Creating Career Opportunities for Job Seekers with Disabilities Through Employer Partnerships

By Richard G. Luecking, Ed.D., Ellen S. Fabian, Ph.D. & George P. Tilson, Ed.D.

All businesses have needs. People with disabilities have the skills and desire to work. As employment specialists work to match employers with job seekers, they need to do more than understand the job seekers’ personal and professional goals — they also need to know exactly what the employers are looking for. That’s what Working Relationships is about: securing satisfying jobs for people with disabilities by fostering partnerships between employment specialists and businesses. A must-read for all employment service providers and for anyone interested in employment of people with disabilities, this book helps readers

• understand the theoretical framework for improving career development practices through relationship building
  
  
• understand what employers want and expect from employment service providers
  
  
• learn about the building blocks of strong partnerships with employers: beliefs and values, communication skills, multicultural competence, ethics, and self-efficacy
  
  
• find practical guidelines for getting to know both job seekers and employers, marketing proactively to businesses, matching job seeker characteristics with employer needs, and using the tenets of quality customer service when working with employers
  
  
• consider the possibility of non-traditional employment through customized job consultation
  
  
• discover strategies for improving job retention and promoting career advancement for people with disabilities
  
  
• explore specific ways to make employment service programs more customer-oriented, convenient, and understandable to employers
  

Filled with helpful case studies and examples, this valuable resource will help employment specialists develop strong, respectful partnerships with businesses — partnerships that will lead to rewarding careers for people with disabilities.

Forward, by Richard E. Marriott

Introduction

I. Foundations for Partnership

1. Job Development and Placement: Toward a New Emphasis on Outcomes
   
   
2. The Employment Process: A Conceptual Framework
   
   
3. Setting the Stage: Career Development Strategies
   Jo Ann Hutchinson
   
   
4. Employer Perceptions of Disability and Disability Employment Programs
   
   
5. Developing Relationships for Effective Business Partnerships
   
   
6. Partnerships at Work: Illustrative Case Studies
   Richard G. Luecking, J. Erin Riehle, and Mark Donovan
   
   
7. Fundamental Skills for Employment Specialists
   

II. Job Development and Placement: A Customer Focused Framework

8. Knowing the Job Seeker Customer
   Appendix: Case Studies
   
   
9. Knowing the Employer Customer
   
   
10. Marketing to Prospective Employer Customers
    
    
11. Customer-Driven, Customized Job Matches: Meshing Job Seeker Characteristics with Employer Needs
    
    
12. Quality Service and Customer Satisfaction in Job Development and Business Partnerships
    

III. New Directions for Employment Partnerships

13. Nontraditional Employment Through Customized Consultation
    Richard G. Luecking and Sara Murphy
    
    
14. Organization Change: Building Employer-Friendly Services
    Debra Martin Luecking and Richard G. Luecking
    
    
15. Job Retention and Career Growth
    
    
16. Into the Future: Challenges and Issues Affecting Job and Partnership Development