Each month at Ability Partners, our hard-working Occupational Therapists gather to present, analyse and discuss different journal articles. This month, the group discussed workplace sustainability for people with a disability. 

They recently covered the following journal: 

Aksnes, S. Y., & Ulstein, J. (2024). Sustainable Employment for People with Disabilities: A Scoping Review on Workplace Practices and Positive Employment Outcomes. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research : SJDR, 26(1), 189-189–210. https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.1089

Aim of Study

To investigate the connection between workplace practices and positive employment outcomes contributing to workplace sustainability for PWD.

Study Research Question

What is currently known about workplace practices and positive employment outcomes, contributing to sustainable employment for people with disabilities?

Methodology

• Scoping review that summarises research and identifies research gaps.
• Includes positive employment outcomes across multiple stakeholders, using a holistic and inter-disciplinary approach, mixing literature across fields, perspectives, and methods.
• Search: ‘Target Group’ AND ‘Workplace practice’ AND ‘Employment outcome’.
• US and Australia major study countries.
• Peer-reviewed English-written journal articles published 2000 – 2022.
• 42 articles (18 qualitative, 23 quantitative, mixed methods).

Workplace practices that contributed to positive employment outcomes for PWD

1. Accommodations
2. Cultural Practices
3. Human Resource Management Practices (HRM)
4. Participation
5. Support
6. Training

 

Positive Employment Experiences and Perceived Performance Outcomes of PWD

Accommodations

• Job satisfaction associated with accessible and flexible work facilities.
• Feelings of recognition and participation associated with environmental adjustments and assistive technology.
• Higher self-efficacy that boosted creative performance.
• Monthly working hours positively impacted.
• Greater duration of employment with a company.
• Work performance, work engagement, and willingness to work hard increased when supported and accommodated.

Cultural Practices

• Feeling supported through positive cultural practices (e.g. being escorted in bad weather into the work office).
• Higher wages for PWD with ongoing interactions with co-workers and supervisors.
• Reduced intention to quit their job when their workplace perceived to be fair and responsive to their needs.

Human Resource Management Practices (HRM)

• Work engagement improved when disability inclusive HR policies were implemented.
• Lower levels of Presenteeism (staying back at work longer than required) when there was a strong employee-supervisor relationship.

Training and Support

• Job satisfaction was associated with supportive organisation stakeholders.
• Self-efficacy was found to be a product of ongoing training and support e.g. a buddy system.

Multiple Workplace Practices

• Many were more willing to work hard for the company when there were perceived high levels of fairness at work.

 

Positive Employment Experiences of Stakeholders in Organisations with Employment of PWD

Cultural Practices

• A positive and accepting work culture (e.g. understanding attitude) increased social interaction and experience between PWD and coworkers.
• Contact, experience, and support working with PWD contributed positively to stakeholder employment experiences.
• Coworker training/support to support a PWD encouraged greater appreciation of PWD (e.g. attitudes towards PWD, communication skills when working with PWD, disability categories – needs and characteristics of specific groups).

 

Employers View of PWD’s Performance at Work

Support and Cultural Practices

• An improvement in work performance results from organisational support and recognition from all stakeholders.
• To support a PWD employees’ work ability and productivity, managers should view their own role of coaching and adjusting work tasks as critical.
• Positive work performance resulted when PWD were well treated.
• Successful employability management for PSD depends on: Institutional (HR policy strategies), organisational (training courses for managers and employees), and individual procedures (operational stakeholders).

Positive Organisational Outcomes of Employing PWD

• Building supportive workplaces that promote beneficial work environments for PWD and other employees.
• Accommodating PWD (primarily through buying equipment and changing work schedules) can lead to positive organisational outcomes, such as:
  • Eliminated cost of training new employees
  • Retaining qualified employees
  • Increased employee productivity.

 

Limitations of the article

• Workplace practices are not clearly identified or easily categorised due to overlapping.
• Articles often addressed a number of practices leading to several outcomes.
• It was positively biased. It excludes articles with practices leading to negative or non-significant findings.

Main Finding

“… an open, supportive, and inclusive working environment, where work tasks are adapted to individual needs and work training is provided, leads to positive feelings and emotions for the involved stakeholders, improved work performance and work engagement, better conditions for PWD at the workplace, and longer employment duration.”

Clinical Implications for Practice

• Improved ability to provide recommendations to employers regarding how to better accommodate individuals with disabilities.
• Enhanced ability to be able to support employees with disability when working with them from an NDIS/workplace rehabilitation perspective.
• Improved capacity to educate organisation stakeholders about the range of effective workplace practices available that may be beneficial to their employees with a disability.
• Improved ability to educate managers and supervisors on ways their role can support a PWD to maintain sustained employment.
• Opportunity to educate managers and supervisors about cost free workplace practices, such as positive cultural practices, that can contribute to sustained employment for PWD.
• Opportunity to educate stakeholders about specific workplace practices, such as ‘accommodation’ that can help to retain qualified employees, increase employee productivity and eliminate cost of training new employees.

At Ability Partners, we work in partnership with you to achieve goals that really matter. We deliver evidence-based practice and work with you as a team. We strive to create workplace sustainability for all and implement positive workplace practices. We have an incredibly experienced team who are ready to assist you whenever needed. Click the link below to contact us and speak with one of our friendly team members.