Employing 100 Evaluation
SUMMARY
Employing 100 is an initiative of the Australian Disability Network. Over a two-year period, the Employing 100 initiative aimed to successfully place 100 suitably skilled jobseekers with disability into roles within four major employers in the healthcare and social assistance, and food and accommodation industries in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. In contrast to most disability employment programs, Employing 100 used an employer-led model that aimed to develop employer confidence and organisational capability with the goal of building a more inclusive workforce.
The Employing 100 team worked with the employers to build organisational capability and disability confidence before linking organisations with vetted talent providers, with Employing 100 staff acting in an intermediary role. Job vacancies and candidates were then carefully matched and supported through inclusive recruitment processes.
OBJECTIVES
Employing 100 aimed to equip participating employers with the tools, resources and training to recruit people with disability in a sustainable way, using the Employer Enablement Framework – an evidence-informed model developed by the Australian Disability Network.
RESULTS
The evaluation of the Employing 100 project identified four key elements of the program that contributed to its success. These were:
- Focusing on the employer environment first
- Providing a conduit between employers and talent pipelines (including Disability Employment Services, social enterprises, education providers and others)
- Making jobseekers and disability visible to employers
- Knowledgeable and committed Employing 100 staff acting as intermediaries.
The evaluation also found that partner organisations experienced increased disability awareness and knowledge of barriers and enablers to employing people with disability as a result of the Employing 100 program.
The employer-led focus of the program coupled with the support provided by Employing 100 staff in the role of intermediaries between employers and talent providers has achieved results exceeding the original employment targets for the project, with 240 people with disability employed across the four organisations. Most importantly, the average retention rate for these employees across the partner organisations was 83 per cent.