By Rob McInnes
In her book "Beyond Traditional Job Development" Denise Bissonnette describes what she calls the "Employment Proposal" as an alternative to traditional job placement strategies for people with disabilities. Traditional placement approaches have some important limitations. While job seekers with employment barriers are supported by the placement agencies, they are still left to compete for job openings with individuals who have no apparent barriers to employment. Traditional placement approaches also tend to give secondary importance to the job seeker's individual interests and passions with primary importance being given to getting any job that happens to be available. By means of Employment Proposals, job seekers can secure jobs that are designed by their individual interests & skills and, typically, do so without putting them in competition with anyone else.
What is an Employment Proposal? Simply put, it is a written application for a job that doesn't exist yet! Traditional placement approaches are targeted at jobs that already exist. Employment Proposals are targeted at jobs that don't but should exist. Employment Proposals are entrepreneurial in nature and they are rooted in business goals of growth and increased profits. They require out-of-the-box thinking based on sound business practices.
Sound interesting? Here is an example
Denise was once working with an elderly man who emigrated from Vietnam, spoke almost no English, and who had a very severe facial disfigurement. In his home country, the man had been a tailor for years and excelled at his profession. Denise realized that helping him to apply for every tailoring job that was advertised would be a long and frustrating exercise as he would likely be at a disadvantage because of his age, appearance and communication barrier. Instead of taking that route, Denise set out to discover where tailoring took place in that community and where there might be a need for a new job to be created. She discovered that most hospitals were outsourcing all the repairs and alterations to their uniforms and paying a very high price. Together with her client, Denise developed a written proposal to one of the hospitals outlining what they had learned about the hospital's need for uniform repairs and alterations and what th ey understood the cost to be. That was accompanied by a summary of her client's talents and a proposal for the hospital to hire him. The proposal detailed how the new job would reduce their costs and provide a more responsive service time. The business case was sound, Denise's client was perfectly qualified for the job. The hospital accepted the proposal and her client was hired for the newly-created position.
While most job developers seem to be much more comfortable just responding to existing jobs, we do continue to get enthusiastic feedback from those who do step out of their comfort zones and use the Employment Proposal approach. One agency that provides employment services to people with psychiatric disabilities attributed a 30% increase in their placement rate to the use of Employment Proposals!
While up in Canada this summer, I had the opportunity to meet with some job developers from the small town of Kenora, Ontario. Their organization, the Kenora Association for Community Living, provides employment services to people with developmental disabilities. They enthusiastically recounted how variations of Employment Proposals have become a primary tool for them. In some cases they have used them to create new positions with existing businesses in other cases they have used them to create small businesses. Here are some of the many examples that they shared with me:
1. One of the job developers found out that the weekly "hot dog day" at their child's school was being discontinued. "Hot dog day" had been run by a volunteer and the proceeds had gone to the school's Parent Council. "Hot dog day" was going to be discontinued because the volunteer could no longer meet the demands of that responsibility. The job developer quickly developed a proposal for the Parent Council for three of her clients to take over "hot dog day". (This would involve purchasing supplies, setting up, cooking and selling the hot dogs, etc.) The Employment Proposal included a plan to split proceeds evenly between her clients and the Parent Council. The proposal was accepted. This part-time employment opportunity earns her clients approximately $10/hour. To increase the hours of employment, similar proposals have been submitted to other schools in the area.
2. One of the job developers noticed that the local ski hill was obviously in need of better janitorial attention. Investigating this, they learned that the hill was run by a nonprofit organization and its janitorial responsibilities were attended to by volunteers. An Employment Proposal was submitted for a paid position for a client that would keep the facilities much cleaner. That, of course would increase customer satisfaction, return business and improved revenues. The proposal was accepted, the job was created and the client was hired.
3. On behalf of a client an Employment Proposal was submitted to a local hospital to provide onsite document shredding. This proposal, however, was not for a job per se. Instead, the proposal offered free shredding services to the hospital in exchange for space that the client could use to develop her own shredding business. The proposal was accepted. The client now runs her own business from the hospital site shredding confidential documents from a number of businesses in town. Over time, she has become successful enough to need to hire other people to assist her.
In addition to promising more employment success for folks with disabilities, I think Employment Proposals can make the whole business of job development a lot more exciting. Whether you are a job developer working on someone else's behalf or a job seeker yourself, how thrilling to start looking for jobs not only where they already exist - but where they are waiting to be created!
© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, August 2004
(If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If included in a newsletter or other publication, we would appreciate receiving a copy.)
