Customized Employment

Connecting Employment Needs of People with Significant Disabilities to Business’s Needs

Customized employment is a flexible process that connects a job seeker who has unique interests and abilities to an employer who has an unmet business need. This job is tailored to fit the needs of both the employer and the job seeker.

A traditional job seeking approach often does not work for a person with significant life complexities and barriers to employment, such as a significant disability. The customized employment process is designed to ensure the person with a disability is the driver of the job-seeking process and employment outcome. It results in employment that takes place in the community or in a business owned by an employer, and pays at least minimum wage.

Goals of Customized Employment Training

Recognize good candidates for customized employment
Know how the Workforce Investment and Opportunities Act (WIOA) defines customized employment
Learn the essential elements of customized employment
Understand the process of customized employment

Who is a Good Candidate for Customized Employment?

Job seekers with significant disabilities who have not been or who are unlikely to be successful with traditional, demand-side employment are good candidates for customized employment. Whereas demand-side employment focuses on meeting the employer’s needs, customized employment is flexible and focuses on meeting both the employer and the employee’s needs.

Customized Employment and the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act

People with significant disabilities have greater access to customized employment services since the 2014 Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) expanded its definition of supported employment to include customized employment:

The term supported employment services means ongoing support services, including customized employment, needed to support and maintain an individual with the most significant disability.

Below are the qualities of customized employment, as defined by the WIOA:

Based on an individualized determination of the unique strengths, needs, and interests of the individual with a significant disability
Designed to meet the specific abilities of the individual with a significant disability and the business needs of the employer
Carried out through flexible strategies (e.g., job exploration by the individual, working with an employer to facilitate placement, etc.)

Working with an employer to facilitate placement could look like:

Customizing a job description based on current employer needs or on previously unidentified and unmet employer needs
Developing a set of job duties, a work schedule and job arrangement, and specifics of supervision (including performance evaluation and review), and determining a job location
Using a professional representative chosen by the individual, or if elected self-representation, to work with an employer to facilitate placement
Providing services and supports at the job location⁴

Essential Elements of Customized Employment

The essential elements of customized employment correspond with those of supported employment to assure the employer and employee with a disability have a successful working relationship.

These elements serve as a universal guide for service delivery and training providers:

Job duties are negotiated with the employer. Job duties are set as a result of negotiating with employers. This is in contrast to demand-side employment, where job duties are set by employers prior to seeking an employee.
One person is matched with a job. Customized employment involves matching an employer with one employee, rather than a group of employees with disabilities.
Employees are paid at least minimum wage. Pay for a customized job is based on:
- Target wage set by the employment seeker
- Entry wage paid by the employer
- Typical wage paid for similar positions
Work is performed in the community or businesses owned by an employer. Work tasks do not include contract work, such as the work historically offered to people with disabilities by organizations whose primary purpose is to serve people with disabilities.
Employment relationships are mutually beneficial and voluntary. Job developers who represent the job seeker look for a successful fit between an employer’s needs and a job seeker’s strengths, needs, and interests. Voluntary, negotiated relationships with employers are encouraged.
Skilled job developers represent the job seeker. A job developer typically approaches potential employers on behalf of the job seeker and explains customized employment. Whenever possible, the job seeker is included when the employer is approached. In some instances, the job seeker may take the lead to represent themselves when approaching the employer.
It is understood that the job-seeker will be successful. Customized employment is a “no-fail” process based on the belief that all people can work successfully.
Customized self-employment is an option. The job-seeker and job developer may find during the discovery process that a job-seeker’s strengths, functioning, and interests align well with opportunities for customized self-employment.
Customized employment is best for people who aren’t likely to be successful with traditional employment models. Many people with disabilities can benefit from traditional, demand-side employment as long as they are well-matched to jobs and receive reasonable accommodation and post-employment support, as needed. Customized employment is for people who are more likely to reach their employment goal with this approach.

Source: The Essential Elements of Customized Employment

Process of Customized Employment

There are several stages of the customized employment process:

The Discovery Process is meant to replace the traditional vocational assessment. Its purpose is to discover the job-seeker’s:

Strengths: What they can contribute to an employer
Needs: What has to be in place for the employer to succeed
Interests: What type of work would interest the job-seeker

The average timeframe for Discovery is 35 hours over five to seven weeks. This allows enough time to get to know the person while still keeping the customized employment process moving forward.

The Discovery Process should:

Revolve around describing, rather than evaluating, the job-seeker. Descriptions and notes should be based on direct observation and non-speculative information from primary sources, including family and others who know the individual well.
Include conversational interviews with the job-seeker, family, natural supporters, and friends.
Include observations of and interactions with the job-seeker involved in typical life activities and in situations where the individual is at their best.
Take a positive approach when reviewing the job-seeker’s records, even if the record is evaluative and focuses on deficits. It may be helpful to wait until the end of Discovery to begin this review.

A discovery report is based on what is learned in the discovery process. It replaces the traditional vocational assessment. The report should accomplish the following tasks:

Identify the individual and their living situation, family, friends, and current life status. Include enough demographic information to help employment staff understand details about the individual, family, living situation, and location in the community.
Write an optimistic story that describes the person’s life experiences, including past employment, education, life activities, skills, and other relevant features. Avoid medical-model style comparisons and evaluations, as well as the opinions of others.
Provide a foundation for the employment plan to customize employment options. Summarize the person’s strengths, needs, and interests so it can be used to create a plan for customizing a job with the individual. Include challenges that could impact employment.
Belong to and be approved by the job seeker. Ensure that the discovery report is confidential, and get approval from the job seeker before disseminating or using the report. Document disability-related challenges to employment and life complexities in a way that only those needing the information for purposes of negotiating employment can have access.

