Marketing Discussion Groups

Marketing Discussion Groups Conducted for CHIIP & The Work Incentive Workgroup by: Insights Worldwide Research

Presentation Outline • Objectives • Methods • Findings • Current Employment Process • Employment Resources • Perceptions of Messaging Statements • Perceptions of Video Segments • Insights to Action

Objectives • Identify triggers that motivate a person with disability to seek employment • Identify any perceived barriers to finding and maintaining employment • Determine resources used, how they are located and perceptions of each • Determine perceptions of messages and video segments • Determine meaningful and influential messages and stories

Methods • Group discussions to explore and understand • Conducted in Sacramento November 3 • Two groups among people with disabilities • Employed or actively seeking employment • Neither they nor a family member are employed by, or consult for, any organization that serves individuals with disabilities • Included people with hearing loss, visual impairments, congenital disabilities, mental health disabilities and severe back pain

Methods • Audio and video recorded • Observed by • CHIIP • Department of Rehabilitation • Members of The Work Incentive Workgroup • California State Personnel Board • Ponder Ideaworks • Tapes transcribed for further analysis

Findings Current Employment Process

Employment Triggers • Physical needs • Self • Family • Choices • Freedom “I need money to do anything in the world, like go places and eat.” “You can’t do anything when you are drawing SSI. It is very limiting.”

Employment Triggers • Emotional needs • Self-esteem • Interacting with others • Sense of accomplishment • A productive life • Employment removes • Boredom • Depression • Less desirable family history “A matter of self-esteem. I wanted to do something with my life.” “You need a job and you need to be doing something productive so you feel like you are somebody.” “I had a Dad that was on disability and it was embarrassing. That was a big motivator for me to get a job.”

Employment Process • Success requires determination and personal confidence • Determine skill sets • Learn to market self • Participants coach others in group • May indicate support structure needed “You were talking about selling yourself and that is what it is all about. It’s about confidence and selling yourself but you have to feel that to be able to do that.”

Employment Process • Barriers to a successful employment process • Fear • How to describe any limitations • What others may think • Depression • Life experiences • Medication “I have not been in any kind of programs to know that there are people out there to really help you get a job when you are disabled. So my fear has been trying to find a job. What do I do? Go in there and say, ‘Oh I’m disabled. I can’t lift your box of tissue paper?’” “Depression is huge when you have a disability because you are in pain a lot of the time or you are taking medicine that has side effects.”

Employment Process • Discussion reveals • Participants willing to share feelings, experiences • Depression • Fears • Willing to support one another • Sense of camaraderie • Developed quickly

Employment Process • Additional barriers • Current job market • Employer • What to say • What to ask • What to reveal “I tell them I have a disability. I tell them I have a back injury and I need certain breaks during the day. ‘I don’t think we have any employers that can handle that.’ That is their first answer.” “Employers are not even allowed to ask their questions because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I almost wish they could ask so we could deal with it outright.”

Employment Process • Additional barriers • Resume building • Ask for assistance • Interview skills • Verbal and non-verbal skills • ‘30-second me’ “Seventy percent of blind people are unemployed and I think a part of it is that we do not get the training on the ’30-second me’ and good resumes and what to do in an interview. There is a lot of stuff that people pick up in society just from looking at other people and what they do and how they do it.”

Findings Employment Resources

Employment Resources • Little awareness of any employment resources for people with disabilities • Resources include: • Crossroads Employment Agency • Provide employment tools • Sacramento Professional Network • Also provide employment tools • Not aware of connection with EDD “Crossroads Employment Agency. That is where they took me through the ’30-second me.’ They told me how to find jobs, where to find jobs, how to write resumes, gave me information that I never would have gotten anywhere else.”

Department of Rehabilitation • Praised by participants for • Workshops • Training • Education • Financial guidance • Referrals to other agencies “I have to say, Rehab put me through college. That was a tremendously valuable experience. It was a wonderful thing that they did for me.” “Basically it gave me a lot of self-confidence to run my own business. Rehab did a great thing getting me started in running my own business.” “If I hadn’t gone to the Louisiana Center for the Blind, which Rehab did for me – I wouldn’t have been in that computer classroom.”

