Employing All Abilities

Even with the heightened focus on diversity and inclusion, there’s still a group largely forgotten in the conversation about workplace equality: people with disabilities.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for people with a disability in 2020 was 12.6 percent, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from 2019—much higher than the 2020 unemployment rate of 7.9 percent for people without disabilities. (Unemployed persons are those who did not have a job, were available for work, and were actively looking for a job in the four weeks preceding the survey.)

This disparity is the reason Nicole Rabinowitz founded Inclusive Networking in Minneapolis two years ago. She works with job seekers with disabilities to help them find employment, and she supports businesses that seek to become inclusive employers, hiring individuals with disabilities alongside employees without disabilities. Rabinowitz gets to know the job seekers—their talents, interests, and challenges; she does the same for participating businesses, learning about their culture, operations, and needs. Then she matches job seekers and employers and provides on-the-job training.

Minneapolis-based startup snack brand Isadore Nut Co. is a partner of Inclusive Networking. Founder and CEO Tasya Kelen says there are the “feel-good” benefits to being an inclusive employer: seeing people who’ve faced significant barriers to employment thrive personally and professionally in their jobs, like production assistant Trent Pleasant. “I’m starting to speak with more confidence than I was just two years ago,” he says, “and I’ve also learned how to advocate for myself.”

Production assistant Kayla Corpron found her first job at Isadore, and she’s already a great leader for other employees, Kelen says. “I like to be responsible,” says Corpron, “and Tasya entrusts me with helping others.”

But inclusive employment isn’t just good for the employees or the soul, says Kelen. Hiring people with differing abilities is also good for business.

Case in point: Isadore Nut Co. is currently working on a redesign of its brand and packaging this year, and one focus is to make its packaging easier to open, fill, and seal for its employees with dexterity issues—an improvement for all customers, Kelen says.

“Everyone benefits when they’re working with more diversity, and there’s greater workplace productivity,” says Rabinowitz. “It’s interesting because a lot of the supports, accommodations, or modifications that some employees benefit from actually end up benefiting the whole company’s workplace productivity.”

Increased retention

According to public policy nonprofit CEO Commission for Disability Employment, a common misconception about hiring people with disabilities is that they are only short-time employees who need extensive supervision when, in reality, hiring employees with disabilities can actually increase employee retention by 90 percent and reduce training and hiring costs.

Humble Nut Butter, another local food startup, has seen this to be true, says its co-founder Jess Waller. The company hired senior production assistant Tim Strom in 2019, and he has remained in his position far longer than average for similar positions in the company.

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