Job Carving and Customised Employment

How tailoring jobs to a person's strengths, rather than fitting people to fixed job descriptions, can open employment to people with significant disabilities.

Traditional hiring starts with a job description and looks for a person to fit it. For people with significant disabilities, a fixed job description can be a barrier. Customised employment reverses the process: it starts with the person’s strengths and interests and creates a job that fits both the person and an employer’s needs.

How it works

Customised employment usually involves:

Discovery: getting to know the job seeker’s skills, interests, preferred conditions and support needs, often through observation rather than tests.
Job development: identifying employers with unmet needs that match the person’s strengths.
Negotiation: agreeing a tailored role with the employer.
Support: providing training and ongoing support as needed.

Job carving

One technique is job carving: taking tasks from one or more existing jobs and combining them into a new role. For example, tasks that busy staff struggle to complete can be carved into a new position.

Benefits for employers

Employers gain a worker who reliably completes needed tasks, freeing other staff for higher-value work. This is an application of specialisation: dividing work so each person focuses on what they do best.

A carved role in an office

An office's administrative staff spend hours each week shredding documents, restocking supplies and sorting mail, which distracts them from their main work. A job coach proposes carving these tasks into a new part-time role for a young man with an intellectual disability who enjoys routine, organised tasks. The office runs more smoothly, and he gains paid work.

Evidence

In the United States, customised employment is recognised in federal employment law and used by vocational rehabilitation services. Studies have found it can lead to competitive, integrated employment for people previously considered unemployable. Results depend on skilled staff and employer relationships, and the approach takes more time per person than standard job placement.

Thinking every job must match a fixed description

Many workplaces have tasks that are needed but spread awkwardly across jobs. Creating tailored roles can meet real business needs while opening employment to people who would otherwise be excluded.

Key takeaways

Customised employment designs jobs around a person's strengths and an employer's needs.
It involves discovery, job development, negotiation and support.
Job carving combines tasks from existing jobs into new roles.
It can open competitive employment to people with significant disabilities.