Disability Job and Career Management
By Kellen Dorsch
A planted seed cannot grow without the nurturing power of sunlight and water. In the same way, employees cannot grow without the support of their organization. In our previous article, we explored a study conducted by the Federal Managers Association that had an alarming message: managers are perceived as ill equipped to foster a work environment where employees with disabilities can develop into valuable professionals.
Unemployment for individuals with disabilities has risen, despite the strong legislative push to abolish discriminatory hiring practices.[i] A clear reason for this contradictory outcome is a general lack of the proper disability education and advocacy among managers, an argument advanced by the Federal Manager Association’s Unnecessary Boundaries study.
Fortunately, the hardest hurdles have been cleared. The Federal government has led by example through the 1990s, starting with the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. President Clinton furthered efforts with his Executive Order 13163, a commitment to award 100,000 Federal jobs to persons with disabilities by 2005. Organizations are now responsible to follow suit, not only by equitable hiring practices, but also by establishing inclusive work environments where persons with disabilities receive the supports necessary to advance and grow.
The first and most essential step in providing support for an employee with a mental or physical impairment is to evaluate their level of competency. The mysterious and complex nature of mental illness coupled with a personalized manifestation per individual places extreme importance on the ability of management to assess employees and their varying abilities before attempting to create environmental supports to encourage their growth. A multitude of tools are available for gauging competency and can be classified by how they measure the abilities of an employee. Self-report instruments, for example, rely on the ability of the employee to display aptitude through written questionnaires or workplace simulations. Observer rating instruments, on the other hand, rely on an observer to rate the aptitude of an employee based on how well he or she displays an ability to perform specific tasks, either through written questionnaires or simulated work situations.
Self-report instruments are most useful when a mental health professional is helping a person develop social skills across a variety of social contexts. While a work environment is considered a social context, self-report instruments are not ideal as they require the involvement of a trained mental health professional. Observer rating instruments, by contrast, work well in the business context. The observer need not be a professional counselor or psychologist. They must, however, have a substantial opportunity to observe and learn about the employee and his or her condition prior to administering an assessment. Managers and other Human Resources personnel are ideal candidates for the role of an observer as they have ample opportunity to get to know new hires before administering an observer-rating assessment.
Once the competency of an employee with a disability is ascertained, management can begin to tailor the company culture in a way that maximizes everyones ability to participate, communicate, learn, and develop. Disability job and career development tools are available to help organizations assess the competency of their workers, and they represent vital tools in creating an inclusive work environment. Other disability training and education resources can be utilized to spread awareness in a diverse organization, a necessary complement to helping persons with disabilities develop as professionals among their peers.
Career Management 101 – Basics of Career Growth
By Robert Chen Reynolds
Most of us never gets to realize career management is essential during our college years. We are encouraged to think of the future by our parents, but most of our peers think otherwise. In fact, career management related topics is a much loved topics on public speaking or debate classes. Who won won’t matter then. After all, it was a mere mind brawl and the career choice will always rely on each one. Some institutions offers seminars and lectures on making the sound career choice before or after graduation.
Career thinking should start in middle school or way before.
What would I be after finishing college? Should I need to take a master or a doctorate to achieve the career I want to have? What you want to be and to have is a choice. These questions never escaped the minds of the successful career men and women. Individuals who were successful in their career.
Most of these successful individuals started on asking friends, seeking advices and suggestions. They researched on the background on the things they want to become and the essential steps of getting in the right track.
Some of us failed to foresee positive result in managing our careers. Most of these factors are the following:
Dependence on the existing boss reputation.This may work to your advantage as long as your boss is an asset to the company. However, should he fail you should have a back-up plan.
Passive employment. Some employees tend to wait for opportunities to knock, rather them finding the right opportunity.
Lack of knowledge and information on what career they would be taking. Every career person has a silent and imaginary SWOT Analysis in their mind. they should be able to see their ideal work, the the essential steps on how to get there.
Low self-esteem. Most often, this feeling and composure allow us to miss opportunity. After a failure in the previous employment, we feel sorry for ourselves. This should not be the case. We should be focusing on what we have to learn from it and make resolution on how to improve ourselves for the better.
Any career encounters – fortunate or not, one must push forward. That s the only way you can achieve the career growth you want to have. Consider yourself a “Trainee”. With this mindset, you become an absorbent of learning, always ready to invest on training that can hone your skills to achieve the improvement you want to have in your career. And, as an old adage reminds us: Correct practice, correct practice, correct practice. That is the only way you can master your craft. Remember, “Life is what we made it”.
If we want our life to be successful someday then we must have to make it right now. This call to action can be accomplished by enhancing our knowledge by reading; attend seminars related to our careers, workshops and anything that has to do with our career.
