Learning Guide: Creating an Effective Talent Strategy Through Local and Regional Partnerships
Partnerships between businesses and public or non-profit organizations can help diversify talent pipelines and reduce turnover.
Community partnerships are outcome-based relationships that can help organizations facilitate disability hiring and retention efforts. All businesses, regardless of size, employment sector, or industry, can benefit from forming partnership agreements with local and regional organizations.
Depending on the needs of the business, these relationships can be formal or informal. Formal partnerships allow business to clearly define their goals and develop a plan with the partner to achieve those goals. Informal agreements may suffice for specific needs – for example, an arrangement to refer candidates with disabilities from a local organization to a partner employer.
Creating partnerships with regional and local organizations is an effective way for businesses to access a diverse talent pipeline while reducing turnover. Many organizations can connect employers with qualified and skilled candidates with disabilities. Businesses can choose partners that are best aligned with their talent needs. EARN’s Partnerships to Build the Pipeline outlines four key categories of organizations ripe for recruiting-focused partnerships. They include organizations such as colleges and universities, regional workforce development entities, state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) programs, and community-based agencies. Organizations in these categories frequently link people with disabilities to employment opportunities and are often ready and able to partner with businesses.
VR programs provide people with disabilities employment and rehabilitative services to help them prepare for, secure, regain, or retain employment. These services can reduce or remove barriers to employment. The VR Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management shares several types of support (PDF) that state VR programs and community-based agencies can offer businesses.
These beneficial services include:
- Consulting about physical and digital accessibility.
- Training or technical assistance on equal employment opportunity requirements under the Rehabilitation Act and obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Providing awareness of disability-inclusive workplace culture and practices.
- Sharing tax credit benefits and barrier removal advice for hiring people with disabilities.
- Accessing Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services.
- Providing on-the-job training to eligible employees.
- Guidance on job accommodation solutions for applicants and employees.
- Supporting businesses as inclusive apprenticeship sponsors.
- Training or consulting on workplace safety and injury prevention for disabled workers.
Resources to Support the Formation of Regional Partnerships
General Partnership Resources
- Community Partnerships: An Effective Inclusion Strategy: This simple guide helps employers interested in working with community partners get started on a path to hiring and retaining employees with disabilities.
- Partnering with Business to Improve Employment of People with Disabilities: A Guide for Community-Based Organizations and Workforce Development Professional: Learn how service providers play a role in supporting disability employment by partnering with businesses.
- Review of Community College-Employer Partnerships and Initiatives: Expanding Opportunities for Job Seekers with Disabilities: Learn how partnerships between community colleges and employers can help expand job opportunities for people with disabilities.
- Employer Tax Incentives Available from the Federal Government: Learn more about tax incentives offered by the Federal Government to encourage private employers to hire people with disabilities.
- Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulations for Registered Apprenticeship Programs: In 2016, the Department of Labor released updated regulations and guidance to help businesses reach a larger and more diverse pool of workers.
- The Value of Inclusive Apprenticeships: Calculate the potential value and find resources for creating an apprenticeship program that fosters inclusion for people with disabilities and other underrepresented groups.
Trainings and Videos
- Partnerships to Build Your Talent Pipeline: An online short course to learn about the important role partnerships play in identifying candidates with disabilities and how to collaborate effectively with key community organizations.
- FALA Technologies: Manufacturing Career Opportunities: Employer Case Study: Learn about an innovative pre-apprenticeship program for people with disabilities in New York’s Hudson Valley, and how FALA Technologies partnered with the Resources Center for Accessible Living (RCAL), a community rehabilitation provider.
Partnerships for Specific Sectors or Groups:
- Developing Effective Collaborations & Partnerships to Advance the Employment of Individuals with Disabilities in the Federal Sector: Explore strategies that improve collaboration and communication between employees with disabilities and managers in the federal sector.
- Neurodiversity Hiring Initiatives & Partnerships: Partnerships can help ensure a talent pipeline for neurodivergent candidates.
Partnerships are one strategy employers can use to hire and keep skilled workers, especially workers with disabilities.