Roger McCullough created a wonderful program to make sure the Personnel Board of Jefferson County (Alabama) recruits people with disabilities for civil service positions. McCullough, assistant vice president of human resources management, designed the program to level the playing field for people with disabilities who would have a more difficult time competing in the merit system.
Called Certifying Eligible Applicants with Disabilities, or CEAD, the plan includes three ways a person with a disability can get a job in civil service in Jefferson County. The first way is the regular process of the person with a disability applying for a job, testing for the position and landing in the top 10 of the register.
The second way is for the person to apply and test for the job and be added to the register regardless of his or her ranking.
In both instances, Stella Pelham, employer development coordinator for the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services (ADRS), calls the employer to advocate for the person and to let the employer know that there is a person on the register who has a disability and explain the benefits of hiring that person.
The third way is the non-competitive way. She goes to McCullough and says she has a consumer. He looks at available jobs and calls the hiring department about the person working temporarily for six months. If the employer likes the person, then the next time a register is created, the client’s name is added to the register.
Pelham says employers love the process of working with ADRS to hire people with disabilities.
With ADRS, they know that they are getting a person who has been screened instead of a random name on a register. They also know that ADRS will be there to help with training and accommodations for the employee.
McCullough said he enjoys working with ADRS through the program.
“It is a mutually beneficial partnership,” he said. “It is not what we can get from them, it is how we can help each other.”