Attracting candidates with disabilities

Finding qualified candidates with disabilities and giving them an opportunity to thrive and be successful is easier said than done.

Part 1 of a three-part article. Read Part 2 (on employment policies related to people with disabilities and Part 3 (on retaining employees with disabilities)

Historically low unemployment rates and achieving inclusion goals requires recruiting candidates with disabilities. But, it’s an extraordinarily tight labor market at the moment for skilled tech workers. In Silicon Valley, it is crazy tight. Things have gotten so bad here, there are profitable businesses that have been open for decades that have recently announced they are closing. The Prolific Oven’s reasons for closing are in part because so many Silicon Valley companies are hiring bakers and cooks for their high-tech campuses that it is decimating the bakery’s labor pool.

That means that employers are forced to dip their toe into recruiting waters that Talent Acquisition has formerly they shied away from, including:

• people who “job hop”
• people who have done jail time
• people with disabilities