Business benefits

What are the benefits to my business when employing people with disability?

Recruitment in Australia must be responsive to changes in economic conditions and social trends. Businesses can address future employment requirements by expanding their workforce through the employment of people with disability.

Like all employees, people with disability bring a range of skills, abilities and qualifications to the workplace. Many businesses already employ workers with disability because it makes good business sense.  Consider this:

• People with disability can have fewer accidents at work—the workers compensation costs for people with disability can be as low as 4 per cent of the workers compensation costs of other employees.  The Australian Safety and Compensation Council has produced a report that answers the question:  Are people with disability at risk at work?  See our Related Links.
• People with disability can have lower absenteeism and often take less sick leave than other employees.
• The costs of hiring people with disability can be significantly lower than hiring other employees—as low as 13 per cent of the cost of the other employees.
• Employing people with disability can build staff morale and teamwork, raise management awareness of workplace practices and conditions and increase customer and staff loyalty.

Employer experiences

Read about the benefits and experiences that real employers have had when employing a person with disability.  The following fact sheet is available in either PDF (Portable Document Format) or RTF (Rich Text Format):

• Employing people with disability—success stories (23KB RTF)
• Employing people with disability—success stories (197KB PDF)

You can also share employer experiences through our media files.  To play our multi media clips, you will need Windows Media Player.  If you don't have Windows Media Player, you can download a free version from the Windows Download Centre—see our Related Links.  Downloading the software can take a while on slow Internet connections.  To make the files accessible to as many people as possible, each media file is captioned and the transcript for each file is also available. 

• Strengthen your business—media file (XMB WMV)
• Strengthen your business—transcript
  
  
• Retaining skilled staff—media file (XMB WMV)
• Retaining skilled staff—transcript
  
  
• Lower absenteeism—media file (XMB WMV)
• Lower absenteeism—transcript
  
  
• Lower workers compensation costs—media file (XMB WMV)
• Lower workers compensation costs—transcript 
  
  
• Relating to your customers—media file (XMB WMV)
• Relating to your customers—transcript
  
  
• What people with disability can do—media file (XMB WMV)
• What people with disability can do—transcript
  
  
• Help for employers—media file (XMB WMV)
• Help for employers—transcript
  

References

Australian Safety and Compensation Council, 2007, 'Are People with Disability at Risk at Work? A Review of the Evidence', ASCC, Canberra.

Graffam, J, Shinkfield, A, Smith, K, and Polzin, U 2002, ‘Employer benefits and costs of employing a person with a disability’, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, vol. 17, pp. 251-263.