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Employer Resources

There are several options available to businesses and employers for exploring hiring a worker with a disability. Employers can choose what’s best for them and their company and find out how employees with disabilities can contribute to the bottom line.

Employers can include people with disabilities by:

Employers getting started

TAKE THE FIRST STEP

Work experience enables businesses and organizations throughout Florida to interact with individuals with disabilities and learn first-hand their capabilities. These experiences, which may lead to a job offer, break down the misperceptions of persons with disabilities and reveal the reality that people with disabilities have the desire, education, training, and skills to be successful in the workplace.

MENTORING

Mentoring is a personnel enhancement strategy wherein a current employee pairs with a new colleague or potential employee to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills. Mentoring experiences provide job seekers with disabilities the opportunity to get a glimpse of a company’s work environment while helping them gain and practice skills that are useful in professional settings and prepare for life in the workplace.

Mentoring can offer not only academic and career guidance to mentees, but also can cultivate role models for leadership, interpersonal and problem-solving skills at a business.

Benefits of Mentoring:

  • Increased organizational diversity
  • An effective employee recruitment and retention tool
  • Creation of a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture
  • Transfer of organizational knowledge and promotion of professional development within a business
  • Increased preparedness for workforce turnover, especially in senior-level positions, and reduction thereof
  • Improved supervisory skills, productivity and satisfaction among your employees

 

JOB SHADOWING

One-on-one job shadowing provides a short-term opportunity for a job seeker with a disability to learn what it is like to be a part of a company’s workplace. A business professional is matched individually with a student or job seeker with a disability so that the employee can share information about a typical workday at the company and provide insight about how to prepare for a particular career field.

Benefits of Job Shadowing:

  • A simple yet effective employee recruitment tool
  • Creation of a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture
  • Ability for staff to share professional knowledge to enrich, encourage, and support potential employees
  • Increased brand awareness via reinforcement of an organization's commitment to education and workforce development

Job shadowing experiences usually last one workday or a half-day and can lead to internships or mentoring experiences.

To provide a job shadowing experience to a job seeker with a disability, contact The Able Trust at 850.224.4493 or info@abletrust.org.

 

TIPS FOR HIRING

Many American businesses no longer view disability inclusion as a stand-alone initiative. Rather, they embed diversity throughout their business practices, and recognize that a diverse workforce can distinguish them from competitors, helping them attract new consumers and increase market share. Recruiting and retaining an inclusive workforce is key for fostering a workplace that attracts top talent.

 

Ensure that people with disabilities are part of your overall hiring plan.

  • Add a statement to job postings that, “Persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.”
  • Ensure your online job applications and electronic/social media recruitment materials are fully accessible.
  • Support others who employ persons with disabilities by picking suppliers that make a commitment to an inclusive workforce.

Conduct targeted outreach and develop community partnerships to attract qualified candidates with disabilities.

  • Disability employment agencies and other community partners can help you find qualified candidates and provide guidance on how to effectively integrate people with disabilities into your workforce. For a list of career service providers, click here.

Don’t fear accommodations. Approximately 56 percent of accommodations for workers with disabilities have no associated costs, and the majority of those that do, cost less than $500.

  • Approach job accommodations as a strategy for ALL employees.
  • Businesses can attract good employees by offering things such as flexible scheduling, work at home opportunities, job sharing, and ergonomic workstations.

Business Benefits

How Offering Career Experiences to People with Disabilities Benefits Business

Help job seekers with a disability gain successful employment or learn about work opportunities. In return, employers get a chance to:

  • Access an underutilized pool of dependable, productive and capable workers
  • Recruit, screen and interview interns, volunteers or long-term employees
  • Discover how easy it is to accommodate workers with disabilities — many need no accommodations
  • Improve company-wide morale, goodwill and community involvement
  • Receive positive feedback from customers who see themselves reflected in a company’s workforce
  • Realize goals relating to diversity and inclusion and explore the advantages of such a workforce
  • Open up a world of opportunities for job seekers with disabilities and allow them to demonstrate the value they bring to the workplace

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

EARN

Ask Earn Logo

The Employer Assistance and Resource Network (EARN) is a service of the National Employer Technical Assistance Center (NETAC) based at Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute. NETAC is funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor.

EARN supports employers in recruiting, hiring, retaining and advancing qualified individuals with disabilities through toll-free technical assistance; individualized consultation; customized trainings; webinars and events; regular updates on disability employment news; connections to college students and recent graduates with disabilites through The Workforce Recruitment Program; and easy-to-find online answers.

