Archives for March 2017

Interviewing Tips for Professionals with Disabilities

March 21, 2017 by herc

Congratulations! You made it through the job search, writing the cover letter, and developing the resume. Now, you have an interview at the place you’ve been dreaming about since grad school. The job is essentially yours to lose, so how do you ensure the employer sees you as the qualified and capable future employee you are, not as a candidate with a disability, visible or otherwise? Such a conundrum can be stressful, but the following tips can help calm your nerves and ensure that your interviewers view you as they should—a perfect fit for their organization.
Start with Research

Yes, you surely did some research before you sent off your job application, but it’s time to do more. To start, find out where you will be meeting and with whom. Before you disclose any disability or ask for accommodations, discover for yourself (if you can) whether the organization’s culture is welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities. Even if your sense is “no,” knowing ahead of time gives you the upper hand.
Ask for Accommodations While Showing Strengths

Even though applicants and employees with disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, you should handle accessibility concerns early on. If you will need accommodations to participate in the interview process, ask for them. For instance, you could say, “I am excited to present my theories to the seminar at X College next week. Please make sure I can navigate my wheelchair to the stage where the presentation will take place. I look forward to meeting with the hiring committee. Thank you.”

The key is to give your potential employers an opportunity to avoid an uncomfortable situation. While they are required to provide any necessary accommodations for you to participate in the interview, making your needs clear in advance will improve the experience for everyone participating in your interview.
Practice Your Technique

Interviewees who practice interview skills with a trusted colleague or friend tend to feel more comfortable in the actual interview session than those who do not. If you haven’t interviewed for a while, practice is key. Don’t wait until you are in the interview room with the search committee to test a new answer to an important question. Work on your elevator pitch; for instance, be able to answer the question “Why should we hire you?” in three minutes or less. When you’ve mastered that, move on to the next potential questions. Use this technique to fortify yourself for biased questions that may be asked out of ignorance. Have your rote answer ready, so you are not tripped up by a well-meaning interviewer who needs to be educated on your abilities instead of focusing elsewhere.
Smile and Be Friendly

Lastly, be sure to show your potential coworkers what a great person they are considering bringing on to the team. Let your best assets shine through and save criticisms of former employers for home. Never trash your previous workplace, even if you had a bad experience there. As you did during the application process, show your potential employer that you will be a positive addition to the team.

Finally, don’t fear that upcoming job interview. Career success in higher education can be yours, with or without a disability. Practicing your responses to difficult questions and making sure you are fully prepared before going into your interview can help ensure the best possible outcome for both you and your future employer.

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How to Ask for Flexible Work Arrangements

March 14, 2017 by herc

A flexible work schedule is the cornerstone of your work-life balance. Flexible work arrangements can accommodate temporary life needs, such as caring for school age children during summer vacation, the care of a loved one after a hospital stay, college course work during the academic school year, or peak periods of work. They may also be part of a negotiated on-boarding, particularly if you are working from home or working part-time. When you are able to vary your work schedule to accommodate life needs, you are likely to be more focused and productive at work.

Types of Flexible Work Arrangements

Flexible work options include telecommuting, compressed workweek, job sharing, reduced seasonal hours, change to part-time status and phased retirement. These arrangements should meet business needs, taking into account how, when and where the work is done. Supervisors may hesitate to grant flexible schedules because they fear that your productivity will suffer, leaving your colleagues or co-workers to pick up the slack. They may also lack the knowledge of how to monitor these types of arrangements. Contrary to bias, when implemented correctly, flexible work arrangements actually increases your productivity and engagement.

How to Ask for Flexible Schedule

Step 1: Advocate for a flexible work arrangement by first understanding your unit’s business needs and the kinds of flex schedule options that best suit them. Keep in mind the formal work structure and the informal work culture. For example, if faculty and staff typically stop by your office without appointments, then telecommuting is not a good fit. Instead, you consider varying up the start or end time of your day or a compressed workweek should drops-in seldom take place on certain days, such as Fridays. Suggest a colleague cover for you on Fridays in exchange for your coverage for her on Mondays, as long as the work is evenly distributed.

Step 2: Assure your supervisor that you will take responsibility for a successful arrangement. Provide your supervisor with a written proposal that includes the type of flex arrangement you desire; your plans for continuous communication with your supervisor, colleagues and customers; and outcomes or evidence of your productivity.

