Employers Reluctant to Hire Workers With Disabilities Miss Top Talent

A recent study found hesitation among employers in the U.S. hospitality industry to hire workers who have disabilities. This untapped labor pool holds many skills and is underutilized.

Many employers in the U.S. hospitality industry are reluctant to hire workers with disabilities due to preconceived notions that they are unable to perform the essential functions of the job, according to a recent study.

Researchers from the University of New Hampshire found in a survey of 320 U.S. hospitality companies that these firms believed “persons with disabilities would not have the requisite skills or be as productive” and that supervisors are uncomfortable managing them.

It also found larger companies to be more likely to actively recruit people with disabilities, saying that those that do are not as concerned as mid-sized and smaller firms about the potential costs and safety concerns that may come with hiring these workers.

With unemployment still high and companies showing an increased demand for skilled workers, people with disabilities represent a relatively untapped talent pool. The national unemployment rate for people with disabilities was 12.9 percent for January 2012; while it was 8.7 percent for people without disabilities.

“I think awareness is a very important part of it,” said Valentini Kalargyrou, assistant professor of hospitality management at the University of New Hampshire and a co-author of the study, “People with Disabilities: Employers’ Perspectives on Recruitment Practices, Strategies, and Challenges in Leisure and Hospitality.” The study was also authored by Andrew Houtenville, an associate professor of economics and research director of the Institute on Disability at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire.

The findings suggest that diversity leaders and talent managers of all industries should increase efforts to hire people with disabilities. Doing so, the study said, “Would enhance their hiring prospects, particularly since those with disabilities constitute a loyal and stable pool of workers with a long record of satisfactory job performance.”

Aside from being equally capable of performing many — if not most — jobs, workers with disabilities “are more conditioned, committed and innovative” employees, said Nadine Vogel, president of Springboard Consulting LLC and the author of Dive In: Springboard into the Profitability, Productivity, and Potential of the Special Needs Workforce.