Federal Eye: Eye Opener: Study urges more help to hire disabled workers

Happy Monday! Almost half of the federal government’s human resources officials say they have not received adequate training on how to manage
and retain employees with severe disabilities, according to the results
of a survey by the Telework
Exchange and the Federal
Managers Association set for release Monday. Many of those officials
are also unfamiliar with mandates designed to promote the hiring of
disabled applicants and hiring rules that allow for the noncompetitive
hiring of disabled people.

Though 71 percent of the respondents said their agencies are committed to hiring disabled workers, 40 percent said they have not
received adequate training to effectively manage disabled employees,
according to the survey.

The Telework Exchange, continuing its push for advancing teleworking, and FMA partnered on the study in advance of a conference set for next
week that will press the Obama administration on the teleworking option
for federal workers. The White House said Kareem Dale,
President Obama’s special assistant on disability policy, will address
the survey’s findings at next week’s conference.

The survey also noted that 45 percent of federal hiring managers surveyed said they have not received adequate training on retaining
disabled employees.

Though it’s always noteworthy to review surveys of federal officials considering the difficulty of gauging their reaction on issues, this
voluntary online survey heard from just 513 federal hiring officers. And
it was taken between Jan. 25 and Feb. 5, roughly a month before the Office of Personnel Management held a
training session for more than 600 federal hiring managers about hiring
and retaining disabled workers.

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