In the world of vocational supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, enhancing community employment is a crucial focus. This means identifying and developing partnerships with local businesses that benefits their bottom lines, while creating meaningful employment opportunities in a variety of community integrated environments beyond simply center-based work.
There are benefits for companies to sending out subcontract work, sure, be it box assembly, envelop inserts, or product packaging fulfillment: companies can free up floor space, make better use of in-house staff, control cost with piece-rate pricing, and add a layer of quality control. While the positives of sending such work out are readily recognizable, the value of insourcing such work on-site, the correct way, can be even greater.
One of the primary challenges for companies to keep such work in-house is the reality of spacing. There’s only so much square-footage for machinery—be it plastic molders or printing presses—production, product packaging, office space, storage and warehousing. Imagine turning away work customers were begging to give you because there was simply no more space. We’ve seen it; and we’ve been the solution.
As a partnering service provider, The Arc of Opportunity has eased pressures of logistics, taking in product for storage—and with a twelve-pallet truck, state-of-the-art loading dock, freight elevator, and thousands of square-footage for warehousing, we’re well positioned to do so. As a result, a partner company has been able to dedicate more building space to production, able to keep more machines running, more product moving in and out the loading-dock doors, and therefore able to take on more work. Simply sending out product for fulfillment off-site from their facility alone wouldn’t have offered a solution.
To handle the increase in fulfillment demand from that increase in work, a team of dedicated workers from The Arc of Opportunity’s Vocational program are available to work on-site at our partner company’s location. Our additional support staff on-site means that company can redirect the efforts of its on-site staff where needed most to maximize efficiency with increased production, without the added costs of recruitment, training, insurances and threats of turnover. Piece-rate wages allows the company to control costs, while assuring that all workers are paid fairly in DOL compliance with prevailing wage piece-rates.
While we’re able and do assist our partner companies with fulfillment at our facility as needed, we’ve found that a balanced approach can prove better for all involved. These local partner companies are not simply outsourcing work for the sake of fulfillment solution; they are expanding their operations with more square-footage and warehousing capabilities, bringing together a bigger and more dynamic workforce, enhancing quality control, and contributing in significant ways to the enhancement of the lives of people with disabilities.
When individuals supported by The Arc of Opportunity go to work at a partner company location, they are more than simply subcontract laborers—much more. Our vocational supports provide services that are good for partnering businesses, of course, but as part of that benefit, the individuals become valued parts of partnering teams. They make friends and lasting connections. These teams of talented individuals take pride in the work and collective mission as valued members of our community. Businesses are better because of this. And on individual levels and in the big picture, our community is better as a result, as well.