People with Disabilities

Employee success can be elusive for people with disabilities. Historically, organizations were hesitant to hire this population. That’s changing. Of the 10.6 million working-age people with disabilities in the United States, just 35 percent were employed in 2022. But in 2023, that number rose to 38 percent.

Why? Faced with labor shortages, many companies include people of diverse abilities in their workforces. Greater adoption of inclusive business practices, including widespread acceptance of remote work and availability of assistive technology, has further propelled the shift—resulting in employee success that, in turn, leads to employer success.

How? Companies that staff people with disabilities consistently show increases in productivity and profit margins, while absenteeism and turnover decline. Other benefits include boosted morale, appeal to socially conscious investors, and employer tax incentives.

At three California-based businesses, none of this is news.

Angie’s Story: The Morning Light

Raley’s has fostered an inclusive workforce for decades, including hiring, training, and managing employees with various physical and intellectual disabilities.

Companies that staff people with disabilities consistently show increases in productivity, while absenteeism and turnover decline. Other benefits include boosted morale, appeal to socially conscious investors, and employer tax incentives.

When it comes to employee success, Angela “Angie” Rao is a shining example. Angie, who has a developmental disability, has worked for Raley’s supermarket as a courtesy clerk for 32 years.

“When I started, there were no computers,” Angie said. “You wrote down your shift requests and recorded your hours on little pieces of paper.” As the role of technology has grown in the business, Angie has grown with it.

“I call her my morning light,” said Danielle Bergmann, store team leader at the Carmichael, California Bel Air Market, one of Raley’s brands. “She’s probably one of the top five courtesy clerks I’ve ever had.” That’s saying a lot, as Bergmann has worked for the company for 28 years. “She’s on time, eager to work, she has a smile for everyone, and the customers love her to the point of asking about her if she’s not there one day.”

Bergmann’s experience with Angie is consistent with the data. Punctuality, loyalty, and customer satisfaction are part and parcel of including people of all abilities in the workplace.

Jesus’s Story: Top Salesperson

Speaking of customer satisfaction, there’s Jesus Navarro who has been working at Soapy Joe’s, a top carwash in San Diego, since 2022. Jesus leads the company in sales of memberships that give customers discounted pre-paid car washes and give Soapy Joe’s recurring revenue.

“It’s easy,” Jesus said. “Memberships save customers time and money.”

Jesus’ enthusiasm has proven contagious at Soapy Joe’s, promoting a friendly rivalry to see how many memberships employees can sell. And his work ethic has led him into a supervisor training program. In fact, Jesus has recently trained three Soapy Joe’s employees—all of whom are now top sellers, too.

“He knows how to talk to people,” said Ysabel Perry, a PRIDE Industries employment coach who has worked with Jesus. “He has a great, optimistic attitude, too. Given some challenges he’s been through, that’s one of the things I most admire about him. He’s very likable.”

The rest of Jesus’s team agrees.

“In the small amount of time I’ve had working with Jesus, he’s brought purpose to my job,” said Mauricio Cardenas, Area Manager for Soapy Joe’s. “The whole team loves him.”

Jesus’ story is yet another example of how employee success for one can snowball into success for many.

Brendan’s Employee Success Story

Production Worker Brendan Ford is one of the “hardest workers you’re going to find” at Acushnet Golf. Acushnet, manufacturer of Titleist golf clubs among others, is the only original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of golf clubs left in the United States—equipment that the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson forged their success with.

Retention in manufacturing is a constant challenge, but not for Doug Jacot, Acushnet’s Director of Manufacturing. Jacot has been hiring people with disabilities for more than 20 years. “They are the most can-do group I’ve ever been around,” he said. “And they elevate the attitudes of everyone around them. If I could hire a hundred of them, I would.”

At Acushnet, employee success looks like Brendan Ford. It also looks like this: Every day, a team of five employees with disabilities builds about 1,000 boxes and 3,000 packaging inserts at the company’s San Diego County manufacturing facility.

