Smart Farms makes it a priority to hire and give life skills to people with various developmental disabilities. The company’s website and outlines its motivation for focusing on the disability category. According to their website, 61 million United States adults living with some disability are 300% less likely to be hired when compared to those without disability (Smile Farms). Therefore, the company seeks to reduce this wide gap in employment opportunities through agricultural activities.
Primarily, people living with disabilities are trained and hired by Smart Farms to work on horticultural farms. Therefore, they obtain meaningful employment while generating returns for the company. Although Smart Farms is a non-profit organization and benefits from donations, the workers play their role in income generation by working on the farms and sales. Their model includes revenue-generating campuses with the main focus on farming in greenhouses, farms, urban gardens, and farm stands (Smile Farms). Through these activities, they raise resources to pay wages for the disabled and even have extra to donate to other non-profits within their communities. In addition, their fresh produce is used in the kitchens of their partners across the country.
Since Smile Farms is a non-profit organization working to offer employment to people living with a disability, its entire business model revolves around this idea. Therefore, other companies in retail, manufacturing, telecommunication, and other such sectors cannot use the model directly. However, they can utilize the idea to build a suitable hiring practice that involves specialized training for newly recruited disabled employees. Smart Farms ensures proper training of their workers before they embark on their work, a strategy that would support many employers to hire those with disability.
There are several reasons why organizations are hesitant to hire people with disabilities. Most employers fear the costs associated with hiring and onboarding disabled workers, productivity loss, extra supervision, and damaged goods (Lindsay 150). Companies also dread being stuck with substandard employees if they cannot learn and become productive as expected. The laws protecting disabled people from discrimination might hinder the business from firing them, forcing the employer to continue paying wages for lower service levels.
Works Cited
Lindsay, Sally, et al. “Employers’ Perspectives of Including Young People with Disabilities in the Workforce, Disability Disclosure and Providing Accommodations.” Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, vol. 50, no. 2, 2019, pp. 141-156.
Smile Farms. Web.