Another Conference
Another conference coming up. The following questions will be asked but won’t be answered:
How will we improve disability employment rates?
What reforms will encourage employers to hire more people with disability?
Why isn’t performance rising? (And in fact probably relatively falling.)
It’s the same old nutshell: why is performance so poor?
A mystery …
however, a few things come to mind:
- You get problems when you aren’t allowed to because potential candidates are ‘out of area’. The areas from which employment services can accept job-seeker referrals are based on old local government maps; however, we can source employers and offers of work from anywhere in Australia.
So, if Mary lives just one street out of area, we may not be able to accept her despite her suitability for a position nearby. This is not good for Mary. But it’s also problematic for employment services because, where work is plentiful, the service won’t give up a vacancy to competitors since that might in time ensure a competitor’s 5-star rating and send us to 1 Star. Instead, we scramble around to offer a candidate who is willing to travel or hold the position (unfilled) until we can. - You reduce performance when you can’t turn to a similar business and share employers, positions and/or knowledge because a totally counter-productive climate of competition has been created.
- You erode morale when contractual measures for what constitutes performance are subject to legal but morally bankrupt ‘gaming’ and ‘for-profit’ providers are extolled as ‘high performing’ because they exploit gaps and loopholes in system design.
Abuse of people with disability becomes the norm when the environment of waste, poor practice and depression enables the exploitation of poverty.
What’s needed?
- in the inherent capacity of all people, regardless of the level of disability they face, to make a meaningful contribution to our society through the value of their labour.
- Freedom of operation without retaliation. If can make a success of an employment position through innovation, additional support and long-term investment there should be no cost other than the operational expenses involved. (The present Star Rating system discourages pro-active measures in favour of universal conformity and mediocrity.)
- Rewards based upon relative achievement in the areas that actually matter to consumers – hours worked, wages earned and longevity of employment.
- The removal of structural barriers like postcode-based referrals and the introduction of freedom of choice through the ability to register with multiple providers.
These 4 simple measures would revolutionise disability employment, remove us from our moribund state and reinvigorate Australian disability employment services to their former world leading position.
Let the market decide who thrives and who fails by rewarding who creates more taxpayers from those people previously trying to survive on the disability support pension.
– Martin Wren
