School of Education, Flinders University
This article is discussing the result of an interview with an employer who is hiring people with disabilities in Indonesia. The interview was conducted through the phone because the participant was overseas. Initial was used on behalf of confidentiality.
Currently, many companies discriminate against persons with disabilities by not accepting them as employees. Whereas in Indonesia, the Law No. 4 of 1997 affirmed that any private corporation that has employees of at least 100 people and multiples thereof, it should give one per cent quota for workers with disabilities. However, the implementation of these regulations is still far from complete. Indeed, there are only a few of companies that implement it by giving those people with disabilities opportunities to work in their enterprises. Research shows that the laws are still very vulnerable to such adverse attitude (Stuart, 2006), such as ignores the policy. According to the interviewee (Mrs. T), this happens because the government does not have strict sanctions in running the system.
According to the interview result, Mrs. T explains why she prefers to employ persons with disabilities instead of non-disabled workers. At first, Mrs. T only employs two employees with disabilities, while the rest are undisabled workers. However, for some reason, the non-disabled workers went and did not return to the company. At the critical moment (the business would be bankrupt), employees with disabilities are the one who was decided to stay and work for Mrs. T. These workers with disabilities were then recommend their friends who also have special needs condition and looking for a job, to Mrs. T. After a few years, these workers can prove if they are capable of producing products that are eligible for sale as well as the quality of goods that are not inferior to products made by non-disabled workers. In addition, they also able to prove that they have a responsibility and loyalty better than the non-disabled workers.
Regarding product quality, the products produced by the worker with disabilities also has its characteristics. Mrs. T's business is relating to crafts, which giving her one advantage of a unique product. This feature can happen because every worker has the specific skills depends on the condition of their bodies. For example, the products produced by those who only have a right hand or left hand only will be different than workers who can use both of their hands. The Australian Network on Disability stated that persons with disabilities have great potential and a variety of unique skills and abilities to compete in the free market and work in various occupations and industries (Disability). Moreover, this organization also assert that by hiring persons with disabilities, the entrepreneurs will get some benefits such as attract new skills and perspectives, bringing new talent as well as getting loyal employees and are committed to helping the companies that accept them as an employee, in achieving their business objectives as well as perform a satisfactory job (Disability; Houtenville & Kalargyrou, 2012).
There are a few challenges for Mrs. T in working with workers with disabilities. First, she explains that one major issue she faced was the psychological problem. According to Mrs. T, these workers have some mental issues such as laziness, lack of self-confident, and want to be pitied. These habits and thought patterns are formed from environmental influences that are around these people with disabilities. Many of the families of persons with disabilities are too overprotective or are they also lack an understanding of how to handle children with special needs such as their children. If their parents do not care about them, the people around them who care for them, even though they treat them the wrong way instead. As a result, they tend to always provide assistance to these persons with disabilities, which is based on the idea that they can not do anything independently. This way of treat affects their independence and the emergence of laziness to do something because they're used to always being helped or served by others. In fact, habituation of the people around them also affects their thought where individuals with disabilities should be pitied and helped. Because of that, they also have the idea that although they are not working yet, they can still eat. Besides, a lack of confidence also arises because these workers are not prepared to work and even their parents do not expect them to do a job. So that, when they work, they are not sure if they can do it. This psychological problem is a challenge for Mrs. T to be faced.
Most of the existing literature and studies are not show laziness as psychological factors which can be prohibitive regarding jobs among workers with disabilities. Laziness is formed from the wrong upbringing and treatment of people in the neighborhood that are inappropriate. It is not specifically found in the literature and research related to the challenges facing by employers. But in a literature review regarding the reasons of why employers hire people with disabilities, Laziness can be included in the category of personality factors (Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, & Brooks, 2001). This conditions may occur because of differences in culture background between developed countries and developing. Indeed, studies of workers with disabilities are still not widely conducted in Indonesia.
Second, Mrs. T states that if a lack of expertise or skill is also a challenging issue. She should provide support and accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities to be able to work. It is encouraging Mrs. T to provide free training to the people with disabilities. The challenges she faced is how to do the training by the conditions of physical limitations, needs, talents and interests of persons with disabilities. Therefore, Mrs. T has modified the training and split it into three areas of specialization. The training aims to provide skills for individuals with disabilities so that they can open their own independent business, working for other companies with the help of reference of Mrs. T and some of them are employed in Mrs. T's company itself. As Boardman, Grove, Perkins, and Shepherd (2003) assert, "... Ideally, people should have access to a range of work, training and support the which is relevant to Reviews their changing needs.". Indeed, training is intended for workers with disabilities is adjusted to the condition and its needs and focus on practical skills that can be immediately implemented in the actual work.
