Employing people with a disability -

What's in it for Me . . ?

• Over 90% of employers who had recently employed a person with a disability said they would be happy to continue to employ people with a disability

• The cost to business of absenteeism and sick leave for employees with a disability can be as low as 34% of the cost incurred by their colleagues

• Fewer accidents at work and significantly lower workers compensation incidents - people with a disability have only 4% of the workers compensation costs of average employees

• Absenteeism is 39% lower than staff without a disability

• The average recruitment cost of an employee with a disability is 13% of the average cost of an employee without a disability

• Telstra reported people with a disability were loyal - they worked on average 4.1 years in a call centre compared to 3.2 years for people without a disability, and over a 15 month period people with a disability had 11.8 days absent compared to 19.2 for people without a disability

• There were no significant differences in performance, productivity and sales.

So . . .

Employing people with a disability makes good business sense!

And did you know . . .

• One in five of your customers is likely to be a person with a disability

• Despite the fact that 20% of the population has a disability, the unemployment rate among people with a disability is significantly higher (8.6% versus 5.0% in 2003)

• People with a disability earn lower wages on average than the rest of the workforce. (By 24% for women with a disability and 17% for men with a disability)

• Australia has the seventh lowest employment rate for people with disability in the OECD. In 2003, two thirds of the OECD nations measured had better employment rates than Australia for people with a disability.

 

Hardly seems fair, does it?

So . . .

You can help your community by being open to employing someone with a disability.

It helps your community and it helps your business!

 

More Helpful Information for Employers

 

When you employ a person with a disability, you are employing a person with a great desire to contribute their skills and knowledge to your business and participate fully in their personal growth and that of their community.

 

Clients of Stanthorpe Specialist Employment Service have the advantage of specialised support and training both on and off the job that enables them to participate as completely as possible in their employment and within their community.

 

Your new employee's interests, skills, knowledge and experience is carefully matched with the criteria required within each employment position.

 

SSES will help you too. As an employer, you are a key stakeholder in this process and you are entitled to receive specialised support and training, appropriate to the requirements of yourself, your other employees and your business. The appropriate requirements will be negotiated in consultation with you, an SSES employment support specialist and your employee and will continue as negotiated or as required for the duration of the employment.

 

You may wish to consider taking advantage of a Wage Subsidy (see our Wage Subsidy page) to assist with extra expenses incurred by your business during the first few weeks of your new employee's training period. Please ask an SSES employment support specialist for more information about this.

 

Upon request from either you or your employee (who has a disability), we can design a specific Co-Worker Training short course and deliver it to you and your staff to assist in the assimilation and continued work performance of your new employee and other employees.

 

In certain instances, you may wish to consider using The Supported Wages System where an employee with a disability, who has a reduced productivity level, may legally be paid pro-rata (at a rate that is less than the award wage). A trained assessor determines the adjusted wages by conducting a complex assessment and thereby establishing the new wage rate from the resulting calculations. An SSES employment support specialist will provide you with more information about this at your request.