Look For Ability

My organization proudly supports a program called Project SEARCH. We serve as a program site for “people with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities” who work as “interns” in the program for one year. As I see these interns around our campus, they are working hard under the supervision of a skills trainer. They do an invaluable service in cleaning up our dining venues, completing maintenance tasks, and putting a smile on the faces of my residents. One young gentleman is so wonderfully engaging and is always asking residents and staff how their day is going or what they plan to do over the weekend. I find myself wondering how to get ALL my staff so engaged and happy in their work.

Seeing the great work these interns do as they prepare for full-time, gainful employment, I find myself taking exception with the word “disability”. The prefix dis- means “not” or “the opposite of”. We are saying, then, that these interns should be labeled as NOT able (DISability). What I see, though, is so many abilities that add to the value of what we do and make a difference in the lives of the people we serve.

When seeking new staff members, we tend to look for people with certain skills, certain backgrounds or educational pedigrees, and certain behaviors. What we often unconsciously do is weed out people who don’t fit our idea of what the person in that role looks like. For better or worse, we come with biases against people who are a certain age, a certain look, and who act in a different way than we expect. We automatically weed out people who are unable to perform every skill identified in the job description just the way we picture it.

I read about managers throughout the country discussing the challenges of hiring the workforce they need. It’s those same people, though, who are avoiding hiring a young worker because they won’t be reliable and need too much training. They are avoiding hiring a young woman for a long-term project because they might become pregnant and need time away. They avoid hiring an older adult because they will just retire in a few years, or they won’t understand the technology used. They avoid hiring people with physical or intellectual challenges because they won’t be able to complete all the tasks assigned to their job. Maybe it’s time we stop being ruled by the job descriptions and start hiring for an eager worker’s skills and abilities or create accommodations to help them be successful.

When I became CEO, my first hire was someone more than 20 years my senior who was coming out of retirement to do something he would enjoy and bring fulfillment. He still works here, has added so much to our organization, and has been an amazing complement to fill in where I am weaker. In fact, until last year, everyone I hired as a direct report was older than I. I have hired several people with no background in senior housing, but who have great abilities to support our organization.

When you find the abilities people have, you overlook the disabilities or find ways around them. Frequently, you never know what challenges people have. Perhaps it is hearing loss and the high cost of hearing aids that is keeping someone from renewing a CDL driver’s license. When that happened here, we helped him get hearing aids and he has added so much to our company. Perhaps it is someone with intellectual challenges. When that happened here, we helped her to become the best dining services assistant she could be, she has thrived here for 20 years, and now her parents are residents. Perhaps it is someone who has just immigrated to the United States and does not speak English. When that happened here, we put her with someone who was a fluent speaker of her native language and communicated through Google Translate and other means to help her start to realize her American dream.

Keep in mind that some of the people you think are so able have their own disabilities. If you asked me to follow GAAP to create financial statements for my company, you would instantly find one of many disabilities. If you asked me to fix one of our many air conditioners, you would see another disability of mine. Like many other people, I also live with a chronic condition that for some becomes a legal disability, but I have found ways to keep it from defining me and interfering with my abilities.

My challenge, then, to all hiring managers and executives is to look for abilities. Consider the culture of your organization and what abilities make your culture stronger. I would guess it is not college degrees or experience with like businesses. It is probably personal values, work ethic, customer service, and other innate abilities that are so hard to teach. When you look at the organization this way, you might just be surprised by how many amazing people you overlooked due to your unproven biases.