Resolving Work-Family Issues of Parents Raising Children with Disabilities: A Human Resource Training Intervention

In the U.S., approximately 9% of employees care for children or youth with disabilities (CCAHP, 2004). These parents face numerous demands (health/mental health care, special education arrangements, inclusive child care, and health-related crises) that often conflict with work responsibilities. Parents seek informal workplace supports from supervisors or co-workers, but approach human resource (HR) professionals for formal supports or extended flexible work arrangements (Rosenzweig et al., in press). This paper describes a training intervention study aimed at improving HR workplace support practices at an international corporation with 40,000 employees. The training evaluation focused on two major questions: (1) Does training increase HR knowledge about disability care and supportive HR practices? (2) Does training bolster HR self-efficacy to carry out supportive HR practices? Methods. HR professionals received online invitations to participate in the two-session training delivered through an online interactive training platform and conducted using a research-based training manual. Prior to the first session, participants completed an online survey including study variables and demographic questions, then repeated the survey after the second session. The study compared participants who had participated in prior corporate disability awareness trainings and those who had not, and participants with different levels of HR experience, and included non-equivalent dependent variables (NEDV; see Trochim, 2006) assessing belief in the business case for flexibility (Brennan et al., 2007) and workplace culture (Bond et al., 2003). Participants rated their confidence they could carry out 13 inclusion best practices [HR self-efficacy; Bandura, 2006] and answered 16 questions on training content [HR knowledge]. Both “control” variables [business case and workplace culture] were deemed as likely to be affected by internal validity threats as the target variables [self-efficacy and knowledge]. Results. Of 90 HR staff based in the U.S., 64 completed both intervention sessions. Participants were overwhelmingly female (80%) and the majority identified as White (75%); 11% were Black/African American, 8% Hispanic/Latino, and 6% Asian/Pacific Islander. Sixty percent had less than 10 years of HR experience (M = 10.53, SD = 6.35), and 69% had prior disability awareness training. Post-test scores were significantly higher than pretest scores for both self-efficacy, t (63) = 5.89, p < .001, and knowledge scales, t (63) = 8.81, p < .001, while business case and workplace culture NEDV did not change. Multivariate regression analyses examined whether no prior disability training and less HR experience were associated with greater gains in self-efficacy and knowledge scores. Only the regression predicting knowledge reached statistical significance, F (2, 56) = 4.80, p < .05, explaining 15% of the variance. Conclusions and Implications. Training about supporting employees raising children with disabilities can prepare HR professionals for more productive dialogs about sensitive family issues, and help them to feel confident that they can carry out best practices. Although a randomized control trial of the intervention was not possible due to organizational constraints, the findings suggest potential benefits of such training opportunities. Finally, the study highlights the valuable collaboration of social workers and major corporations in efforts to increase the workplace inclusion of exceptional caregivers.