Perspectives on demand side barriers and facilitators to the employment of people with disability: qualitative interviews with hospitality employers

Purpose: This study sought to identify barriers and facilitators to the employment of people with disabilities in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in hospitality.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with hospitality employers (n = 35). Purposive sampling was used to recruit employers with varied experiences of employing people with disability. A conceptual model of five demand-side predictors of disability employment success was used as an analytical lens (employer attitudes, job characteristics, organisation characteristics, workplace concerns, corporate culture).

Results: Data was coded to the five predictors, in addition, "co-workers" attitudes' and "workplace accommodations and adjustments" emerged as additional predictors. All participants raised workplace concerns, with employers with experience adopting a range of strategies to address concerns. Employers with no prior experience were passively rather than actively creating barriers to employment. Smaller organisations were more likely to view employing people with disabilities as high risk. Few organisations reported accessing the services of disability employment providers.

Conclusion: This study extended the model of demand-side predictors in alignment with evidence from the SME hospitality sector adding two additional predictors. Future employment in the sector might be facilitated by more partnerships with disability employment service providers who have the requisite expertise that most SMEs do not have in-house.