Are You Successfully Supporting Your Developmentally Disabled Workers?
Managing this group must be done carefully—to protect them and reinforce safety messages.
Pre-pandemic, thousands of people with developmental delays were successfully working in retail. During a crisis, this population may have had more difficulty adjusting than mainstream workers, even if they successfully live in the community. There’s a fine line between infantilizing or overwhelming while ensuring safety and maintaining the individual’s self-esteem and confidence. As we move to the next new normal, how can we use the learnings from the challenges during COVID to improve those workers with developmental delays safety and confidence and to protect the public?
Here is a case from my own life that offers lessons for managing this population during a crisis (names have been changed):
Fear overtook me in March of 2020. I immediately thought of my brother, Tony, who has developmental disabilities. At 58, he is still youthful and playful. He has limited reading and writing abilities, but Tony is built like an ox with sturdy legs and strong arms. He works at a major home improvement warehouse, assisting customers with their packages.
While his service mentality and physical strength make him a natural front-line worker, does he understand the dangers of a worldwide pandemic?
In the early days of Covid-19, Tony went to work as if nothing had changed. He did not seem concerned about contracting the virus and his manager did not stress the importance of hygiene, gloves, or masks until early April.
I was outraged. Tony has worked his job for twenty years. He is proud of his tenure and is a model employee. And this is how he is treated?
Tony lives in the community with a roommate, David, who has been Tony’s friend since kindergarten. They receive support from an agency, including assistance with grocery shopping, cleaning, and personal hygiene.
The agency’s nurse sat down with Tony and David and explained that they needed to wash their hands and social distance as much as possible. The agency gave them one mask each, and our 85-year-old Aunt Ruth sent some homemade cloth masks.
In mid-March, Ruth called me in a panic. When she’d spoken with David the previous night, he’d told her Tony had not arrived home from work until late; he was visiting people. Just two weeks after the nurse explained virus precautions, Tony had not altered his habits.
That night I called Tony to share my concern. He was defensive and said, “I was just visiting an old friend, and I didn’t go into their house. I had to get some bananas at the store. I waved at Joe, who works there, and left.”
He just didn’t get it! How could I help him get motivated to take care of himself? The carrot or the stick? I reflected on our past for guidance on how to move forward. Tony has had trouble with change. His first reaction to any criticism tends to be negative and defensive.
This is normal. Carol Dweck, a world-renowned psychologist and author of Mindset, says parents who don’t provide constructive feedback limit their children’s potential to grow. This is what I see with Tony—someone with potential whose upbringing and mental limitations hold him back.
So I accepted the challenge of supporting Tony’s growth and declared 2020 the year of good hygiene!
Tony needs a supportive, loving, and consistent environment. I started by asking EVERYONE who interacts with Tony to support this hygiene strategy. I asked both Michelle and Becky, his two caretakers, to offer constructive feedback professionally and supportively. Instead of ignoring problems, they can gently—but firmly—reinforce the need to change unacceptable habits.
I feel strongly that over-protecting people with developmental disabilities keeps them infantilized for the rest of their lives. As someone who coaches businesspeople to be more effective leaders and managers, I know through real-world experience that the over-protective approach does not help anyone perform at their best—just the opposite!
Research shows that people correct problems when they understand the impact and agree that it is a problem. The best managers communicate problems in ways the supervisee can hear, understand, and agree with it. And those managers support them to learn new ways that work.
Just like an executive can advance his or her impact by undergoing leadership training, the aides must be trained to impact change, to see these adults not as disabled, but as people who want to grow. They require more conversations, examples, and reinforcement to recognize a problem and agree to address it.
Tony’s aide Becky’s first response was, “How do I talk about hygiene in a respectful way?” I proposed telling Tony and David, “When you’ve worked all day, you have body odor. It’s not pleasant for me or others around you. It makes us not want to be around you. Is that what you want?”
Becky agreed to try this.
One week later, Becky reported that they were showering more regularly. She promised to continue gently reminding them that they need to keep clean constantly and consistently wash their sheets, towels, and clothes.
After a few months had passed, my aunt and I decided to try an incentive: a “carrot.” We offered Tony and David a challenge: if Tony and David shower and change their clothes right after work every day for a week and follow COVID safety guidelines, we would send a big tin of their favorite chocolate chip cookies.
By July, Tony was enjoying the cookies as he had been coming home from work, taking off his clothes and showering – if not immediately, soon thereafter. The consistent feedback, support, and reinforcements work!
Tony’s case represents a systemic problem.
People with developmental disabilities are a crucial sector among front-line workers. Do they get training and ongoing support, especially with COVID-19 safety and sanitation protocols?
Do the companies that employ many people with cognitive disabilities (such as Walmart, Giant Foods, and Home Depot) have strategies to manage this cohort successfully?
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HR MANAGERS WHO EMPLOY FRONT-LINE WORKERS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
I have trained thousands of executives how to give and receive feedback. The basic feedback tools work with people with developmental disabilities. However, they typically require minor adjustments, along with debunking myths and misunderstandings about workers with limited mental capacities.
Consider implementing these adaptations to your existing feedback training:
Adults with developmental or cognitive disabilities are adults. Like all employees, they need constructive feedback. Don’t treat them like a child you need to protect. These companies and agencies that support people with disabilities at work need to train managers to deliver regular constructive and positive feedback. The delivery tends to require more patience, questions, examples, kindness, and a slower pace. The manager must ensure that they understand and agree that their behavior is a problem and are willing to brainstorm with the manager about how to resolve the issue.
It’s not “one and done” with this cohort. Plan to reinforce the message multiple times and consider compliance rewards. Friendly reminders and check-ins work best. Balance the positives and negatives. Most people need three positives for every negative. Too much constructive feedback feels like criticism, while the absence of constructive feedback limits them.
My brother was responsive to compliance rewards. He started the new behaviors and earned the cookies as an incentive to keep going, rather than a reward at the end.Set small, achievable goals. It is unrealistic to expect those with limited mental capacity to change and adopt new habits overnight. Start with small goals and provide immediate positive reinforcement.
Work with the system. Engage with all stakeholders—family, friends, agencies, managers, co-workers—to make sure they are safe.
Adults with disabilities are excellent workers who tend to be very loyal. Tony has worked for over twenty years at a major home improvement warehouse. Large employers need workers with disabilities for jobs that most people don’t want.
People with developmental disabilities bring a youthful innocence and will go the extra mile. In return, companies that employ them need to train their managers on managing these workers and providing them with the support they need to be SAFE and successful.