Disabilities Act May Give Boost to Job Agencies : Employment: New law may aid firms such as California Job Connection that specializes in finding work for the disabled, minorities and women.
Clifford and Roberta Brown, whose employment agency specializes in placing women, minorities and disabled people, got a phone call last week that could be a good omen.
A major airline called to say that it was seeking a deaf person who could enter a new training program for computer operators and, incidentally, interpret in sign language for deaf passengers. The airline, like many other big companies, is striving to meet the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which took effect late last month and which bars employers from discriminating against people with physical, mental or learning disabilities. The new law, together with a growing interest among corporations in diversifying their work forces, could be a boon to companies such as the Browns’.
The ranks of such specialized employment agencies are growing.
Simone Gans Barefield, president of Gans, Gans & Associates in Chicago, said that when she opened her employment agency three years ago, it was one of only a few that specialized in so-called underrepresented groups: women, minorities, the disabled.
That is not the case today, Gans Barefield said, as larger, progressive companies seek to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law. She cited as an example General Electric Co., which now requires that the law firms it retains include both female and minority attorneys on their staffs.
“You’re seeing agencies specialize more and more,” she said. “Companies are realizing that, whatever their product or service, it’s going to hit a diverse market. The more diversity you have in-house, the more input you have.”
A study released Wednesday identifies seven employment agencies in the United States that it found are the best at finding jobs for people with mental or physical disabilities. Although the study was released shortly after the Disabilities Act became law, the two are unrelated, said Larry Naeve, one of the participants.
The study, which included 200 job agencies nationwide, was conducted by the Developmental Disabilities Training Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The two-year project was funded by a $300,000 grant from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Naeve is director of City Education and Employment Services in La Canada, which grew out of a school district program in 1981 and is now a nearly independent nonprofit employment agency.
One other California agency is cited in the study: Systematic Training for Employment Program in Los Angeles. The remaining five are Employment Opportunities Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.; CSAAC Inc. in Rockville, Md.; Kaposia Inc. in St. Paul, Minn.; Alternative Work Concepts Inc. in Eugene, Ore., and CEO Inc. in Pittsburgh.
“A lot of people’s identity focuses around what they do on the job,” Naeve said. “People with disabilities have been cornered out of the market in a lot of ways, but the technology today can assist many people in going to work.”
The ADA does not require companies to seek out disabled job candidates, said Bruce May, a lawyer for Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth in Newport Beach. But if disabled people apply and qualify, companies with more than 25 employees must make “reasonable accommodations” to allow such candidates to do the job. That may include changes in the architecture, the job duties or the hours.
Several private employment agencies contacted Wednesday said they have not yet had questions from clients about disabled job candidates. But one employment agency, Law Office Personnel in Irvine, was asked by a client to sign a form saying that it agreed to comply with the new act, said Roberta Schwarz, president of the agency.
Granting that request was a smart move on the employer’s part, May said. “Even if you’re not the one who screens out candidates--the employment agency does it--your company may be liable.”
Clifford and Roberta Brown have found that their agency, California Job Connection, has grown slowly in the four years since they opened it. The two, who are husband and wife, now have seven employees, one of whom is their daughter, Tammy.
The Browns say they were motivated by having witnessed employment discrimination over the years.
Roberta Brown said some clients in the past have come out and asked her not to send them black job applicants. More often, she said, such bias is unspoken. “An employer’s feelings are not invisible,” she said.
Among the Browns’ clients today are Xerox Corp., Allergan Inc. in Irvine, USC and the Irvine office of New York outplacement company Drake, Beam, Morin.
Barbara Fischer, director of administration at Drake, Beam, said she has called on Roberta Brown for job candidates for years. Fischer said she was not aware that the Browns specialized in placing particular types of applicants.
“I guess she has sent me a lot of minorities over the years,” Fischer said, “but I never noticed the color of the person.”
At a Glance: California Job Connection
Corporate headquarters: Cerritos
Founded: 1988
Branch offices: One, in Newport Beach
Founders: Clifford and Roberta Brown
Nature of business: Employment agency specializing in female, minority and disabled job seekers
Client list: Allergan Inc.; USC; Drake, Beam, Morin
Employees: 7