“They’re not going to have any attendance issues. They’re going to be there bright and early—ready to work,” said Elizabeth Valverde, a PRIDE Industries Workforce Inclusion Employment Coach Assistant Manager that supports the team.

For Brendan, the payoff is well worth his hard work. “It lets me do more independent stuff,” he said.

Employee Success Translates to Employer Success

Smart companies are increasingly turning to people with disabilities as a steady pipeline of frontline workers.

It should come as no surprise. Employees with disabilities offer companies several benefits—high retention, punctuality, and loyalty—that directly impact the bottom line. When analyst firm Accenture measured the business benefits to employers that actively hire and support employees with disabilities, it found that these “Disability Champions” routinely achieve higher revenue, net income, and profit margins than companies that don’t actively include this population. Its 2023 report found that “The business case for hiring persons with disabilities has become even stronger,” with Disability Champions experiencing the following outcomes as compared to their peers:

6x higher revenue
6x more net income
2x better profit margins

All of these gains are higher than in Accenture’s previous 2018 report.

PRIDE Industries’ employment partner program helps companies like Raley’s, Soapy Joe’s, and Acushnet recruit, hire, train, and support employees with disabilities on the job, taking much of the uncertainty employers might have about engaging this exceptional talent pool. For more information about working with PRIDE Industries for your employment needs, contact us.

Unlock the Proven Benefits of Hiring People With Disabilities

The US Chamber of Commerce recommends that businesses turn to experienced partners to tap the benefits of employing people with disabilities. PRIDE Industries has helped hundreds of companies do just that, helping recruit, hire, train, and support this growing and reliable talent pool—free of charge to employers.

Become an Employment Partner

In some industries, labor shortages have eased, but other sectors still grapple to find and keep good employees, especially frontline workers. Meanwhile, savvy employers are turning to an underutilized workforce: people with disabilities.

But let’s backtrack for a moment. According to data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, several factors are creating the ongoing shortage of frontline workers, including a lack of affordable childcare, early retirements, and an aging workforce.

The Chamber’s report further notes that the sectors experiencing the highest numbers of job openings are education and health services, hospitality, and professional business services—most notably relating to work done in-person such as landscaping, cashiering, cleaning, and waste disposal.

Hiring and retaining frontline workers is a costly challenge. In a Harvard Business School study of 181,891 hourly workers, half the employers surveyed said that turnover among frontline workers was more than 24 percent a year, and almost a quarter said it was greater than 50 percent, with the cost of turnover estimated at $3,000 per employee. If you replace 24-50 percent of your employees yearly, that’s expensive.

Add to all of this the coming “silver tsunami”—when baby boomers will age out of the workforce—and the long-term effects become clear: the shortage of frontline workers isn’t going away.

So, what’s the solution?

“Employees with disabilities are some of our most dedicated employees. They come to work, and they’re smiling. They’re ready for work. They’re excited for work.” ”

—Julie Smith, HR Director for Soapy Joe’s Carwash

Expanding the Pool of Frontline Workers: Employees with Disabilities

“For years, organizations have talked about the strategic value of expanding and diversifying their talent pipelines,” said Emily Rose McRae, Future of Work and Talent Analytics researcher in Gartner’s HR Practice. “Organizations can no longer meet their talent needs through traditional sourcing methods and candidate pools.”

Smart companies are turning to people with disabilities—a demographic that includes more than 10 percent of working-age Americans—as a steady pipeline of frontline workers. Due to advances in workplace technology, greater adoption of inclusive business practices, and widespread acceptance of remote work, companies have more access to this skilled, reliable, and loyal talent pool.

And it so happens that hiring people with disabilities as frontline workers is good for business.

Many Benefits of Employees with Disabilities

Hiring people with disabilities isn’t about altruism. Their presence in an organization boasts several benefits, including high retention, low absenteeism, improved employee satisfaction, tax incentives, and greater appeal to socially conscious investors.

It’s important to note that, while this workforce remains underutilized, huge progress has been made in companies employing people with disabilities.

