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West Virginia Workers with Disabilities

May 30th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

West Virginia workers with disabilities should benefit from a new collaboration between the US Office of Disability Employment Policy and the Society of Human Resource Managers. By collaborating, these two agencies bring more attention to the problems of disabled workers. Working together, these organizations should help facilitate communication across federal agencies, promote research, and give disabled workers greater access to education, training, and resources.

The West Virginia Department of Labor will still provide benefits to West Virginia workers with disabilities, but this new collaboration will make more resources available to these workers. Disabled workers aren’t utilized in the workforce as well as they should be, even though the employment situation has improved over the past few years.

This partnership hopefully will improve this situation. By having a federal agency join forces with a large human resources organization, more attention and dialogue will be focused on educating, training, and hiring disabled workers.

The US Office of Disability Employment Policy, also know as ODEP, was formed in 2001. ODEP identifies resources and sets policy concerning disabled workers. ODEP is a separate agency from the US Department of Labor. Roy Grizzard, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, heads ODEP.

According to Grizzard, “This alliance formalizes the relationship we have had with SHRM, benefiting SHRM as it serves its membership with the resources ODEP brings to the table and offering ODEP the opportunity for broader contact with human resource professionals.”

The Society for Human Resource Managers, also known as SHRM, was formed in 1948. This organization provides necessary resources to human resource professionals. With 205,000 members in 550 chapters across 100 countries, this organization brings substantial resources to help workers with disabilities.

In addition to creating more opportunities for disabled workers, the collaboration between ODEP and SHRM should provide additional services, such as outreach, information, guidance, training, improved communications, and education. Disabled workers should find that this partnership between ODEP and SHRM creates more jobs and opportunities for them.