Getting Hired recently teamed up with Hire Potential on a webinar for inclusive employers to learn why it’s important to tailor your talent acquisition strategy to engage and hire students with disabilities.
There are 2.4 million students with disabilities nationwide and 3 out of 5 of them are not currently employed making this population important for employers to include in their hiring strategies.
The problem is that many campus recruiters don’t realize that they need a different strategy to be successful at building relationships and finding talent on campuses. There are three campus touch points that Hire Potential recommends you need for a successful hiring strategy.
3 campus touch points you need for a successful hiring strategy
- Career Services: Find the college and university main point of contact and build relationships with their career services centers. Let them know that your organization is committed to inclusion of students with disabilities and find out what employer-focused hiring events are taking place to support their students with disabilities. Your goal with this relationship is to help students gain meaningful employment.
- Disability Services: Organizations can search campus directories online to find out which colleges and universities have specific disability services centers for their students. The goal of disability services centers is to help students with accommodations and it’s a great opportunity for employers to promote their accommodation statements.
- Student Support Groups: These are advocacy groups for individuals with disabilities on campus. The goal is to stay in the know about what these advocacy groups are supporting and advocating for.
Top trends for Marketing and employer branding to support your inclusive hiring
When contacting colleges to engage with students with disabilities it is always important to make a good first impression. This means dedicating time and resources to identifying the aspects of your website and literature that speak directly to this group.
Items to remember when you’re trying to position yourself as an inclusive employer:
- Use images that reflect real students with disabilities, be authentic!
- Add braille to your business cards, especially for your recruiters who are attending career fairs
- Learn social media accessibility features
- Provide consistent annual training to all of your recruiters and hiring managers
- Involve or start a disability employee resource group (or business resource group)
- Make sure your website is fully accessible and your accommodation statement is easy to find on your careers page
Contact our team if you have any questions about the event or how we can support your efforts in hiring more students with disabilities at your organization. You can learn more about top hiring trends for students with disabilities by listening and/or watching the full webinar presentation with Hire Potential in the recording here:
