By Rob McInnes
In her book “Beyond Traditional Job Development” Denise
Bissonnette describes what she calls the “Employment
Proposal” as an alternative to traditional job placement
strategies for people with disabilities. Traditional
placement approaches have some important limitations. While
job seekers with employment barriers are supported by the
placement agencies, they are still left to compete for job
openings with individuals who have no apparent barriers to
employment. Traditional placement approaches also tend to
give secondary importance to the job seeker’s individual
interests and passions – with primary importance being given
to getting any job that happens to be available. By means of
Employment Proposals, job seekers can secure jobs that are
designed by their individual interests & skills – and,
typically, do so without putting them in competition with
anyone else.
What is an Employment Proposal? Simply put, it is a
written application for a job that doesn’t exist yet!
Traditional placement approaches are targeted at jobs that
already exist. Employment Proposals are targeted at jobs
that don’t but should exist. Employment Proposals are
entrepreneurial in nature and they are rooted in business
goals of growth and increased profits. They require
out-of-the-box thinking based on sound business practices.
Sound interesting? Here is an example… Denise was once
working with an elderly man who emigrated from Vietnam,
spoke almost no English, and who had a very severe facial
disfigurement. In his home country, the man had been a
tailor for years and excelled at his profession. Denise
realized that helping him to apply for every tailoring job
that was advertised would be a long and frustrating exercise
– as he would likely be at a disadvantage because of his
age, appearance and communication barrier. Instead of taking
that route, Denise set out to discover where tailoring took
place in that community and where there might be a need for
a new job to be created. She discovered that most hospitals
were outsourcing all the repairs and alterations to their
uniforms – and paying a very high price. Together with her
client, Denise developed a written proposal to one of the
hospitals – outlining what they had learned about the
hospital’s need for uniform repairs and alterations and what
th ey understood the cost to be. That was accompanied by a
summary of her client’s talents and a proposal for the
hospital to hire him. The proposal detailed how the new job
would reduce their costs and provide a more responsive
service time. The business case was sound, Denise’s client
was perfectly qualified for the job. The hospital accepted
the proposal and her client was hired for the newly-created
position.
While most job developers seem to be much more
comfortable just responding to existing jobs, we do continue
to get enthusiastic feedback from those who do step out of
their comfort zones and use the Employment Proposal
approach. One agency that provides employment services to
people with psychiatric disabilities attributed a 30%
increase in their placement rate to the use of Employment
Proposals!
While up in Canada this summer, I had the opportunity to
meet with some job developers from the small town of Kenora,
Ontario. Their organization, the Kenora Association for
Community Living, provides employment services to people
with developmental disabilities. They enthusiastically
recounted how variations of Employment Proposals have become
a primary tool for them. In some cases they have used them
to create new positions with existing businesses – in other
cases they have used them to create small businesses. Here
are some of the many examples that they shared with me:
1. One of the job developers found out that the weekly
“hot dog day” at their child’s school was being
discontinued. “Hot dog day” had been run by a volunteer and
the proceeds had gone to the school’s Parent Council. “Hot
dog day” was going to be discontinued because the volunteer
could no longer meet the demands of that responsibility. The
job developer quickly developed a proposal for the Parent
Council – for three of her clients to take over “hot dog
day”. (This would involve purchasing supplies, setting up,
cooking and selling the hot dogs, etc.) The Employment
Proposal included a plan to split proceeds evenly between
her clients and the Parent Council. The proposal was
accepted. This part-time employment opportunity earns her
clients approximately $10/hour. To increase the hours of
employment, similar proposals have been submitted to other
schools in the area.
2. One of the job developers noticed that the local ski
hill was obviously in need of better janitorial attention.
Investigating this, they learned that the hill was run by a
nonprofit organization and its janitorial responsibilities
were attended to by volunteers. An Employment Proposal was
submitted for a paid position for a client that would keep
the facilities much cleaner. That, of course would increase
customer satisfaction, return business and improved
revenues. The proposal was accepted, the job was created and
the client was hired.
3. On behalf of a client an Employment Proposal was
submitted to a local hospital to provide onsite document
shredding. This proposal, however, was not for a job per se.
Instead, the proposal offered free shredding services to the
hospital in exchange for space that the client could use to
develop her own shredding business. The proposal was
accepted. The client now runs her own business from the
hospital site – shredding confidential documents from a
number of businesses in town. Over time, she has become
successful enough to need to hire other people to assist
her.
In addition to promising more employment success for
folks with disabilities, I think Employment Proposals can
make the whole business of job development a lot more
exciting. Whether you are a job developer working on someone
else’s behalf or a job seeker yourself, how thrilling to
start looking for jobs not only where they already exist -
but where they are waiting to be created!
© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, August 2004
(If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be
reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob
McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If
included in a newsletter or other publication, we would
appreciate receiving a copy.)
