This National Disability Employment Awareness Month, co-founder and author Jed Seifert explains how employees with disabilities at Stakes Manufacturing boost both productivity and the bottom line.

Just 22.8% of people with disabilities in the U.S. are employed, compared to 65.2% of people without disabilities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and figures cited in the new book “INKclusivity.” At a time when employers say hiring and retention are difficult, that is a large pool of talent going untapped.

For Jed Seifert, co-founder of Stakes Manufacturing and co-author of the book, the gap is personal. About 25 years ago, his older brother Darren, who has Fragile X syndrome, a genetic cause of autism, landed a mailroom job at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.

“It gave him the ability to gain his own financial independence, move out of my parents’ house, pay his own bills, make work friends, feel purpose, have things to do every day,” Seifert says.

That experience shaped how Seifert and co-founder Vince Bartozzi built Stakes, an Ohio print-on-demand company, and it led to “INKclusivity,” which Seifert wrote with four colleagues from the print industry. The book is free to download, and although its stories come from printing, Seifert says the model applies to any business.

Why It Matters 

Diversity programs often center on race, religion, sexual orientation, and age, Seifert says, while people with disabilities get left out.

“It’s not because they can’t work or don’t want to work,” he says. “It’s because people won’t hire them.”

Accenture research finds that the small share of U.S. companies that are inclusive of employees with disabilities report 1.6 times higher revenue and 2.6 times greater net income than their peers.

Seifert says the results at Stakes challenge the assumptions behind that gap. About 10% of the company’s workforce, which totals more than 225, has a developmental or intellectual disability.

“Our top shipper out of 25 has autism. Our top warehouse employee out of 40 has autism,” he says. “Same speed and accuracy KPIs as everybody else.”

Making the Case to the C-Suite 

HR leaders who worry that executives won’t fund something new, Seifert says, can lean on numbers rather than goodwill. Accenture research finds that the small share of U.S. companies that are inclusive of employees with disabilities report 1.6 times higher revenue and 2.6 times greater net income than their peers. Among those same companies, 92% of managers say employees with disabilities perform the same or better than colleagues without disabilities.

“This is not charity. While it’s the right thing to do, it’s also really good business,” says Seifert, noting that executives respond to the business advantages. “They want to know the bottom line. They want to understand the ROI. They want to understand what resources it’s going to take.”

Recruiting costs are part of that math. “Typical hiring agencies are charging you (around) 25%, 30%, where this is a free hiring agency,” Seifert says. “A lot of companies are struggling to hire and retain employees, so this is a solution to that problem.”

The gains show up on the floor, too. Two months after Stakes made its first hires, Seifert asked his warehouse manager how it was going. The manager told him the new employees were “crushing it with their performance KPIs, and it’s improving everybody else’s.”

Where to Start 

Seifert recommends leveraging disability employment service providers, which operate in cities across the country. He says they “will help you find, onboard, hire, train people with disabilities as well as train their managers at zero cost to the employer.”

To locate one, HR leaders can search for providers in their area or call their state’s vocational rehabilitation office, which may offer services directly or refer employers to a local organization. Employers don’t even need an open position to begin.

“They’ll send one of their job coaches out to your facility to understand all of the entry-level positions and determine where the best fits are,” Seifert says.

Providers can also surface roles employers wouldn’t consider. One screen printer planned to hire someone only to clean screens, he says, but the provider identified an opening in data entry—a job the employer never imagined filling this way because a single error could mean printing 1,000 shirts instead of 100. Seifert says that people with autism are often more detail-oriented, and that providers will help find a replacement if a placement doesn’t work out.

Accommodation costs are often overestimated, too. The book cites the Job Accommodation Network’s finding that 58% of accommodations cost little to nothing, and the rest usually run $500 or less. It also lists federal incentives, including the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (which is currently expired but may be revived) and a Disabled Access Tax Credit of up to $5,000 for small businesses.

Seifert encourages leaders to treat accommodations as something everyone gets, whether that’s a standing desk, a shifted schedule for a parent, or a platform for a shorter worker to reach equipment.

“Instead of looking at it as an accommodation, it’s like, what can we do to help you be successful?” Seifert says.

Building Culture Beyond the Program 

After the state vocational rehabilitation office ran a free etiquette training at Stakes, with 80 employees volunteering, an open forum followed. Two employees stood up and shared that they had never disclosed their own disabilities because they feared for their jobs.

“What better work atmosphere do you want to create than somebody being comfortable being themselves?” Seifert says, “I never thought that printing T-shirts would allow me to change lives. You truly can change lives and at the same time make your business better.”

For a more in-depth guide on implementing inclusive programs, you can download the free digital edition of “INKclusivity”  at inkclusivity.com.