Step 3: Suggest a trial period and be willing to re-negotiate the arrangement to ensure that everyone’s needs are met. Savvy supervisors will engage the entire work unit in identifying the type of flexible work arrangements that are best suited for their work units AND ask the staff to create the schedule. Working together improves everyone’s accountability for the arrangements.

Step 4: Periodically review your flexible work arrangement with your supervisor, ensuring that it aligns with current business needs, staffing patterns and expected outcomes.

Flexible work arrangements can significantly help you accommodate your many work-life demands and can boost engagement of an entire work unit if implemented successfully. Many employers are integrating them into their organizational work culture, using them as effective talent recruitment and retention strategies. Check with your organization’s Human Resources department for more information.

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Robynn M. Pease, Ph.D. has over 20 years of related experience in the field of work-life and is the former director of the Greater Oregon Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (GO HERC). Prior to her current position as Faculty Ombudsman at Oregon State University (OSU), Robynn served as the Coordinator of Work-Life at OSU and the Director of Work-Life at the University of Kentucky. She holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Kentucky, with an emphasis in gerontology.

Disclosing Disability to an Employer: Why To – When To – How To

March 14, 2017 by herc

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted on July 26, 1990, is legislation purposed to improve the lives of people with disabilities by protecting their rights to have access to employment, public entities, transportation, public accommodations and commercial facilities, telecommunications, and more. It helps people with disabilities compete equally for employment and receive the accommodations and protection they need to work.

Are you in need of accommodations in the workplace due to a disability? Do you know what steps to take in order to get the process started? Disclosure is the first and sometimes the most difficult step. Just thinking about this can often cause anxiety and stress. So what exactly is disclosure?

Disclosure is divulging or giving out personal information about a disability. It is important for the employee to provide information about the nature of the disability, the limitations involved, and how the disability affects the ability to learn and /or perform the job effectively. The employer has a right to know if a disability is involved when an employee asks for accommodations. Deciding if, when, and how to share disability-related information with a prospective or current employer can be overwhelming. There is no single right or wrong approach to disclosing a disability. The disability disclosure decision-making process requires answering a number of personal questions that may be different with each employment experience. Some of those questions may include the following: “Do I have an obligation to disclose?” “When is the right time?” “How much medical information will I be required to provide?” and “How will disclosing the information affect my employment?”

Let’s look at three reasons why someone may choose to disclose a disability to their employer:

1. To ask for job accommodations

Tina is an activities director at an assisted living facility, required to log notes into a binder for all of the activities and residents who participate. Because of a brain injury, Tina struggles to hand write notes. She requests speech-to-text software that enables her to dictate her notes. She is then able to print them out and place them in the binder.

2. To receive benefits or privileges of employment

The ADA requires employers to provide accommodations so that employees with disabilities can enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment equal to those enjoyed by similarly-situated employees without disabilities. Benefits and privileges of employment include employer-sponsored training, access to cafeterias, lounges, gymnasiums, auditoriums, transportation, and parties or other social functions.

Sean is an employee with Down syndrome who signed up for a nutrition class, but had trouble understanding the information that was presented. His employer asked the instructor to provide pictures of the types of food she was recommending employees eat. Sean was able to use these pictures when making food choices.

3. To explain an unusual circumstance

Della has temperature sensitivities due to multiple sclerosis, but so far has been able to manage them on her own without the need to disclose her condition to her employer. However, when the air conditioner breaks down and is reportedly going to take a week to replace, Della realizes that she will need to work from home as an accommodation, will need to disclose to her employer, and explain her condition and the need for the accommodation.

Disclosure can be quite simple. You can tell your employer that you need to talk about an adjustment or change that is essential for a reason related to a medical condition. You may use plain English to request an accommodation. You do not have to mention the ADA nor use the phrase “reasonable accommodation.” It can be as easy as what Tina may have said to her supervisor, “I need to talk to you about the difficulty I encounter when I try to handwrite notes due to a medical condition.”

The general rule under the ADA is that a person does not have to disclose a disability until an accommodation is needed. Ideally, employees will disclose a disability and request accommodations before performance problems arise, or at least before they become too serious. That can be during the application or interview process, the first day on the job, or years down the road. For someone who needs testing accommodations, disclosure in the application process may be necessary. For another applicant who has great difficulty communicating and thinking on her feet, a request for interview questions ahead of time may be needed. Some employees who have successfully worked for years without accommodations may find it necessary to disclose and ask for accommodations due to changes in their job, or changes in their disability.

Questions about disclosure? Contact JAN for free information, or to discuss an accommodation situation privately with a consultant. Click here for more resources from JAN.

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