Department of Rehabilitation • Expectations different than delivery • Expect personalized services • Delivered standardized model “I love how they expect you to figure out what you want to be when you grow up in 90 days or less.” “The Department of Rehab – you tell them what it is you can do and what you were doing. They go through a list. It is like either it is there or it is not there, because they have it set up where this group goes here and that group goes there. I was somewhere in-between those groups and didn’t quite fit in, so they were trying to put me into one of those groups.”

Department of Rehabilitation • Expect competence • Delivered uninformed personnel • Expect an ideal job • Delivered job referrals “It is like if you have a hidden disability they are very lacking in what to do.” “They put me at the Franchise Tax Board in files, and I am legally blind so I was set up for failure. I will never forget how incompetent some of their so-called experts were. The whole process – I lost faith in the whole system.” “They give the perception that they are working hard doing something for you – that they are creating this wonderful opportunity and you are going to love it. it doesn’t come through. Employers aren’t ready to hire you.”

Desired Support Services • Focused on individual • Counseling, including help with depression • Exercise programs • Stress-relief workshops • Provides tools • Building resume, cover letter • Successful interview tools • Understands specific disability “There has to be something that can help people that have disabilities so they won’t have to go through my situation -- all that depression and pain.” “I need to learn every little hook and crook tool that will help me, down to what sport coat and shirt to wear.”

Findings Perceptions of Messaging Statements

Preferences • Asked to select • Most motivational to look for information • Most motivational to take action

Real People. Real Stories. Real Success. • Most motivating statement • Approach • Suggests a success story they can relate to • Encourages employment • ‘Real’ garners attention; captures imagination • The place to find information “A foundation, a spring board from which to blossom.” “Real people that really have disabilities that want to work.”

Talent Knows No Limits • Also ranks high • Motivates the individual through demonstration • By employer and employee • Encourages • To keep trying • Self-motivating “People can find a way even if they need to do a different way than most.” “Talent, perseverance, you know, both.”

I Work and Live with a Disability • Motivates to encourage the search for employment information • Personal connection • Relatable “I don’t know about everyone else in here, but I am assuming, that is me right there.” “Don’t feel sorry for myself.” “I want to think my abilities cancel out my disability.”

I Can Work • Most motivating attitudinal change • Represents • Determination • Hope • Validation that people with disabilities can work “I've always been a worker. I know I can work. I make people know that I will work.” “Get accomplished what I need.”

Beyond the Label • Multiple interpretations • Creates curiosity • Less likely to resonate • Those with unseen disabilities slightly more likely to connect with this statement “Most people don’t know you are disabled. I mean, in my case, I know most people don’t know why. So that is kind of beyond the label.”

Information I Can Trust • Could be any product or service • Not specific enough “I have no idea – reliable source?”

Findings Perceptions of Video Segments

Perceptions • Asked to • Record reactions • Select video they can relate to the most

Derec • Selected most often • Appreciate humor • Relate to and appreciate • Courage • Situation “It had humor in it and it talked about the qualifications of why they hire people. It is something that I could relate to.” “He wasn’t whining or complaining about his situation or anything.” “He had to take control of the situation himself and make it happen.”

Jeremy • Most appeal among those with developmental disabilities • Least appealing to those with physical disabilities • Most appealing features • Happy, cheerful • Role of employer “I liked that he didn’t bring his disability into the workplace and he is not complaining about his life, so why would anybody else?” I liked that his boss was open-minded to hire a disabled person at his business.”

Kristy • Employer receives most comments • Less likely to resonate with participants “The employer basically said that the person that he picked was the most qualified, that of all the applicants he could have gotten the disabled employee was the most qualified, I thought it was pretty upbeat.”

Rachel • Positive • Provides information • Did not dwell as deeply into personal stories as did the other vignettes “The woman was engaging and it was positive – a little uplifting.”

Video Preferences • When asked to describe preferred situation • Inspirational • Include both positive and negative events • Include both visible and invisible disabilities • Present resources in video “They are not letting their disability get in the way. Someone working with a disability, that is what I would picture. That would probably motivate me to do more.” “I could not relate to any of the stories. What about the people that have invisible disabilities?” “Something that shows the resources to help them go through the process of re-figuring out their skills and re-doing their resume and finding out companies that will work with them. But a life changing event. It is a life changing event for us and recognizing that event is the key to us going to them.”

Insights to Action

Insights to Action • Messaging approach • Real People. Real Stories. Real Success. • Positioning direction • I Work and Live with a Disability • Theme • I Can Work

Thank You

Marketing Discussion Groups