To Table of Contents who leaves , depending on how lengthy the search is for a replacement and how much onboarding is required . These costs are balanced against the value provided by the employees , taking into account employee performance evaluations and pay rates .
Disabled employees were more productive
A food services company that runs hospital cafeterias and university food courts allowed us to analyze their internal data for one department with 46 employees . Our analysis suggests that this unit had $ 108,381 in added value that year by hiring employees with disabilities .
The employees with disabilities at this company performed at a slightly higher level compared to their counterparts without disabilities . Only 56 per cent of the non-disabled employees had average or above-average performance , but all the employees with disabilities met this standard . Similarly , the non-disabled employees had an average of 6.5 absences per year , but workers with disabilities had an average of only three absences over the same time period .
At this company , the employees with disabilities also had much lower turnover . In fact , none of the employees with disabilities left the company during the year of our study . In contrast , 18 per cent of the non-disabled employees quit .
Managers sometimes
believe in false stereotypes that employees with disabilities are unreliable and likely to quit , but in this company they were loyal and reliable . This is consistent with what we have learned from our conversations with managers at other companies .
Several managers gave us examples of employees with disabilities who were dedicated and committed workers once they had been given an opportunity and welcomed into the company . One chain restaurant executive , in particular , started hiring more workers with disabilities because he noticed that they were very unlikely to quit .
What might surprise some managers is that the costs of the accommodations for employees with disabilities were quite low . One employee , a chef , was deaf and could not hear food orders - so the counter staff would write them down for him . The company estimated that the cost of the paper and pens to do this was just five dollars .
Most of the other employees with disabilities only needed some scheduling flexibility to deal with medical flareups or appointments . This was easily provided and these accommodations were similar to those provided to everyone else .
Providing accommodations
Although the accommodation costs in our example might sound unusually low , the typical costs of workplace accommodations tend to be lower than what managers expect . According to industry estimates , accommodations actually cost
less than US $ 500 in nearly 60 per cent of cases , or about $ 625 in Canada .
And in instances where there is