Whether meeting a short-term hiring need or taking a strategic approach to long-term staffing, there are resources available to businesses at any stage in the hiring process.

Meeting An Immediate Need
Short-term and part-time positions appear easy to fill, but can be surprisingly costly for businesses because of high turnover rates and low productivity measures. Analyzing possible reasons for turnover can help businesses better target the right candidates.

• Focusing on essential job functions helps businesses better match qualified candidates with the job. A focus on essential requirements can open up a new pool of qualified, high performing candidates.
• Resource people who are tapped into the talent pool of skilled people who have disabilities can help businesses find qualified candidates at all levels of a company.
• Qualified individuals can be integrated into a workplace with no more effort than is expended on managing a business' existing workforce.

Meeting Long-Term Staffing Needs For Cost-Effective Growth
Some organizations are ready to build an enterprise-wide strategic approach to managing or expanding their workforce. These businesses believe that a long-term, strategic investment in inclusive human resource management will pay off in long-term business success.

Taking A Strategic Approach
Businesses that are ready to take their company to the next competitive level may want to undertake a comprehensive strategy approach to human resources. The bigger the initiative, the more effort it will take. But companies who make this commitment do so because they see real return on their investment.

Strategic initiatives might include:

• Establishing relationships with other businesses, educational institutions, service providers, or government agencies to network about open positions, and strategic workforce development.
• Networking with external business consultants who know a multitude of people seeking work, and even better, are often very familiar with the soft skills, attitudes, work ethics and hidden abilities these candidates possess.
• Talking to managers and employees about the way specific work is being done, how it might be improved, refined or replicated.
• Examining and re-working company job descriptions to focus on essential skills.
• Analyzing and adapting recruiting, application and hiring practices to ensure the company is open to a wide range of recruiting opportunity.
• Training staff and managers on being successful in a diverse environment.
• Establishing opportunities to grow the company's own talent through internships, mentoring and other work experiences for developing professionals.

Find out more about Staffing Goals and read the business case story, Goals Lead to Hiring.

For consultation and support, contact your regional Disability Employment Specialist (800-328-9095).