Approximately 22 million working-age Americans have a disability. Historically, the employment to population ratio for working-age adults with disabilities was around 30 percent while the ratio for persons without a disability was 75 percent.

This has changed a lot in the years since the pandemic, with the disability employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities rising as high as 38 percent, according to the National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report published by the Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire.

However, it’s still the case that much more could be done. More employers need to understand the benefits that employing people with a disability brings. PRIDE Industries has partnered with hundreds of companies to recruit, hire, and support employees’ different abilities to solve employers’ labor challenges and improve workforce productivity.

Fronline Workers with Disabilities: ‘Our most dedicated employees’

“Employees with disabilities are some of our most dedicated employees,” said Julie Smith, HR Director for Soapy Joe’s, a 16-location car wash franchise in San Diego County, California. “They come to work, and they’re smiling. They’re ready for work. They’re excited for work.”

In the carwash industry, turnover is a constant challenge. Over 45 percent of carwash employees leave within a year, according to career researchers at Zippia. Faced with this problem, Smith, who had prior experience with employees with disabilities, saw an opportunity. “I was familiar with the assets that adults with different abilities can bring to an organization,” she said. “Coming to Soapy Joe’s, I was a big advocate for hiring from this workforce because I knew it would solve many of the issues we were having with retention and turnover.”

Now Soapy Joe’s employs people with disabilities at 15 of its car washes, with a 94 percent retention rate. These employees have proven to be valuable assets. At the company’s National City location, for example, the top seller of memberships is Jesus, an employee with a developmental disability. Jesus’s performance has been so stellar that he has now entered a management training program to move up in the company.

‘You'll be amazed by what they can do.’

A study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute found that the manufacturing labor shortage could result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs, costing businesses a trillion dollars by 2030.

InterMotive Vehicle Controls, maker of electronics components for the automotive industry, is another company tackling the labor shortage by hiring people with disabilities. “We have hired people with disabilities for going on two decades now,” CEO Linda Schafer said. “When you take someone with an intellectual or physical disability, assess their skills and interests, and give them the training and support they need, you’ll be amazed at what they can do and how much they can contribute.”

Hiring people with disabilities helps InterMotive address workforce shortages and increase retention. “I have employees with disabilities who started after high school and are now married and buying homes,” President Greg Schafer said. “They love their jobs, show up on time every day, and are proud of their work. They really enhance our workforce.”

The quality of the work

It wasn’t so much turnover but quality control that led Thunder Valley Casino Resort to tap employees with disabilities to reduce the cost and improve the hotel’s laundry service quality, which they were trucking three counties away. The 270,000-square-foot AAA Four Diamond resort generates 10,000 pounds of laundry each day.

“The employees bring so much joy to the workplace,” said Joel Moore, VP of Hotel Operations. “They are so happy to be out in the community, to have a job. It is infectious.”

The resort also benefits from their laundry team’s high retention and attendance. “The level of absenteeism is lower than in other teams,” Moore said. “These employees stay longer because they love working here –they are not looking for their next job.” Advancement opportunities are also available. Some employees have moved into other areas, like food and custodial services, where they work more independently.

Overcoming misconceptions

Misconceptions keep employers from turning to people with disabilities to address labor shortages. The Society for Human Resources Managers (SHRM) cites three “myths” that must be busted:

People with disabilities aren’t qualified applicants.
Reasonable accommodation is expensive.
Managers can’t expect the same level of performance from employees with disabilities.

Regarding qualifications, “organizations will need to become more comfortable assessing candidates solely on their ability to perform in the role, not their credentials and prior experience,” Gartner’s McRae said.

Raley’s Bergmann agrees. “Hiring someone with a disability is not much different than hiring anybody,” she said. “You find out what they are good at, what they like, and train them when you see gaps in their abilities.”

Accommodation is surprisingly easy in most cases. In a survey of 3,528 employers by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), 49.4 percent reported that the accommodations for employees with disabilities “cost absolutely nothing.”

