According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 30 percent of the 15.3 million Americans of working age (between ages 16 and 64) with disabilities participated in the workforce in 2018, compared with 74 percent of Americans without a disability. An Accenture analysis of the research suggests that shifting recruitment efforts to focus on disability inclusion would therefore provide companies with access to a new talent pool of more than 10.7 million people.

Companies may benefit from working with employment specialists who can help identify how job seekers with disabilities can strengthen their business and meet currently unmet needs. That’s according to a new article authored by Public Consulting Group’s vocational rehabilitation subject matter expert Maya Cox that was published by Recruiter.com, a leading industry resource for human resources (HR) professionals seeking to learn more about innovative approaches to recruiting and hiring.

Drawing on her more than 10 years of experience in disability services, Maya demystifies the pivotal role of the employment specialist in her article by offering:

• An inside look at an employment specialist’s job, featuring a real-world example from Arc of Evansville in Indiana
• Benefits for workers with disabilities who use an employment specialist
• Advantages for employers who use an employment specialist
• Resources for connecting with local employment specialists

This guidance supplements the article on the power of the employment specialist that Maya wrote earlier this year with her colleague Kelley Land of Virginia Commonwealth University for the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, this time for an HR audience.

Read Maya’s full article on Recruiter.com here.