Public Employer Services for Working With People With Disabilities. Rethinking the Role of PES Agencies and Professionals

ABSTRACT Employer services provided by Public Employment Services (PES) agencies have received little attention as policy instruments to promote the labour‐market participation of people with disabilities (PWD). This article addresses this gap and explores and analyses the employer services provided by Dutch Employer Services Centres, which are regional network organizations of the main Dutch PES agencies: the benefit agency UWV and local welfare agencies. Based on qualitative group interviews with managers and professionals of 23 of the 35 Centres, we identified three employer services styles: (1) the vacancy‐oriented style, focused on filling vacancies with PWD; (2) the unburdening style, focused on reducing barriers perceived by employers in hiring PWD; (3) the strategic partnership style, focused on engaging employers in a discussion about how organizational and human resources practices of organizations create barriers for the employment of PWD, and how these can be made more inclusive. The three styles reflect various perspectives on what makes employers reluctant to hire PWD: lack of transparency of the labour market in the vacancy‐oriented style, barriers perceived by employers in the unburdening style, and organizations' personnel management in the strategic partnership style. Our study showed that in providing services to employers, the Employer Services Centres combine the three styles. Part of the explanation of this approach is that building strategic partnerships with employers and starting a discussion about their personnel management requires relationships of trust. Investing in their reputation and reliability is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for the development of strategic partnerships with employers.