"Small Big Changes" - research into employment of people with paralysis

Selkies have dived right into the New Year with great energy and satisfactory balance of current projects; in terms of business values, design challenge, social engagement, art and academic practice. Our journey is indeed full of diverse experiences, that need proper processing, thus we are giving ourselves time to rework them into publishable content. Baby steps, or perhaps Selkie steps… It feels like spring already!

Today we would like to present one of our ongoing studies - user research conducted for Leżę i Pracuję; first marketing agency employing people with paralysis.

Key words: human potential, system, responsibility, employment, physical disabilities, job market, technological innovation, social media

Background

Since 2017 Leżę i Pracuję (eng. Work from Bed) employs people with grand physical disabilities. They become a part of the Foundation’s team and work as coordinators and members of social media, marketing and PR campaigns for other companies.

It is a great idea for activation of people with disabilities on the job market, and become an example to other employers, however, Foundation’s objectives are much broader.

Addressing a huge systemic issue on unemployment of people with grand physical disabilities, LiP expands its operations to education, research and development of solutions supporting communication between potential employers and employees; analysis of social care system processes in Poland; building social awareness and opening new possibilities for introducing people with disabilities into the market.

Events, promotion, interviews, conferences, projects, travels; all with never ending enthusiasm and care. If you follow their fanpage on Facebook (which we recommend), you’ll instantly notice that it’s… not so easy to follow! There is simply so many interesting things happening and information to digest.

Engaging social media campaigns and all the massive work in progress, coordinated by Leżę i Pracuję members, could itself be treated as an unconventional study, that exposes big questions on business and technology role in extending job market to people with paralysis. (In fact, this is how we met Majka Lipiak, CEO of LiP - we have invited her on our conference WUD Silesia, where she has discussed how business can solve social problems; see video)

Complexity of the issue poses a difficult question on an effective path towards radical change.

Leżę i Pracuje foundation chose to act in a transformative way from the bottom-up. Foundation identifies needs on a smaller scale and verifies strategies through research and design of actual supportive tools and dedicated products. Such experimental way is opening possibilities to generalize findings from local environment and impact broader plans and governmental strategies.

This is where we land. Our Selkie team happily got hooked on those objectives, and very complex systemic issues, exactly in the context of technological innovation.

How do we operate?

We support Leże i Pracuję, in better understanding of various aspects of employment of people with paralysis on the current job market, looking into how individuals within that system cope today, and what could be improved. Our work is strongly focused on the perspective of key stakeholders (employee - advisor from public institution - business). We gather qualitative data to make stronger assumptions on WHY, when there is a lot of data gathered on WHAT is happening on the job market in the context of people with physical disabilities…. and according to national and international researches, the situation is far from being perfect.

Selkie’s current research is a part of Leżę i Pracuję project called Small Big Changes, granted with funds from EU. Main goal of the project is to support and facilitate decision making process among employers, interested in hiring person with paralysis, through specially designed set of digital tools.

It is our second research project together with LiP. First study was related to creation of an web application that matches potential employers (small and medium companies) with employees (people with paralysis) accordingly to predefined individually characteristics. At this point, we work on identifying crucial needs and challenges in the process of enrollment. We look into processes of job search from the very first experiences of motivation towards having a job / supporting person who’s searching /  employing new person, through the recruitment stage, stage of introduction to job position, up till becoming an experienced employee. We dig deeper in to processes of decision-making to define formal and informal criteria taken into account in the process by its main stakeholders.

What do we do?

At this stage, we conduct In-depth-interviews, remotely via phone or popular online communicators. In case of this research, such approach is justified, by specificity of persons involved. People with physical disabilities, that we talk to, often operates from their homes, engaging in work and social communication remotely. Employers, and advisors operates via Internet and mobile devices in most of their job tasks. When we discuss popular models of official recruitment processes nowadays -  most of their touchpoints; both for employees and employers; are interfaces. In this natural context of use, where our stakeholders experience job market dynamics, we can identify their needs and values within familiar mental model of their daily work. We believe that they will be consistent with perceived and experienced processes, allowing to expose important criteria allowing to make well-informed decision:

• Does this job offer matches my needs and limitations? (employee; final project beneficiaries)


• Are we prepared as a company to hire persons with paralysis? (employer)
• What approach would be adequate to facilitate process of job enrolment in this case? (advisor)

Our user research aims in better understanding of 3 key stakeholders.

Employees

Final beneficiaries of the project; people with paralysis in the process of job searching. We focus our research people with experience of working and being in process of enrollment. In understanding of the employment process it is important to base it on real experiences, not on ideas and beliefs (considered as risk, if we question people who never worked before, and live on disablement pension).

Institutional Advisors

Guides in the process; representatives of governmental and non-governmental institutions; Their role is to advise and support people looking for employment and employers. They are obligated to know and explain systemic procedures and norms, while offering and experiencing very individual human interaction in the enrolment process.

Employers

End users of the designed solutions; they are motivated to hire a person with paralysis, or search for information on possibilities, to expand their options (e.g. HR specialists). They search to verify their understanding and double-check their own motivation in correlation with actual, realistic requirements related to such decision.

Research output and inclinations

It is always risky in the middle of the research process to make statements on where it is heading in terms of conclusions… so we will not jump ahead. As it is also a defined project, we are certain what we will produce as final research output. Our analysis will be summed in a digital, and (most probably) publicly accessible report. What we will put a strong emphasis on, apart from valuable insights and inspirational design direction to follow, are recommendations for set of criteria - information and advices that are needed for employer to make a decision on hiring a person with paralysis. Small Big Changes final products are envisioned as a set supportive tools (e.g. interactive checklist), for people seeking information and understanding, how to integrate new employee in his/her work environment specificity. However, it is potentially an interesting canvas for educational purposes and attractive trigger in popularisation of idea among business employers.

The journey continues...

It is truly inspiring to ba a part of engaging research for constructive cause; discussing challenges with people who are already fighting their limitations, developing their potential; people motivated to go the extra mile We see ourselves how technology can empower individuals who are already internally motivated, to enter and function on the job market. Meeting people who take responsibility for their own lives and treat work skills’ development as a way for self-liberation from physical boundaries is an amazing experience for us as researchers… and also people operating on the job market on daily basis. As critical thinkers though, we like at Selkie to go even further and use this opportunity to widen the perspective and open a discussion on the social system levels of responsibility.
We just can not stop ourselves to open a Pandora box of academic discussion ;)