Disability and Work, Research Brief, July 2012, by Elaine Katz, Meg O’Connell, and Robert Nicholas
Lowe’s disability hiring initiative began in its Pittston, Pennsylvania distribution center through a community partnership with the local Arc. Lowe’s philosophy was the same as Walgreens — equal pay, equal jobs, and an inclusive work environment. Based on the initial success in the recruitment and performance of qualified employees with disabilities at the Pittston distribution center, Steve Szilagyi, Senior Vice President of Distribution at Lowe’s, formulated a plan to expand the program throughout the company’s 14 distribution centers. It began with NOD’s Bridges program working at three Lowe’s distribution centers (Statesville, North Carolina, Findlay, Ohio, and Rockford, Illinois) that needed assistance in establishing disability employment program sites and forming local partnerships. The Kessler grant enabled NOD to implement the pilot with the overall goal of helping Lowe’s expand its disability employment program, and creating a pipeline of workers with disabilities to meet Lowe’s hiring needs in the three distribution centers. “NOD is proud to have had Lowe’s as a partner in testing our Bridges to Business concept,” said Carol Glazer, President of NOD. “Our work with Lowe’s helped them expand their disability hiring efforts, and helped us fine tune our Bridges program. We believe the Bridges model, which starts with employers’ labor force needs and then moves into finding the right sourcing partner, can increase employment prospects for people with disabilities while improving employers’ bottom line. It’s a win, win.”
NOD’s main role was to serve as an intermediary or service broker between the local service providers, consumers, and Lowe’s, thereby helping the company effectively recruit, hire, retain, and support workers with disabilities. A key component of the Bridges model is that the intermediary, in this case NOD, serves as a neutral convener with dual expertise in human capital management (e.g., human resource practices, recruiting, diversity programs, and policy and program implementation) and vocational rehabilitation (e.g., job coaching, job delivery, employment networks, etc.). This model enables NOD to help employers with their program infrastructure and choose a community-based partner to source and support employees, a local partner that fits their organizational culture and hiring needs.
In each of the three distribution center locations, NOD identified and evaluated at least five potential partner agencies in an effort to establish a lead agency to be the primary partner to interface directly with Lowe’s and work within that community with other vocational rehabilitation agencies to ensure a consistent pipeline of individuals with a wide variety of disabilities to Lowe’s. These assessments included on-site visits and interviews with social service and workforce development agency directors, employer partners, and people with disabilities who were served by the agency, and included a critical appraisal of each agency’s business relationship management strategy. Upon completion of the agency assessments, NOD provided Lowe’s with an overview of each organization, its strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations for the lead agency. Lowe’s selected its community partner based on its hiring needs and input from the NOD assessment. It is important to note that identifying a local agency partner is often the major obstacle that prevents a company from launching a disability employment initiative. Lowe’s indicated that having a community partner familiar with its business needs, as well as, disability employment and vocational rehabilitation practices, saved time and contributed to project success.
Documenting all roles and responsibilities in a memorandum of understanding once partners are identified is key to ensuring all parties understand one another’s function, expectations, and accountability for the disability hiring initiative. In the case of Lowe’s, service providers had the day-to-day contact with Lowe’s supervisors and employees with disabilities, while NOD provided project management and oversight, working directly with Lowe’s senior management and service provider agencies to ensure all project objectives were being met.
During the 18 months that NOD worked with Lowe’s, over 120 people with disabilities were hired and 375 managers were trained. At each location, NOD helped launch new disability hiring programs, identifying local partners and establishing a network of service providers that worked together as a team for Lowe’s. NOD also assisted Lowe’s with program launch and implementation, helping with training, on-boarding new employees with disabilities, and establishing processes for addressing any issues or concerns.
It is important to note that each Lowe’s location operated slightly differently based on its hiring needs and community partners. However, all of the distribution centers operated with a primary (lead) business sourcing and support partner, a single agency that led the initiative and coordinated all other service provider agencies. See Figure 1 for an illustration of the partnership arrangement. The willingness of Lowe’s management team to expand its diversity initiatives was integral to the positive outcomes seen at each distribution center. A database specially developed for this project tracked program success and provided timely information on employees’ progress, number of hires to the employer, and the service partners.
By streamlining the steps and connections between employers and local service providers, Bridges creates sustainable employment programs for people with disabilities. The final strength of the Bridges model is that by design, it eliminates NOD’s intermediary role once the program is fully operational and sustainable. Subsequently, in January 2012, Lowe’s hired a recognized disability expert to join its diversity team. “NOD has been a valued resource for Lowe’s and we commend them for the work they are doing in Bridges to Business,” said Steve Szilagyi, Senior Vice President, Distribution, at Lowe’s.
Lowe’s Canada, Accessibility Policy – Others can learn from this. To view:
http://www.lowes.ca/articles/Accessibility-Policy_a760.html?linkloc=404