Summit Guide Employer Perspectives on Workers with Disabilities: A National Summit to Develop a Research Agenda
The purpose of this guide is to provide critical information to National Summit participants, speakers, moderators, and facilitators in order to achieve the expected outcomes of this working meeting. This Guide contains three sections: Overview; Content Themes; and Format.
I. National Summit Overview
Purpose: The purpose of the National Summit is to provide input and guidance with which the Interagency Committee on Disability Research’s (ICDR) Interagency Subcommittee on Employment (ISE) may formulate: A national research agenda, supported across Federal agencies, that focuses upon needs of American industries and businesses; and A research capacity that will acquire and expand the body of knowledge regarding employers that will contribute to increasing the employment (recruitment, hiring, retaining, and promoting) and economic status of people with disabilities. Identify gaps, trends, and future directions in disability employment research, from the employers’ perspective, which will have the capacity to strengthen the scientific basis that informs policy, program planning, and development; Identify future directions for increased Federal interagency collaboration and coordination on disability employment research and development; and Publish and disseminate proceedings and promote knowledge transfer. Strengthen the methodological and scientific basis for disability employment research and development; Improve translation of research to inform policy, program planning, and development; and Increase Federal Interagency coordination and collaboration.
Goals: The goals of the National Summit are to:
Outcomes: The National Summit will develop recommendations and strategies to:
Outcomes as Related to Future ISE Activities: It is expected that the Summit’s results will facilitate future ISE activities to: Use the results of the Summit to increase Federal interagency coordination and collaboration regarding future directions in disability employment research and development; and Disseminate the Summit proceedings to stakeholders. 1
Working Definition of Employer-side or Demand-side Research: The working definition of employer-side or demand-side research focuses on forces that affect organizations’ employment practices. This includes research that explores the desires, concerns, and goals of organizations that employ or might come to employ people with disabilities and involves business leaders, executives, human resource personnel, and managers/supervisors that make the hiring, recruitment, and promotion decisions. It also includes gaining an understanding of how employers vary, such as by industry type, size, and sector, in order to gain an understanding of different segments of the employer market. Most simply put, demand-side research focuses on the employer as the unit of analysis whereas supply-side employment research focuses on people with disabilities and other workers. Employer-side and demand-side are terms used interchangeably for the purposes of the Summit.
II. National Summit Content Themes
Six themes have been selected for the National Summit:
Theme 1: Changing the Employer/Worker Relationship—Methods Contributing to Industry Productivity and a Healthy Workforce.
This theme includes discussion topics such as: The meaning of employer-side and demand-side research; Whether and what changes may be anticipated in the “social contract” between American business and its workforce; The role employment plays in paying for supports and resources (e.g., accommodations, health care, pensions); The changing (i.e., declining) value of worker loyalty and longevity for employers; How greater acceptance of turnover relates to training costs and needs, and who bears those costs; Changes to the workplace (e.g., flex schedules, telework, emergency preparedness); Changes in organizing of workers and the integrity of collective bargaining agreements; Anticipated changes in such concepts as careers, advancement or promotion, tenure and longevity; and Impact of this theme on the “business case for the employment of people with disabilities.”
Theme 2: Organizational Culture and Climate Regarding Disability Diversity on the Workforce.
This theme includes discussion topics such as: What comprises organizational culture; How this body of research is organized; How climate and culture optimizes the productivity and continuing relevance of companies; 2
How organizational culture impacts divisions, work-teams, offices, employees and managers; and Whether organizational culture suggests that non-retention decisions have more to do with integration into a workgroup or job culture than with individual job competence.
Theme 3: Retention, Hiring, and Skills for the Future.
This theme includes discussion topics such as: How employers look at retention, hiring, and future skills, and how these thought processes affect, in different ways, creating, acquiring, and maintaining (or downsizing) a workforce appropriate to short and long term industry or business needs; How human resource functions, roles, and expectations may change as businesses plan differently for workers who are hired (terminal, with benefits), are engaged as contractors (limited, no benefits), or are viewed for future contribution to business viability (core, sustained workforce); Recruitment of skilled workers and future sources of qualified employees; What will be those needed skills, and which skills or capacities they will replace; Youth transition; Dislocation and retraining of workforces as businesses fade from communities or industries move abroad; Where training or retraining will take place; Who will provide that training and how industry-specific or business-specific skills and training will be expected to develop in the future; Methodologies and technologies through which to create or develop workers (e.g., CAT, distance education); and Changes to anticipate in the workforce development system.
Theme 4: Business, Health, and Disability Management.
This theme includes discussion topics such as: Shifting the perspective from treatment to promoting a healthy workforce; Emerging priority health issues, both national (e.g., obesity) and global (e.g., HIV/AIDS); Greater longevity of workers and retirees; Changing thoughts on public and private sector and individual roles; Costs and resilience of healthcare plans; National health policy; Increasing business health care/compensation costs (e.g., workers compensation, pensions, health care premiums) both directly (e.g., premiums, designated health plans) and indirectly (e.g., Medicare payments, total cost of work injuries, pregnancies, mental health, catastrophic diseases); and The impact of health costs on issues such as workplace safety, return-to-work, job reengineering, and job restructuring as it relates to employees who acquire injuries,
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limitations, and disabilities during the course of employment or under other circumstances (e.g., service members/veterans, personal illness, accidents outside of the workplace).
