[blindlaw] Telework firm urges training on hiring of disabled workers

[ckrugman at sbcglobal.net]

Washington Post (Washington DC)
March 28, 2010


Telework firm urges federal training on hiring disabled workers



By Ed O'Keefe<
http://projects
. washingtonpost. com/staff/ articles/ ed+o%27keefe/>
Washington Post Staff Writer


Almost half of human resources officials responsible for hiring and retaining
federal workers 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 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 the Federal
Managers Association 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.


"Telework is certainly one way that would allow many people with disabilities to
utilize their talents on behalf of the government, while overcoming barriers
that may keep them out of the workplace," said Todd Wells, executive director of
the Federal Managers Association.


The survey also noted that 45 percent of federal hiring managers surveyed said
they have not received adequate training on retaining disabled employees. The
voluntary online survey of 513 federal hiring officers from across the
government 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.


During the session OPM unveiled a new online training tool for hiring officials
that instructs them on how to use Schedule A, a noncompetitive hiring waiver
that permits agencies to hire severely disabled individuals, an OPM spokesman
said. The agency is developing a similar training tool for disabled applicants
wishing to be hired under the waiver.
"We are working diligently to attract and hire individuals with disabilities, "
OPM spokesman Edmund Byrnes said in a statement.


OPM and the Labor Department's Office of Disability Policy also will hold a
hiring fair on April 26 at the Washington Convention Center. More than 70
agencies with job openings have been invited to search a database with more than
4,000 resumes of disabled applicants. Agencies are encouraged to schedule
interviews with disabled applicants at the April event, OPM said.


A House committee last week approved a bill that would require the federal
government to develop plans to expand the policy across the federal workforce.
Agencies would be required to hire a telework managing officer, responsible for
overseeing implementation of the policy. By the end of fiscal 2011 OPM Director
John Berry, a teleworking advocate, hopes to double the number of teleworkers
from the 102,900 of fiscal year 2009.


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.


Source: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR20100328 02856.\html