Individuals with intellectual, developmental disabilities often make best workers

As the CEO of Opportunity Enterprises, one of the largest employers in Porter County, I understand the challenges in finding qualified candidates for your open positions. We often talk about labor shortages, yet a workforce strategy is frequently overlooked.

I can share countless success stories of individuals served by Opportunity Enterprises, an organization that helps individuals with an intellectual and developmental disability or IDD. One comes from another employer's perspective.

Lucas was shy and reserved when he started his new job at Continental. He leaned on the external job coach he brought with him to help through training. His coach knew he was capable of the job and helped him unlock his hidden potential. Then it all clicked: confidence, consistency and the type of growth leaders hope to see in any employee. Now, people describe him as someone whose personality lights up the room. He takes on challenges others won’t and has an eagerness to excel.

According to “The Inclusive Talent Pool,” a report published by i4cp, 53 million working-age Americans have a disability. That’s approximately one in five. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is nearly twice that of the broader population. For people with an IDD, the gap is even greater, at 81%. Of those adults, 46% are actively seeking employment.

Those statistics should give you pause.

What happens when a company hires people with an IDD? The study reported that employers described what, to me, sounds like ideal employees. Dependable, engaged, motivated, with great attendance, strong attention to work quality and high productivity. One-third of employers surveyed who employed an individual with an IDD exceeded expectations, and three-quarters reported it was a positive experience.

I’ll take those stats any day and compare them to how companies’ current hiring experiences. So why don’t more businesses hire candidates with disabilities?

The obstacles to hiring someone with an IDD, I believe, come from uncertainty, fear, lack of information and a belief that it’s too difficult.

Here are three steps you can take.

First, remove unintended screening. Often, companies unintentionally eliminate good candidates through rigid online assessments, lengthy applications, or interviews that assess conversational ease rather than job skills. Home Depot recently updated its approach to its entry-level hiring process. They began using plainer language and provided concrete accommodation examples, including assistance from a job coach and the option to waive its online assessment. That’s not charity. That’s good process design.

Second, deconstruct roles and hire for the work that truly needs to be done. Job descriptions often become overly broad and discourage candidates who could excel in essential parts of the role. In manufacturing, this might mean separating repetitive, high‑value production tasks from more complex troubleshooting functions. When employers match the right person to the right work, both productivity and morale improve.

Third, normalize accommodations. In i4cp’s study, data showed that the cost of accommodation very rarely exceeded $500 and often is free. Wouldn’t you agree that leaving a position open is more costly than $500?

This isn’t just theoretical. For example, our community employment division, JobSource, celebrates a 97% success rate for placements with local employers.  

Continental was an employer that admitted it had reservations about hiring an individual through JobSource. They were concerned they wouldn’t be able to provide the level of support needed in their industrial setting. But after hiring two individuals with disabilities, they found that they didn’t require more supervision than others and, in some cases, exceeded productivity expectations. One supervisor said that the quality of work “even outperforms that of” people who went through apprenticeship programs.

Continental said hiring Lucas was good for their bottom line as well as their culture. Today, Lucas is a dye assembly technician, and now Continental employs five individuals with an IDD.

Hiring someone with a disability should not be viewed as an act of philanthropy; it should always be seen as a strategic business decision.

Want to know more about hiring from this overlooked talent pool? Partner with Opportunity Enterprises or a similar organization and together assess your needs and processes and tap into this valuable talent pool.

Northwest Indiana can’t afford to leave talent on the table.