Disability Hiring Managing Federal Changes

Perspectives Conference

How to Plan and Manage Change

Dinah F. B. Cohen, CAP Director

Derek Shields, CAP Program Manager

20 Years Providing Real Solutions for Real Needs

White House Initiatives



• Federal Government and its contractors should lead the way in implementing effective employment policies and practices– OPM and ODEP to sponsor a job fair in early Spring

– OPM will deliver training on Schedule A

– EEOC and DOJ held four Town Hall meetings

– DOJ released a “common myths” video

– OPM will create and lead a task force to report on innovative practices



• Executive Order: Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government www.FedsHireVets.gov – Enhance recruitment of and promote employment

opportunities for veterans within the Executive Branch

– Establish Interagency Council on Veterans Employment

– Agencies to establish Veterans Employment Program Offices

– Provide mandatory annual training to agency HR personnel and hiring managers

– Align counseling, training and transition assistance programs, and include information on the federal hiring initiative



• Telework and Telejobs: www.telework.gov

• Executive Order: Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance: www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq


• Institute a paradigm shift

• Evaluate your agency’s status

• Research areas for improvement

• Develop specific goals, objectives and strategies for implementation

• Create and implement your agency’s plan

• Report on the outcomes: successes and failures

Change Management


Employees with Targeted Disabilities in the Federal Work Force

% o

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otal

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orce

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Source: EEOC Federal Sector Statistics


• Need to increase the awareness of hiringofficials about the declining numbers of people with disabilities in federal employment workforce planning and development

• Need to reverse the trend of decreasing participation in federal employment diversity and disability goals

• Need to educate federal hiring officials about how to use special hiring authorities to bring people with disabilities on board, particularly those with severe disabilities

• Need to provide assistive technology and reasonable accommodations to ensure access and productivity

• Need to the make the government a model employer

Paradigm Shift


Highest Population of PWTD Overall

* This is an increase over the last year!

The Latest StatisticsRank of the Agencies by PWTD

1. EEOC 2.95%*

2. DFAS 2.04%*

3. SSA 2.01%

4. AAFES 2.00%


Change Management




• Develop specific goals, objectives, and strategies for implementation




Evaluate Your Agency’s Status

• Do you know your agency’s current representation, including the focus on hiring and training – and 5-year trends?

• What has been produced via MD-715 and what are your agency’s documented goals and outcomes?

• Do you have a balanced approach throughout the employment lifecycle?

• What pilot programs have been conducted and what were the results?


Evaluate Your Agency’s Status

Agency Disability Employment Profile


Change Management








Overarching Goal

Employer of Choice

Perhaps no words are heard more often in the discussion of domestic policy today

than transparency and accountability.


• Self-development• Learn needed skills• Attend leadership training• Increase role in interagency collaboration • Increase knowledge of disability trends

• Agency Management Development• Do’s and don’ts of disability employment issues• Increase senior level managers’ participation

• Schedule A utilization• National conferences• Internal training• Integrate disability into training goals and objectives

Objective – Training and Development

MeasurementsValue Deliverables


• Increase awareness of the challenge– Senior level communiqué

– Incorporate into agency’s performance plan and performance evaluations

– Establish agency Web presence for initiative

• Increase understanding of how to use Schedule A– Create a partnership with EEOC LEAD

– Mandatory and online training programs

– Share EEOC Schedule A documents

Objective – Recruitment and Placement



• Improve human resource management partnerships– Identify positions with high turnover rates

– Review USAJobs and determine high-demand positions

– Work with managers to fill the “hard to fill” positions

• Increase access to candidates with disabilities– Establish partnerships with a VRA or EN

– Outreach to disability and veteran organizations

– Participate in disability and veteran job fairs

– Develop/manage an internal job bank

– Participate in the Workforce Recruitment Program





Workforce Recruitment Program

• Co-sponsored by the Department of Labor and Department of Defense

• Participation from Federal

agencies and the private sector

• Wide range of occupations

• Diverse workforce

• CAP covers the cost of accommodations for all WRP students participating in any Federal agency

• www.wrp.gov


Work Plan – Recruitment and Placement

Workforce Recruitment Program

• October: Locate and train recruiters

• December: Develop WRP Plan for new year

• January-February: Recruit managers / champions

• March: Student profiles released

• March-May: Select WRP interns

• May-September: Internships

• September: Transfer to full-time if possible


Objective –Recruitment and Placement

Recruiting and Placing Disabled Veterans

• Veterans Employment Initiative– Establishes Veterans Employment Program

Offices within most agencies

– Enhances Transition Assistance Program

• CAP’s Wounded Service Member Initiative– Interdependent AT program between CAP

and MTFs

– Provided over 14,200 accommodations to date, including 4,518 in FY09

• Hiring Heroes Career Fairs– 10 CPMS-coordinated fairs in FY2010

www.fedshirevets.gov

www.tricare.mil/cap/wsm


• Review and update reasonable accommodations guidance

• Advertise reasonable accommodation information and process

• Check your reasonable accommodation resources

• Review the usage of reasonable accommodations• Job Accommodation Network: www.jan.wvu.edu

• Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program

• Link to CAP: www.tricare.mil/cap

• CAP Training

Objective – Reasonable Accommodations


Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program• CAP was established in 1990 as DoD’s centrally funded

program to provide accommodations

• Expanded by Congress in 2000 to support other Federal agencies

• Partnerships with 65 Federal agencies

• Over 81,400 accommodations

• CAP Mission: To provide assistive technology and accommodations to ensure people with disabilities have equal access to the information environment and opportunities in the Department of Defense and throughout the Federal government

Objective – Reasonable Accommodations


• Training• Ensure accessible online training• Get people with disabilities into training programs, including

upward mobility programs

• Reduce Workers’ Compensation costs• Meet with Labor Relations to review cases for return to work• Get health and safety staff involved• Provide ergonomics awareness and prevention training• DoD Pipeline: www.cpms.mil/pipeline/pipeline.aspx

• Increase Telework participation• Administration initiative on Telejobs• Telework managers: www.telework.gov

Objective – Promotion and Retention



• A group can assist in achieving agency-wide goals

• Hiring Disabled Veterans

• Develop short and long-term plans to remove barriers

• Integrate goals into your agency planning processes• EEO Management Directive 715

• Human Capital Scorecard / Management Agenda

• Budget planning cycles

• Federal Disability Workforce Consortium: http://fdwc.wordpress.com

• Social networking opportunities, such as Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, blogs

Objective – Networking





Change Management







Is leadership telling people what they

want to hear, or taking them where they

need to be?


Create Your Plan & Report Results

• Transfer agency concerns into a development plan

• Set realistic goals

• Establish your workgroup

• Build upon documented successes

• Integrate into agency’s employment strategies and plans

• Report your outcomes


• Be proactive

• Understand the White House Initiatives

• Research and be knowledgeable of agency trends

• Establish strategic plans

• Participate in recruitment fairs

• Change programs to keep people on the workforce

• Partner to optimize results – think win-win

• Provide quarterly updates on progress and barriers

The Way Ahead


Change to Become an Employer of Choice!

Documents

Disability Hiring Managing Federal Changes