Exploring Employment and Retention Strategies for People with Disabilities
W. Roy Grizzard, Ed. D.
Assistant Secretary
U. S. Department of Labor
EU-US Information Exchange 2006
Washington, DC
February 7, 2006
WELCOMING REMARKS
I would like to welcome you today to the Department of Labor and to the EU/US Information Exchange: Exploring Employment and Retention strategies for People with Disabilities. This Information Exchange reflects the continuing spirit of cooperation and the ongoing need to jointly explore and discuss our efforts, our successes, our challenges, and the plans to have workplace doors open to workers with disabilities.
I would especially like to welcome our European colleagues —representatives of the European Commission, employers and social partners. I am delighted you are all here to exchange ideas, share experiences and learn from one another. I look forward to learning from you and trust the next day and a half will be very exciting.
ODEP is hosting this EU-US Information Exchange under the aegis of the Trans-Atlantic agreement between DOL and the European Union. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of this agreement between the two agencies and represents 10 years of collaboration and cooperation on employment and labor-related issues.
Today's gathering is a follow-up to the first meeting on disability employment held in Brussels in 2003. In the last thirty years, the United States has implemented policies designed to promote independence and work opportunities for its citizens with disabilities.
Five years ago this month, President George W. Bush launched the New Freedom Initiative to increase access to assistive technologies, expand educational opportunities, and increase the ability of Americans with disabilities to be full participants in our workforce.
ODEP was created as a response to the need for a new approach to increasing the recruiting, hiring, retention, and promotion of persons with disabilities. Our mission is to provide national leadership by developing and influencing disability-related employment policy and practices affecting the employment of people with disabilities.
Our success requires the involvement, cooperation and collaboration of both the public and private sectors. You are familiar with the supply and demand sides of the economic equation. ODEP's efforts are focused on both. However, this Information Exchange is dedicated to the demand side, empowering employers to rethink strategies for employee recruitment, development and transition.
This includes innovative ways to accommodate the needs of the changing workforce and workplace through accessibility, flexibility, and technology and enhancing the supports needed to keep workers on the job and return them to work quickly following an injury or illness.
ODEP has put a significant emphasis on finding out exactly what employers need and expect in their workforce and we look forward to hearing from the employers represented here today. You have an ambitious and focused agenda before you.
I know that you have come prepared to share with your colleagues your knowledge and experience about making the Business Case for recruiting, hiring, and retaining people with disabilities; successful retention techniques; the role of employment supports to increase employability; and entrepreneurship strategies.
Given your valuable knowledge, experience and accomplishments in these areas, your active participation in this Information Exchange will contribute to its success.
The organizers of this assembly have gathered panelists and speakers whose experience, knowledge, and ability to articulate the issues are well-recognized.
When you leave tomorrow afternoon, you will take with you the most up to date and pertinent, demand side disability employment information. I believe that with the contacts you renew or make here, your expertise, your passion, and your hard work, you are bound to be successful.
Finally, I would like to commend the leadership of my colleagues in the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), and those in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), for their part in overseeing the collaborative planning process with the EU, through its Working Group on Employment and Labor Related Issues. I thank you all for coming and wish you all a successful and engaging conference.