 

Think Beyond the Label

Think Beyond the Label Logo

Operated by Health & Disability Advocates – a national non-profit organization that promotes income security and improved health care access for children, people with disabilities, and low-income older adults – Think Beyond the Label is a campaign to facilitate more streamlined collaboration between public and private workforce systems to help build the pipeline of qualified candidates with disabilities and meet the overall hiring needs of businesses.

Think Beyond the Label provides businesses with up-to-date information, tools and the state and local resources they need to hire people with disabilities and integrate them into their workforce. The service also offers job seekers a network and digital hub that provides information, tools and resources to aid in their job search so they can find meaningful employment in their chosen field.

 

U.S. Dept. of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)

United States Department of Labor Logo

The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) sets national policy to ensure that people with disabilities are fully integrated into the 21st-century workforce.

ODEP’s mission is to develop and influence policies and practices that increase the number and quality of employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

To fulfill this mission, ODEP promotes the adoption and implementation of ODEP policy strategies and effective practices — meaning those that ODEP has developed and/or validated – that will impact the employment of people with disabilities. ODEP’s approach is to drive systems and practice changes by disseminating ODEP policy strategies and effective practices, sharing information, and providing technical assistance to government agencies, service providers, and non-governmental entities, as well as public and private employers.

 

CareerSource Florida

Workforce Florida Logo

The CareerSource Florida network of workforce professionals connect employers with qualified, skilled talent and Floridians with disabilities to employment and career development opportunities. We do this through recruitment, hiring services and training solutions customized to meet the needs of employers and job seekers.

Research

Florida Chamber Foundation Report (2016)

Governor’s Commission on Jobs for Floridians with Disabilities:  2012 Report

Key Factors that Assist Employers to Recruit, Interview, Hire and Retain People with Disabilities (2011)

Dispelling Myths of An Untapped Workforce: A Study of Employer Attitudes Toward Hiring Individuals with Disabilities (2003)

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Employment of People with Disabilities in Florida (1999)

Provider Directory

Florida Provider DirectoryNorthwest Florida Provider DirectoryNortheast Florida Provider DirectoryNorth Central Florida Provider DirectoryEast Coast Florida Provider DirectoryCentral Florida Provider DirectoryGulf Coast Florida Provider DirectorySouthwest Florida Provider DirectorySouth Florida Provider Directory

Northwest Florida

Bay County

Calhoun County

Escambia County

Franklin County

Gadsden County

Gulf County

Hamilton County

Holmes County

Jackson County

Jefferson County

Lafayette County

Leon County

Liberty County

Madison County

Okaloosa County

Santa Rosa County

Suwannee County

Taylor County

Wakulla County

Walton County

Washington County

Northeast Florida

Baker County

Clay County

Columbia County

Duval County

Flagler County

Nassau County

Putnam County

St. Johns County

Union County

Volusia County

North Central Florida

Alachua County

Bradford County

  • Agency for Persons with Disabilities
    1621 NE Waldo Road, Building 1, Gainesville, Florida 32609
    (352) 955 - 6061
    http://apdcares.org/area/3/
  • CareerSource North Central
    819 South Walnut Street Starke, FL 32091
    (352) 964-8092
    http://www.careersourcencfl.com/
  • Center for Independent Living of North Central Florida – Ocala Office
    3445 NE 24th St. Ocala, FL 34471
    352-368-3788
    http://cilncf.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Gainesville Unit 09A 2610 NW 43rd St., Suite 1A Gainesville, FL 32606-6677
    (352) 955-3200
    http://www.rehabworks.org/

