Top 5 topics every inclusive employer should read before 2019

Getting Hired has been busy in 2018 and to reflect on this year we're sharing a roundup of our top employer focused content (blogs and webinars) that every inclusive employer should read before heading into the New Year.

1. Top ways to attract candidates with disabilities

After figures showed an increase of more than seven percent in the proportion of working-age individuals with disabilities actively seeking employment since January 2017, this post highlighted effective methods to attract job seekers with disabilities.

These recommended strategies such as taking part in virtual careers fairs and running social media campaigns will continue to be important for employers who are looking to hire more individuals with disabilities to their workforce in 2019.

2. How to use social media recruitment to attract job seekers

With use of social media becoming a tool for job seekers when evaluating future employers, companies that want to access the largest talent pool need to make sure their recruitment and social media strategies are aligned.

This blog recommended a range of effective ways to attract job seekers with disabilities via social media, such as using multiple networks and engaging with current trends. We spotlighted one of our employers, Phillips 66, who increased their disability inclusion social media outreach this year.

Social media is becoming a more inclusive way to reach and communicate with job seekers with disabilities. Check out Instagram’s recent announcement on their inclusion efforts for people with vision impairments. We foresee these announcements and trends to continue into 2019.

3. Accessible Design is key to a user-friendly experience

Accessible design isn’t a new term but in 2018, it was talked about more than any other year within our industry as organizations are becoming more mindful with being inclusive digitally.

The focus of this blog was to encourage employers to embrace accessible design by ensuring the needs of people with disabilities is advocated for throughout their design process. Examples include providing contextual alternative text for non-text content like images and captioning videos and live audio.

4. Is offering work from home jobs impacting disability hiring?

Companies nationwide have been recognizing the benefits of having remote workers as we’ve seen an increase in this practice across many industries. Due to this, we took a deep dive into our community to see how working from home is impacting the disability hiring landscape.

We found that work from home options appeal to job seekers with disabilities in a lot of ways, but specifically these five.

5. National events to support diversity and inclusion

An easy way for employers to show their support for disability inclusion in their workplace is to celebrate the national events throughout the year on social media, through newsletters and their employee resource groups.

To help inclusive employers and advocates of people with disabilities plan their celebratory campaigns starting in the New Year, we created a list of some of the top awareness campaigns that should be considered for promotion.

Top webinars to share with hiring managers and recruiters

• Inclusive hiring program focus: We partnered with Microsoft and PeopleFluent to share top tips on how to provide an inclusive experience when hiring job seekers with disabilities. Read the recap and watch the replay here.
• Veteran focus: We partnered with the Veteran Staffing Network by Easter Seals, on a webinar for employers to learn how to attract, evaluate, onboard and retain veteran talent. Read the recap and watch the replay here.
• Student focus: We teamed up with our partner Hire Potential on a webinar to share why it’s important to tailor your talent acquisition strategy for engaging and hiring students with disabilities. Watch the recorded session here!
• Specific disability focus: We partnered with several of our community partners in 2018 to help employers learn how they can support specific disabilities. Watch our webinar with the Epilepsy Foundation to learn more about epilepsy and our webinar with Understood.org to learn more about how to support learning and attention issues in the workplace.

Get ready for 2019

This list gives insight into some of the information and consultation our employers and community have been able to access on the Getting Hired blog and with our online events throughout 2018.

With our new partnership starting in January with Solutions Marketing Group, the leading disability marketing agency in the United States, employers and job seekers should expect even more tips and information about what’s trending in our industry in 2019.