Consider New Options When Looking to Fill Jobs

A tight labor market with a low unemployment rate presents challenges for many businesses. Employers in cleaning-related industries, from the manufacturers and distributors of cleaning products to cleaning service providers, are all struggling to attract and retain workers. While providing a more attractive job offer and work environment compared other employers is always an option, that alone isn’t always enough

One solution is turning to overlooked labor pools such as nonviolent ex-offenders, people with disabilities, and veterans of the armed forces.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27%: over 23 percentage points above the national average. Each year, hundreds of thousands of inmates are released from prison qualified, rehabilitated, and ready to work. ISSA’s Cleaning Management Institute has a program to train prison inmates as custodians in preparation for their release.

People with disabilities are a largely untapped labor pool. In fact, over 50% of Americans with disabilities are unemployed or out of the workforce completely. Bolstering the employment of people with disabilities at your company can both reduce the labor shortage and uphold goals emphasized by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.

Veteran employment touts levels above the national average, However, unemployment is not the only indicator of a gap in career interests, opportunities, and challenges for veterans. While veterans’ training provides them with a solid skill set for the workplace, some (who would like to work full-time) may only be able to obtain a part-time position, others may be on reserve, and still others have given up looking for work altogether and thus would not be included in the unemployment rate.

Employers who hire these above-mentioned groups of workers are often eligible for federal and state incentive programs, such as direct tax credits and fidelity bonding to protect them from possible risks.