Research from Harvard last year showed the sheer number of perfectly capable candidates that slip through the cracks in the labor market.  Foremost among these were disabled people, who too often are overlooked for vacancies on no account of their actual talent.

Research from the University of South Australia highlights how a new and relatively simple intervention can boost the employability of disabled jobseekers by up to 25%.

Boosting prospects

The researchers worked with the non-profit organization Maxima, which provides disability support services, to develop a mathematical tool that calculates the key skills needed by disabled people in order to maximize their employment prospects.

“Sustainable employment for people with a disability is a major concern in Australia, and despite intervention services only 48 percent of people with a disability are employed, compared with 80 percent of those without a disability,” the researchers say.

The authors highlight that while most disabled jobseekers will seek help from employment services, often this advice consists of improving an impractical number of skills.  They hope that their tool will better help people to prioritize on the skills that really matter.

“While DES consultants primarily use their experience to give advice, our tool uses a causality-based approach to provide recommendations that can lead to employment,” they say.  “By inputting DES data extracted from Maxima’s business platform, we’re able to construct a causal learning model to recommend the best employment interventions.”

Unique interventions

The hope is that each individual jobseeker will have unique interventions that are personalized to their particular background and circumstances.  For instance, while some may be guided towards training and development, others may simply need a boost to their motivation levels.

“The model takes this all into account, processes it and generates the most effective recommendation to maximize employability for each person,” the researchers conclude.

“Streamlining and improving employability and employment processes is always beneficial, and if we can make it easier for people with a disability, we’re one step closer to being a more inclusive and responsive society.”