Theme 5: Demographics, Data, and Statistics for Employers.
This theme includes discussion topics such as: current employment sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other national health surveys intended to provide viable information. The data they obtain may not include sufficient or sensitive enough items/indicators relevant to emerging workforce populations, such as immigrants and individuals with disabilities, who might be in labor pools or areas where businesses will emerge (e.g., globalization requires a whole new level of comparable data). Similarly, the discussion will explore the implications of industry specific data and the impact of data being collected for the purpose of market competition, rather than for “public” purposes. The discussion will examine such concerns as privacy issues and comparability or the potential to combine data from worker compensation programs, health insurance, employment insurance, wage and hour data, etc. Therefore, this theme addresses the numerous methodological issues involved in conducting employer-relevant research.
Theme 6: Role and Effect of Government.
This theme includes discussion topics as: Policy and relationships that encourage, enable, incentivize, or regulate compliance and thereby influence business and workforce development decisions; The government’s role in leadership as demonstrated by a vast array of social policies; Different models or partnerships between the public and private sector (e.g., Amtrak, US Postal Service); Hypothetical mergers among like businesses (e.g., UPS and FedEx); Other economic-political enterprises (e.g., state government partnerships with biotech industries); and Privatization of public sector functions.
III. National Summit Format
The National Summit is intended to be an interactive, working meeting. The format is designed to elicit extensive information through knowledge exchange, facilitated discussion, and the identification of recommendations and strategies that will enable the ICDR’s ISE to enhance Federal interagency collaboration and coordination in the area of disability employment research, and support business and research partnerships. In order to capture the rich information generated by Summit activities, general sessions will be recorded (including CART services for a full transcript) and will employ trained note-takers. The Panel and Discussion Sessions will also utilize Facilitators and note-takers. Keynote Addresses: The purposes of the keynote addresses are to help the participants focus on the “big picture” and highlight the importance of increasing the attention paid to employer-side research; understand how research is used by employers; examine the assumptions and
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expectations that drive American industries and business decisions; and promote business and research partnerships in future disability employment policy research. Panel: State of the Research: This panel presentation will explore the current state of the science on employer-side research, particularly as it relates to each or any of the National Summit Themes. The panel will describe the “big picture” in terms of: research literature and key findings; methods, models, and measures used in conducting employer-side research; stages of knowledge in various areas of disability employment research; research gaps, trends, and opportunities; future research directions; and knowledge translation issues. Panel: Employers as Customers of Research: This panel will include employers who will discuss the state of the science as it relates to each or any of the National Summit Themes. The panel will engage participants in the employer perspective “big picture” in terms of: methods, models, and measures used in conducting employer-side research; research gaps, trends, and opportunities; future research directions; suggestions for making research transferable to employers; and how to increase public-private partnerships, coordination, and collaboration. Panel and Discussion Sessions: The National Summit will then conduct a series of six (6) Panel Discussion Sessions that will focus on specific Themes. The Panel Discussion Sessions are intended to explore each Theme in depth. Each Session will be led by a Moderator who will introduce the Theme and Panel Members, and serve as “time-keeper.” One-hour presentations will be given by panel members who have research or related experience associated with the Theme and its underlying issues. The panel will discuss: methods, models, and measures used in conducting employer-side research; research gaps, trends, and opportunities; business and industry interests and needs; future research directions; suggestions for making research transferable to employers; and how to increase Federal interagency coordination and collaboration. Panel members will have between 15 and 20 minutes for individual presentations, depending on the number of panel members. The Moderator is responsible for equally dividing time between presenters and verifying time allocations prior to the beginning of each panel session. Following each Panel presentation, Summit Participants will participate in a facilitated discussion, led by two Facilitators. The role of the Facilitators will be to ensure an interactive dialogue between the Participants and the Panel Members. Through the Facilitators, each group will be asked to: 1) Identify someone to report the results of the group discussion. 2) Discuss the Theme in terms of gaps, trends, methodology, and future directions. 3) Develop the following to report back to the Panel and Discussion Session Reporting sessions: Recommendations/Directions for future research. Recommendations/Strategies on strengthening the relevance and/or methodological and scientific base of future disability employment research and development. Some groups will include members with the expertise to discuss the methodological and scientific base of research, while others have greater expertise in the relevance of research for business and industry.
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Recommendations/Strategies for improving the translation of research to inform policy, program planning, and development. Recommendations/Strategies for improving the translation of research for an employer audience. Recommendations/Strategies for how to increase Federal Interagency coordination and collaboration; and public-private partnerships. Panel and Discussion Sessions Reporting: Each day, the results from the Panel and Discussion Sessions will be reported back to all participants in a moderated general session. The designated reporter for the panel will deliver the recommendations. Next Directions: This final general session will offer a summary of the National Summit. Two Panelists will provide their unique perspectives on the Summit’s findings, the strategies identified, and the implications for future action by researchers, employers, advocates, and the ICDR/ISE.
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