Following the Discovery Process and the discovery report’s completion, the job seeker and job representative hold a customized employment planning meeting to create a customized employment plan.

The Planning Meeting

All attendees should be given a copy of the Discovery Document, with permission from the employment seeker. The funder should also receive a copy of the Discovery Document.

When should the customized employment planning meeting take place?

The planning meeting should take place two to four weeks following Discovery and completion of the Discovery Document. Be willing to accommodate schedules outside of “traditional” business hours so that family members and others outside of agencies can attend.

Who should facilitate the planning meeting?

The meeting facilitator and person who develops the customized employment plan must be someone who participated in the Discovery Process and knows the individual. The job seeker should approve all aspects of the planning meeting and plan for customizing employment, with assistance as necessary from family, friends, or an ombudsman whose primary duty is to the job seeker.

Who should attend the planning meeting?

The job seeker or a family member should approve of everyone before they are invited. The meeting should include as many individuals who are not paid to attend as those who are paid to attend, including:

The job developer who was involved in the Discovery Process, and who will be contacting potential employers in efforts to negotiate a customized job
People who have a personal or professional relationship with the job seeker
A community member with ties to the employer community or a behavioral specialist, if the facilitator believes it would be helpful to the process

What happens in the planning meeting?

The objective of the planning meeting is to create a plan for customized employment that clearly states the job seeker’s goals and outlines the plan for services. This is necessary to assure that employment offers reflect the wishes of the job seeker, rather than available job openings or resulting from relationships between job developers and employers.

The customized employment plan should:

Provide a recap of the job seeker’s strengths, needs, and interests as compiled in the Discovery Document
Generate a list of job tasks, in employer language, that fit the job seeker and could be offered to potential employers during job development
Develop a list of specific employers, including small, artisanal businesses, who fit with the strengths, needs, and interests, identified through the Discovery P It should include information about the employer collected in the Discovery Process
Provide a job development blueprint for making employer contacts

Provide the customized employment plan to:

The job seeker
The funding partner
Those who were invited to the planning meeting, with permission from the job seeker

WIOA requires that a job developer be provided to assist the job seeker with contacting employers and negotiating job customization. This person should be chosen by the person seeking employment. Occasionally, the job seeker may wish to represent themselves.

What does a job developer do?

The job developer primary client is always the job seeker. Since customized employment doesn’t follow the traditional job-search model, the role of the job developer is multi-layered and critical for success.

The sections below outline the job developer’s varying roles with the job seeker and the employer.

Role with the Job Seeker

Know them well enough to understand their interests, present their strengths, and negotiate their needs to potential employers
Work with them to determine their essential and ideal features of employment, any non-negotiables, and their willingness to negotiate those ideal features with potential employers
Help identify essential features needed in any potential job and any areas of potential compromise, such as work days, pay, and hours
Create an innovative resume to highlight their best qualities and abilities
Ask their permission to disclose personal information to potential employers clarifying the need for flexibility, consideration, or accommodation

Role with Employer

Use all connections possibly associated with the job seeker, the agency, and with the job seeker’s personal/ professional relationships to schedule appointments with potential employers
Clearly relate to employer contacts that they wish to make a presentation rather than to assist their job seeker to fill a job opening
Prepare for negotiations by listing the job seeker’s ideal features of a customized job that fits with their strengths, needs, and interests
Prepare and practice an initial presentation designed to clearly explain the concept of customized employment and describe the unique attributes of the job seeker
Negotiate the job seeker’s needs
Develop and implement an organized strategy for assisting employers to identify specific areas in which the business might benefit from hiring the job seeker, including unmet needs
Develop a customized job description (with input from the job seeker) made up of work tasks and responsibilities
Identify job tasks and that fit the job seeker and benefit the employer
Negotiate a customized job description and employment expectations, not relying on existing job descriptions
Negotiate a support plan with employers that offers the new employee access to all the naturally existing features of the workplace and, at the same time, offers the assistance of supported employment job coaches

To create more positive employment outcomes for job seekers, employers suggest job developers:

Learn about the employer’s business needs by engaging and partnering with the business in a variety of capacities and tasks
Network with employers to help establish strong business relationships and assist in customized employment
Develop a relationship with the employer at the beginning of the Discovery Process
Have the job seeker with the disability “try out” the position before they commit to it to make sure it is a good fit for the employee and the company

Source: Riesen, T. & Morgan, R.L. (2018). Employer views of customized employment: A focus group analysis. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 49 (1), 33-44.

Project E3 Research Summary: Customized Employment Through the Eyes of Employers

Strategies

Here are some effective strategies for employment representatives:

Practice your presentation with others before meeting with the employer.

It could be especially helpful to practice it with someone who could reflect an employer’s perspective.

Use an informational approach with employers, rather than persuasive, pressure-based sales tactics.

Customized employment involves creating a mutually beneficial employment relationship between a job seeker and an employer — if either party feels it’s not a good fit, it’s best to look for a different match.

Use “positive disclosure” to give the employer information about the work impact of the job seeker’s disability, only with clear permission from the job seeker.

Employers may be willing to customize a job if they understand why the employment seeker is not going through the typical personnel practices of the business.

Give employers the clear message.

The goal is for both the employer and employee to succeed.

For more strategies, read WINTAC’s “Recommendations for Customized Employment Practices" (PDF)

Tools

Following are some tools and resources to learn even more about this topic.

Featured Resources

Essential Elements of Customized Employment

A brief training introducing the essential elements of Customized Employment.

Improving Efficiencies in Supported and Customized Employment Services

Explore the following tips on how to maximize the efficiency of supported and customized employment to improve employment outcomes at a cost that is reimbursable through state funding streams. Customized Employment: A Service Provider Business Model (PDF)