twenty-six per cent of employers' said the perceived expense related to hiring an employee with a disability discouraged them. Concerns with higher absentee rates and increased effort to train employees were third and fourth most frequently mentioned concerns, respectively.

The biggest advantage of hiring individuals with disabilities – Adding value to the workplace

Employers feel people with a disability add value and bring a fresh perspective. These are perceived as the top two advantages of hiring individuals with disabilities. In practice, 53 per cent of employers said the idea that employees with a disability will "try harder" would motivate them to hire. The same percentage, 53 per cent, said that they would be motivated to hire people with disabilities because they bring a "fresh perspective."

Executives surveyed also felt people with a disability would be more loyal to their employer. Employers who thought retention rates among people with disabilities are higher than among employees as a whole outnumbered those who see rates as below average by 2 to 1.

Business executives very much want to obey the law and do the right thing—but very few are aware or understand what the law says about disabilities

Employers were asked what would most persuade them to hire people with disabilities. The most persuasive messages advocating the hiring of people with disabilities are employers' legal obligations to do so and employers' belief that doing so is morally the right thing to do. Those employers who consider the legal requirement as persuasive outnumber those who don't by almost 7 to 1 (73% vs. 11%). The moral argument that it is decent and fair to hire people with disabilities is at least as persuasive as the legal argument. Those employers who consider the moral argument persuasive outnumber those who don't by almost 10 to 1 (75% vs. 8%).

Though employers say that the law matters enormously to them, in practice they admit in our uncertain economic climate they have been occupied with fiscal management and therefore unable to keep up with legal changes. Only 22 per cent of business executives say that they are aware of the accessibility legislation, while 73 per cent say they are unaware of it.

On the flip side, employers who work with JOIN are considerably more familiar with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) than are employers as a whole.