When seeking employment, people with disabilities continue to face challenges — on average, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is double that of the overall population.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in November the unemployment rate for people with disabilities was 6% while it hovered just above 3% for those without.
In an effort to highlight businesses that recruit and hire people with disabilities, Gov. Tony Evers proclaimed October as Disability Employment Awareness Month in Wisconsin.
That month, FyterTech Nonwovens received an Exemplary Employer Award signed by Evers to recognize the company’s diverse hiring practices. With 300 employees across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the Green Bay-headquartered company makes a variety of polypropylene-based products and is the world’s largest manufacturer of sorbent spill control products.
FyterTech has been partnering with the nonprofit organization ASPIRO for the last several years to employ adults with cognitive and physical disabilities. Through the partnership, FyterTech has offered people with disabilities job shadowing and temporary work experience as well as permanent positions. The partnership began with FyterTech outsourcing some tasks to be completed at ASPIRO and evolved into hiring individuals for permanent positions on-site.
“We don’t do it for awards,” says Suneer Patel, FyterTech’s COO. “We’re doing it because it’s good for the community. We think there’s value not only for the folks we’re working with, but also our existing employees as well as in promoting a culture of inclusiveness, tolerance and respect.”
ASPIRO, which serves over 1,300 individuals and families in the Greater Green Bay area, offers employment services that help individuals with disabilities obtain and retain employment with area businesses through supported employment and job placement — both are in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Jessica Van Den Plas, employee experience leader at FyterTech, says individuals from ASPIRO have worked in the company’s kits department on tasks such as sorting products, labeling boxes and folding absorbent medical pads — all necessary steps to prepare FyterTech’s spill kits for final assembly.
“Our upper-level operators see these individuals as valid assets because they are helping get them set up, they’re helping them succeed,” Van Den Plas says. “They’re helping production numbers to go up by doing some of the tasks that get everybody set up for success, and they just have a lot of fun.”
Jessica Klemens, manager of employment services at ASPIRO, nominated FyterTech for the Exemplary Employer Award because of the company’s willingness to provide accommodations and flexibility based on the needs of individuals — which is harder to come by in the manufacturing industry.
“The manufacturing field has a lot of full-time positions with overtime, and many times we find that manufacturing businesses are not willing to be flexible with that,” Klemens says. “But FyterTech has really worked with us to provide part-time positions with hours that our individuals are available and have been flexible with when the bus could drop them off.”
Klemens reports that ASPIRO has placed six individuals at FyterTech. Each individual is currently employed by the company and has successfully transitioned to long-term support employment, with check-ins as needed.
“The success that FyterTech has with our individuals is not what we see everywhere. This has been long-term success,” she says. “It’s been great, and I don’t see it slowing down.”
Patel says “diversity of thought” is the greatest advantage of employing a diverse workforce.
“From a leadership standpoint, we look at diversity of thought as well as diversity of gender and ethnicity and so on,” he says. “It’s primarily looking at ways that we can broaden our horizons and perspectives and the way we approach our business.”
