Factors influencing the integration of Irish employees with disabilities in the workplace

Abstract

This study identifies factors contributing to the successful vocational integration of employees with disabilities (N = 55) who participated in three European-Funded employment initiatives conducted in the Republic of Ireland. The Vocational Integration Index (Parent, W.S., Kregel, J. and Wehman, P. (1992) Vocational Integration Index: Measuring Integration of Workers with Disabilities. Boston: Andover Medical Publishers) was used to assess the integration of all participants. Multivariate analyses investigated the relationship between vocational integration, employee characteristics, employment conditions and employer satisfaction with employee work performance. Results indicate that employee characteristics such as age and level of disability, and employment conditions such as number of days worked per week and number of employees with a disability are significantly related to the level of integration achieved by employees participating in the three projects. Discriminant analysis revealed that employers consistently rate more integrated employees as outperforming their less integrated colleagues across six work dimensions. Examination of these findings and recommendations are discussed.