Mrs. T argued that government support is crucial to the development of worker's disability. Although the government has made a policy, in this case, there are only a small numbers of companies that exist in Indonesia, which employs people with disabilities. Mrs. T did not explain why the level of employment among people with disabilities is very low compared to those without disabilities. However, the literature mentions that there are several reasons why the employers are afraid to hire people with disabilities which are related to the low level of employment. In their findings, firstly, the managers believe that workers with disabilities have lower levels of productivity than those without disabilities. But this is refuted by the evidence they have found in the literature review, that a lot of companies which employ people with disabilities have the same job performance and even better than the average worker without disabilities (Greenwood & Johnson, 1987; Lee & Newman, 1995; McFarlin et al., 1991; Stein, 2000; in Lengnick-Hall et al., 2001). Secondly, the employers believe that if they employ those people with special needs, it means the companies need to add more cost for the accommodation and lastly, they also believe that workers with disabilities will often use health care facilities and it also means more costs to be incurred by the company. Based on the experience of Mrs. T, all of the false beliefs are not proven, and in contrary, besides being productive and loyal, Mrs. T also can expand her business by selling the products of made by employees with disabilities abroad. Furthermore, similar to these findings, Kaye, Jans, and Jones (2011) found that not only accommodation and cost issues but also a lack of awareness of disability and afraid of legal liability as the reasons mentioned by most companies.
Mrs. T said that the government should deal with persons with disabilities from the beginning. What is meant by Mrs. T is that the problem that occurred among workers with disabilities is due to the wrong pattern of habits, lack of education and training as well as lack of support at work. In this case the government should start from the moment the persons with disabilities is still young, by giving knowledge to the parents and the community on how to handle children with special needs. Thus, persons with disabilities have been prepared to be independent and have the mental preparation that is both useful in their work.
According to Mrs. T, companies in Indonesia should give more opportunities to the persons with disabilities to be able to work. She has proven if by employing persons with disabilities and not be an obstacle in achieving business objectives and gain advantages. Mrs. T has shows a positive attitudes toward workers with disabilities. In addition, by providing support for the employers, this positive attitudes is likely to increasing (Hernandez, Keys, & Balcazar, 2000), which means that providing assistance and support to employers is as important as providing support services for workers with disabilities.
In conclusion, interview results indicate a positive attitude toward workers with disabilities. Mrs. T as an employer provides the opportunity for persons with disabilities is even though she knew that if they did not have any skills when recruiting employees. Mrs. T did not consider if the condition of disability is a barrier for these people to work. In fact, she proved that with hard work and discipline, workers with disabilities are able to prove if they are able to compete with workers without disabilities. For Mrs. T, the toughest challenge he faced while working with them is a personality factor, where persons with disabilities tend to have habits or lifestyle pattern that is wrong, so that arose laziness at work. This happens because of the treatment of the family and the environment less precise (overprotective or too much help). This affects the level of independence, self-confidence, and mindset is wrong (feel that persons with disabilities should be pitied and be helped). Furthermore, according to Mrs. T, the government was instrumental in increasing the number of workers with disabilities, providing support for job providers and workers with disabilities. Not only through the enforcement of sanctions but also giving appreciation and convenience for companies that want to hire people with special needs. Meanwhile, some of the reasons offered by providers working on reception refusal of workers with disabilities are based on the mistaken belief regarding workers with disabilities such as the problem of accommodation, additional costs that may arise, productivity, lack of Awareness about disability and the fear of legal liability.
The advice given by Mrs. T is to provide opportunities for persons with disabilities to work and prove their abilities. Then, last but not least, the support from the government is also very important for both parties, job providers, and workers , particularly the government should have a follow-up plans from an early age. For workers with disabilities, keep in mind that personal or individual fctors and work-performance are two important factors (Graffam, Shinkfield, Smith, & Polzin, 2002) that influence the employers decision to accepted them in a job. Therefore, persons with disabilities also need to prepare themselves mentally / psychologically before entering into employment area.
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