Socially responsible human resource practices to improve the employability of people with disabilities

Abstract

Although the employment of people with disabilities (PWDs) has been recognized as an important human right, it is seldom emphasized in current corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice. Based on experiences with a job training program in hospitality for people with intellectual disabilities or Down syndrome offered by a hotel in Hong Kong, this paper explores how socially responsible human resource (HR) practices can support the employment of PWDs. An A‐B‐C‐D framework is proposed by the author to explore what business enterprises can contribute through HR strategy. Based on the results of interviews conducted with the hotel staff and social workers involved in the program, this study suggests that socially responsible HR practices can play an important role in improving the employability of PWDs by providing workplace accommodations, business‐oriented settings, a caring attitude, and job demands, showing how CSR and PWD employment are intertwined.

The impact of corporate social responsibility activities on stakeholders' value co‐creation behaviour

“…If corporations focused the most important stakeholders (employees) through CSR activities it may generate several positive attitudes and behaviour‐related outcomes such as employees' satisfaction about their jobs (Barakat et al, 2016; Suh, 2016; Valentine & Fleischman, 2008), citizenship behaviour (Choi & Yu, 2014; Kim et al, 2017; Lee & Seo, 2017), the commitment of employees (Ali et al, 2010; Brammer et al, 2007; Fu et al, 2014; Kim et al, 2010; Peterson, 2004). Based on the above‐mentioned pieces of evidence, we argue that if employees‐centric CSR activities can generate employees' positive outcomes (Kwan, 2020), then they can also play a role to build the customer value co‐creation behaviour. Employees are responsible to interact with the customers directly and, in the banking sector, customers demand more quality‐oriented interaction (Khan et al, 2015).…”

Special Employment Centres, Time Factor and Sustainable Human Resources Management in Spanish Hotel Industry: Can Corporate Social Marketing Improve the Labour Situation of People with Disabilities?

“…Looking further into the content analysis of the portfolio articles, several issues can be highlighted (Table 7). Firstly, regarding their specific thematic, some of the papers seem to be focused on workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices in the hotel industry (such as [18,19,30,74,75,77,79,81,82] or [84]), taking into account the influence of discrimination and psychological aspects ( [19,30,75,77,78,83] or [86]), others are focused on the customers' perceptions of these workers [80,83,85] or in the managers' perceptions of them [73,76,78,86].…”

“…Regarding the developed methodology, most of the papers carried out a case study methodology ([18,30,75,77,81] or [84]), usually with interviews (to: (a) managers such as [30,73,76]; (b) HR managers: [77]; (c) managers and workers: [75,81,84]; or (d) different people in the organization and outside the company: [18,74,78]). Other articles developed focus groups [75,81,84], non-participant observations [77,84], quantitative surveys (such as [76,79,80,82] or [86]), experiments [80,83,85] or inductive thematic analysis [19].…”

“…On the other hand, focusing on the relationship of these articles with our specific topic in a complete manner, some of them are somehow related to SEC or protected employment [18,30], Corporate Social Marketing and/or Corporate Social Responsibility [30,74,75,78], and time factor ([86], in which flexible work schedules for PWD are highlighted). Thus, although Corporate Social Marketing is not explicitly mentioned, as it is one possible CSR action, according to the objective of this research, the possibility to extend this CSR potentiality to Corporate Social Marketing interventions about this issue has been considered.…”

“…The objective is to study how socially responsible HR actions can help PWD employment, suggesting the importance of providing workplace accommodations, business-oriented settings, caring attitude, and job demands. Highlighting, thus, the potential of CSR practices in PWD employment [74]. This way, although Corporate Social Marketing is not mentioned, as it is one possible CSR action, according to our research objective we could think of extending this CSR potentiality to Corporate Social Marketing interventions about this issue.…”