[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/hiring_edge.jpg” caption=”Bobby Lynne Cleland, employee at McMaster Athletics & Recreation; David Levine, fourth-year commerce student; Lisa Schumpf, program manager at The Salvation Army Lawson Ministries and Tim Goodacre, employee at McMaster Athletics & Recreation. Photo by Julia Thomson.”]

An innovative new community initiative originally begun by students at the DeGroote School of Business launched today. The program, which began with a marketing plan prepared by a group of-third year commerce students, is designed to assist employers with hiring and retaining qualified employees with disabilities.

The marketing plan suggested strategies to attract more companies to hire people with disabilities and to reach out to the Hamilton business community. To implement the plan, the Salvation Army Lawson Ministries hired David Levine, now in the fourth year of the Commerce program at DeGroote, through the School's Commerce
Internship Program.

Levine drew on the resources of employment agencies across Hamilton to develop a community wide, co-ordinated toolkit called The Hiring Edge. The kit is designed to provide information for employers with the aim of connecting work-ready individuals with job opportunities.

“The Hiring Edge moves away from the idea of simply hiring people with disabilities out of a sense of social duty or charity and focuses on how these people can actually benefit the business,” explains Levine. “People with disabilities present a huge untapped pool of skilled employees who often out-perform their able-bodied counterparts.”

The Hiring Edge directory is a concise booklet that provides a one-stop, centralized information source for employers. This fact book dispels myths, highlights the business case for hiring people with disabilities and promotes local service providers. It also includes employer testimonials, recent nationwide statistical information on hiring those in this largely untapped potential workforce, and the 10 best reasons/incentives for hiring people with disabilities.

The directory will be joined by a website, www.thehiringedge.ca, which acts as a portal for employers who would like to contact the local service providers who can connect them with qualified employment prospects.

Explains Levine, “Something that drew me to the internship was the challenge of taking on a social services issue from a business standpoint, and seeing how that approach would work. I was in a good position to use my academic business knowledge and my general skills to take this [issue] on in a way that wasn't seen before. I hope that The Hiring Edge exposes the business community to an untapped source of human capital and overcomes some misconceptions.”

Employees with disabilities by the numbers

• 90% of persons with disabilities rated average or better on job performance.
• 86% of persons with disabilities have average or above average attendance records.
• Nearly 50% of workers with disabilities are found to be more reliable than others.
• Employees with disabilities have a nearly 85% one-year retention rate.
• 97% of employers rate employees with disabilities as being as safe or safer on the job.