Citrus County

Dixie County

Gilchrist County

Levy County

Marion County

East Coast Florida

Brevard County

  • Agency for Persons with Disabilities
    400 W. Robinson St., Suite S430, Orlando, Florida 32801
    (407) 245-0440
    http://apdcares.org/area/7/
  • Brevard Achievement Center
    1845 Cogswell St., Rockledge, FL 32955
    321-632-8610
    http://www.bacbrevard.com/
  • Bridges (Formerly the ARC of Brevard)
    1694 Cedar Street, Rockledge, FL 32955
    321-690-3464
    http://www.mybridges.org/
  • CareerSource Brevard
    295 Barnes Blvd. Rockledge, FL 32955
    (321) 504-7600
    http://careersourcebrevard.com/
  • CareerSource Brevard
    Country Club Plaza 5275 Babcock St., NE Suite 8B Palm Bay, FL 32905
    (321) 504-7600
    http://careersourcebrevard.com/
  • CareerSource Brevard
    295 Barnes Blvd. Rockledge, FL 32955
    (321) 504-7600
    http://careersourcebrevard.com/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Titusville Unit 13AA, 815 S. Washington Ave, Suite 102, Titusville, FL 32780
    (321) 383-2775
    http://www.rehabworks.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Melbourne Unit 13B 1049 Eber Rd., Suite 101 Melbourne, FL 32904-8767
    (321) 984-4869
    http://www.rehabworks.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Cocoa Unit 13A EAST, 1970 Michigan Ave., Building A-1, Cocoa, FL 32922-5723
    (321) 690-3280
    http://www.rehabworks.org/
  • Epilepsy Association of Central Florida, Inc.
    1600 Sarno Rd # 119, Melbourne, Florida, 32935
    321-253-4112
    http://epilepsyassociation.com/
  • Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, Inc.
    7531 S. Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32809
    (407) 857-0659

Indian River County

Martin County

Seminole County

St. Lucie County

  • Agency for Persons with Disabilities
    337 N US Highway 1, Fort Pierce, FL 34950
    (772) 468 - 4080
    http://apd.myflorida.com/area/15/
  • ARC St. Lucie County
    P.O. Box 1016 Fort Pierce, FL 34954
    (772) 468-7879
    info@arcofstlucie.org
  • CareerSource Research Coast
    Garden City Community Annex 2102 Ave. Q, Room 16 Fort Pierce, FL 34950
    772-461-6293
    http://www.careersourcerc.com/
  • CareerSource Research Coast
    Career Center: 584 NW University Blvd. Suite 300 Port St. Lucie, Florida 34986
    772-408-1260
    http://www.careersourcerc.com/
  • Coalition for Independent Living Options, Inc.
    Bayshore Professional Center 1680 SW Bayshore Boulevard Suite 231 Port St. Lucie, FL 34984
    (772) 878-3500
    http://www.cilo.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Port St. Lucie Units 20AB, 20S, & 20SB 519 NW Lake Whitney Place, Suite 102 Port St. Lucie, FL 34986-1621
    (772) 873-6550
    http://www.rehabworks.org/

Central Florida

DeSoto County

 

HARDEE COUNTY

Highlands County

Lake County

Okeechobee County

  • Agency for Persons with Disabilities
    337 N US Highway 1, Fort Pierce, FL 34950
    (772) 468 - 4080
    http://apd.myflorida.com/area/15/
  • CareerSource Research Coast
    Career Center, 207 S.W. Park Street, Okeechobee, FL 34974
    863-462-5350
    http://www.careersourcerc.com/
  • Coalition for Independent Living Options, Inc.
    Bayshore Professional Center, 1680 SW Bayshore Boulevard, Suite 231, Port St. Lucie, FL 34984
    (772) 878-3500
    http://www.cilo.org/

Orange County

Osceola County

Polk County

Sumter County

Gulf Coast Florida

Hernando County

Hillsborough County

Manatee County

Pasco County

Pinellas County

Sarasota County

Southwest Florida

Charlotte County

Collier County

Glades County

Hendry County

Lee County

South Florida

Broward County

Dade County

Monroe County

Palm Beach County

  • Agency for Persons with Disabilities
    111 S. Sapodilla Ave., Suite 204, West Palm Beach, FL. 33401
    (561) 837 - 5564
    http://apdcares.org/area/9/
  • CareerSource Palm Beach County
    Central Career Center: 3400 Belvedere Road, West Palm Beach, FL 33406
    (561) 340-1060
    http://www.careersourcepbc.com/
  • CareerSource Palm Beach County
    West Career Center: 1085 South Main Street, Belle Glade, FL 33430
    (561) 829-2040
    http://www.careersourcepbc.com/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Belle Glade Unit 21AA, 1079 South Main St., Belle Glade, FL 33430
    (561) 992-1316
    http://www.rehabworks.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    West Palm Beach Unit 21C, 3111 S. Dixie Hwy., Ste. 100, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
    (561) 650-6804
    http://www.rehabworks.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Palm Beach Gardens Unit 21A: 3930 RCA Blvd., Suite 3001, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410-4214
    (561) 624-6957
    http://www.rehabworks.org/
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
    Boca Raton Unit 21B, 902 Clint Moore Rd Suite 118, Boca Raton, FL 33487
    (561) 544-4657
    http://www.rehabworks.org/