OU Program Helps Businesses Develop
Inclusive Workforce
Orthodox Union, NY: November 16, 1998: In an age when recruiting and maintaining reliable workers is a problem, employers are increasingly finding a creative and profitable solution. They are hiring the developmentally disabled.
David Schwartz, who is
developmentally disabled, answering the phones at SLK Mortgage Co. in Teaneck, NJ, where
he works as a full-time receptionist. |
"We’re often training people only to lose them," lamented Yehuda Kohn, Vice President of SLK Mortgage Co., in Teaneck, NJ. "But people with developmental disabilities make excellent employees," said Kohn who hired a fortyish developmentally disabled man more than one year ago.
Kohn is but one of the many employers who have hired disabled employees through the Orthodox Union’s Vocational Training Program. Sponsored by the National Jewish Council for the Disabled (NJCD), the Vocational Training Program, established a little over a year ago, places employees in businesses including food manufacturers, retail establishments, elementary schools, non-profit organizations and retail establishments in companies including Smith Barney and Deb-El Foods.
| Indeed, a commitment to "diversity" and "inclusiveness" do not only help boost one’s corporate image; it helps increase the bottom line. |
The program, which provides personal job coaches with free on-site training and supervision to all new employees, places workers in a wide range of positions including receptionists, food service workers, porters, and messengers.
"People with developmental disabilities are often bored less with repetitious tasks, and offer loyalty and
Lawrence, a full-time messenger, received the NJCD’s First Annual Employee of the Year Award in recognition of his outstanding performance and successful transition into the workforce. |
a long term commitment," said Elliot P. Gibber, President of Deb-El Foods and NJCD Chairman. "They tend to be loyal, enthusiastic, on time, productive and very focused."
Moreover, a commitment to "diversity" and "inclusion" no only helps boost a corporation’s image; it helps increase the bottom line. Recent surveys of employers of the developmentally disabled reveal general satisfaction with work performance when comparing their productivity, turnover rates, absenteeism, and safety risks with those on non-disabled employees, according to a report released by The ARC, a national organization on mental retardation.
"We don’t ask businesses to do a charitable act, we are
giving them contributing members," said Dr. Jeff Lichtman, 
National Director of the NJCD. "People
with disabilities constitute a remarkably reliable, conscientious workforce at a
relatively low cost. For corporations and businesses, a diverse workforce is more than a
tribute to inclusion; it’s a strategy for growth and profit."
With 35 chapters throughout the US and Canada, the NJCD is able to fit your business’s needs with capable, dependable employees. Call us at 212-613-8321.
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