Employment Supports in the Workplace

Supported employment is especially designed for individuals with severe disabilities for whom competitive employment at or above minimum wage is considered unlikely. Due to their disability, the supported employee may need intensive support to find a job that matches his or her capacities, training to improve job performance and a long-term supportive relationship to assist with problem solving, re-learning, re-employment and job stability. Federally defined, supported employment is paid work in integrated work settings with all the typical outcomes associated with working (wages, job security, benefits, and appropriate work conditions), in which supports are provided throughout the working career of the person. But supported employment includes a broad spectrum of services from personal counseling, to financial planning, to employer education. While focused on individual employment success, Imagine’s supported employment program must recruit and maintain talented, flexible staff, build a positive history with funding agencies, develop employer connections and nurture business partnerships.

Supported employment services are as varied as the people who are served. The framework for quality program development, however, can be consistently applied. Activities that typically occur while working with an individual include:

• Career Planning: Getting to know someone and finding out information that will serve as a guide during job development, job training and long-term support. This is the foundation that will assist the person in obtaining the type of job that offers the characteristics and opportunities that best match preferences and lifestyle.
• Job Development: Searching for the job that matches the person’s needs; meeting with employers, making contacts that lead to a job.
• Job Analysis: The employment consultant learns the job, analyzing tasks to break them into teachable steps, learning the company culture, designing training strategies and accommodations, establishing effective communication with supervisors and front line co-workers. An effective job analysis is completed in the job location and during the same hours that the person will be working.
• Job Training: Systematic, one-on-one instruction with the supported employee to obtain work goals agreed upon with the employer. This phase may also include developing co-worker awareness, supervisory skills or negotiating accommodationsFade-Out: Once the employee meets their goals, on-sight support is reduced. Based on performance intermittent job supports may occur.
• Continued Support: Maintaining on-going contact with the employer and employee helps to build stability, improve problem solving and assist in exploring career development. This phase is not intrusive on the supported employee who may have established a positive sense of independence within the work environment. Rather, it provides a resource to the employer and the employee when the need arises. One to four contacts per month with the person or employer is typical.

As mentioned earlier, there is more than what meets the eye when sustaining a successful supported employment program. Positive employer relationships must be built to assist employees to maintain their jobs and to build new job opportunities. Employers frequently ask for additional training or further understanding of disability related issues such as the American With Disabilities Act, developing accommodations, or resources for another employee who may have a progressive disability or work-related injury. Imagine is a community resource for employer education and involvement.

Coordination with other agencies, schools, or providers of generic resources is also a part of the employment picture. For individuals residing in a group home, decisions to work are impacted by the schedules set up by the home. Ensuring health care needs and work schedules do not conflict, resolving transportation issues, attending Individual Transition Planning (ITP) for young adults to obtain summer jobs, contacting social security to maintain health benefits, are components of the service delivery system that often are overlooked.

Employer development, community education, service coordination and individualized long-term support activities are not reimbursed by the Texas Rehabilitation Commission, Texas Commission for the Blind or Mental Health and Mental Retardation agencies. Imagine Enterprises pursues grants, consulting fees and collaborations to help cover the costs of these services. Developing and maintaining diverse funding sources requires an administrative and accounting infrastructure that supports the activities of the non-profit organization.

Useful Publications:

Making Management Decisions About Accommodations

Disability Friendly Strategies for the Workplace

Preparing for and Conducting an Effective Job Interview

Tax Incentives for Business


For more information:
Norine Jaloway
Imagine Enterprises
1402 Spring Cress Lane
Austin, TX 77586
Phone: (281) 474-7887
Email: njaloway@houston.rr.com