Abstract
This article examines why employers struggle to include disability as part of their active diversity approach. Drawing on cross-national interview data from Norway and the USA, we point to the common finding of employers – who are the target of regulatory disability employment policies – typically falling into the passive employer category of employer engagement, with positive attitudes but negative hiring behaviour. As a partial explanation, we demonstrate the difficulty of identifying and demographically monitoring disabled people among job seekers and employees. We argue that these problems are linked to unique aspects of disability as a diversity category, and tie these to the significance of disability heterogeneity, lack of disclosure and the difficulty of acquiring information related to health. We conclude that organisations need to go beyond mere legislative compliance and be more proactive towards disability as a distinct diversity category.
Highlights
Worldwide, there is a considerable employment gap between disabled people and the general population
We investigate how employers relate to regulatory disability employment policies, such as anti-discrimination legislation and quotas, in their recruitment practices by drawing on interviews with twenty-three employer representatives from companies that include diversity statements in their job advertisements
We argue that the complexity and heterogeneity of disability contributes to employer passiveness towards disability employment policies
Summary
There is a considerable employment gap between disabled people and the general population. To counter barriers to employment, nations have implemented employment policies intended to increase the hiring of disabled people (OECD, 2010). Policy initiatives often fail to have a clear impact on closing the employment gap (Geiger et al, 2017). A growing stream of research in social policy points to the need to understand how employment policies are translated into practice by organisational actors, using the concept of employer engagement (van Berkel et al, 2017). The term ‘employer engagement’ has been defined as ‘the active involvement of employers in addressing the societal challenge of promoting the labour market participation of vulnerable groups’ (van Berkel et al, 2017: 503). To be able to inform policy to close the disability employment gap, we must address the motivation and hiring practices of employers. The literature is scarce on the use and implementation of strategies intended to improve the hiring of disabled workers (Gewurtz et al, 2016)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