For employers that incurred a one-time cost to accommodate employees with disabilities, the median expenditure was just $300. Additionally, job performance has proven equal, if not better, than workers without disabilities, which makes hiring people with disabilities a low-risk, high-reward opportunity.

Let Us Help Solve Your Labor Shortages

The US Chamber of Commerce recommends that businesses turn to experienced partners to tap the genius of employees with disabilities. PRIDE Industries has helped hundreds of companies do just that, helping recruit, hire, train, and support this growing and reliable talent pool—free of charge to employers.

Become an Employment Partner

CEO Jeff Dern encourages employers to consider people with disabilities in a San Diego Union-Tribune opinion piece.

Read the article

Employees with Disabilities Improve Car Wash Employee Retention, Performance

Soapy Joe’s Car Wash is a family-owned and operated business with dozens of locations in San Diego County. Featuring eco-friendly technology and quality service at a great value, they were voted “Best Car Wash in San Diego” in 2022. The company partners with PRIDE Industries, the nation’s leading employer of people with disabilities, to improve car wash employee retention.

The Challenge: Car Wash Employee Retention

Car wash employee turnover is a constant challenge throughout the industry, and Soapy Joe’s was no exception. Nationwide 46 percent of car wash employees leave within a year, and the Houston Chronicle pegs the cost of replacing an employee at $5,000 to $9,000. When the pandemic, the great resignation, and racing inflation exacerbated these issues, Soapy Joe’s knew they needed a new approach.

Solution: Dedicated Car Wash Employees with Disabilities

Soapy Joe’s partnered with PRIDE Industries, the nation’s leading employer of people with disabilities, to create a car wash employee pipeline from this under-utilized population. Soapy Joe’s Human Resources Director, Julie Smith, had previously worked with employees with disabilities and was familiar with the benefits of hiring adults with different abilities—including proven business benefits. A review of data published by the National Institute of Health found that hiring people with disabilities improves profitability due to lower employee turnover and long-term retention, reliability, punctuality, productivity, and customer loyalty and satisfaction.

PRIDE Industries provides additional support in the form of job coaches that make sure employees have everything they need to succeed. Job coaches also serve as a communication link between the employer and employees to prevent gaps in understanding and foster productivity. One of the PRIDE Industries coaches at Soapy Joe’s, Ysabel, attests to how much the company values and supports its employees. “If employees need help, they tell me,” Ysabel said. “If they need to talk to a manager, they tell me.”

Results: Top Performing Employees and 94 Percent Retention

Soapy Joe’s now has employees with disabilities at 15 of its locations, with a high retention rate. “We’re at 94 percent retention with our PRIDE Industries employees,” said Julie Smith, Director of Human Resources. “Our site managers are fighting for the next new employees.”

According to Operations Manager Mauricio Cardenas, PRIDE Industries employees are “just plain great to work with.” Not only do they show up consistently and on time, but they also perform well. At one Soapy Joe’s location, an employee with a disability is their top salesperson and has inspired a healthy sense of competition within the team. “He really engaged and motivated the whole team,” said Cardenas, who went on to note that “PRIDE Industries has definitely changed the whole Soapy Joe’s universe.”

Just Plain Great Teammates

The biggest difference in hiring car wash employees with disabilities through PRIDE Industries is positive, according to District Manager Jacob Teague. “Their contagious enthusiasm makes everyone happier—other employees and customers.” People with disabilities are “just plain great teammates.”

Services Provided

Employee placement
Job coaching
Employer support

Results

Dozens of high performing employees
94 percent car wash employee retention

“We're at 94 percent retention with our PRIDE Industries employees. Our site managers are fighting for the next new employees.”

— Julie Smith, Director of Human Resources, Soapy Joe’s

Transportation magazine shares how InterMotive Vehicle Controls is expanding its partnership with PRIDE Industries to build products that enhance transit for people with disabilities.

Read the article

PRIDE Industries VP of Workforce Inclusion shares how employers facing labor shortages find a brilliant talent pool in people with disabilities.

Read the article