Don't Alienate Your Natural Supports

The right workplace supports can do wonders to help you avoid an alienating experience for your job seeker. Employment program leaders, service professionals, and service innovators (that's you!) wanting to improve outcomes for employees with disabilities often rely on natural supports. 

What are natural supports and what can they do? How do we identify them in a workplace? And what can we do to encourage their use? 

The Institute for Community Inclusion defines natural supports as those that:

• already exist within a workplace or community system;
• are consistent with the workplace culture;
• are typically available and/or perceived as usual; and
• occur typically in the workplace, or can be facilitated by a job coach.

In short, natural supports are all about taking advantage of what is already there! In order to develop and encourage natural supports, however, you'll need to plan ahead, make use of some key strategies, and know what to avoid. 

Beware of Becoming an Intruder from Planet Z

Keep in mind, some employment support practices can sabotage naturally available supports, either by keeping others out ("exclusionary" practices) or, by pushing ourselves into situations ("intrusive" practices) where we become unwanted. 

Unfortunately, exclusionary practices occur routinely and include:

• failing to consider a company’s typical hiring/onboarding/orientation and training routines;
• presenting ourselves as the “expert” in all things related to the job seeker;
• failing to include co-workers throughout the employment process;
• ignoring or overlooking workplace social routines, such as shared break and lunchtimes with others; and
• creating tasks or schedules that are markedly different from other employees'. 

Adding to a failed recipe for successful natural supports development, employment specialists often have an intrusive presence. Defined as causing disruption or annoyance, intrusive actions include:

• dismissing typical ways and means used by the employer,
• taking complete control of all training at all times,
• remaining physically close to an employee at all times,
• providing verbal and physical prompts when they’re not really required, 
• providing workplace supports only when a provider needs to generate revenue,
• not using systematic instruction and data-driven teaching strategies, and
• failing to fade employment specialist supports in the workplace.

Use the Force for Good

The good news is this is changing – hooray for the heroes! (Scully and Mulder, Han and Chewie, the Avengers--there are lots of team players in good sci-fi.) We’re hearing and reading about stories from across Indiana and around the globe that provide excellent examples of enduring, natural supports. You have the power to nurture and create these same lasting and naturally occurring supports in the workplace for the employees you support. Here's how you can practice the development of natural supports:

• Act as a single member of a larger teaching and support team led by the employer.
• Let employers and co-workers know that you're a consulting mentor and “friendly guide,” an ally. (For instance, you could suggest the development of a peer-to-peer mentoring opportunity in the workplace.)
• Adopt an unobtrusive presence and approach.
• Encourage co-worker involvement.
• Provide enough, but not too much support.
• Use data-driven instruction, and be sure to fade your supports.
• Develop collaborative off-site supports.

X-Files: Resources You Can Use

• Check out this short video, from an Indiana employment specialist, about the importance of using natural supports in the workplace:

Our thanks to Barbara Goffinet, with Southern Indiana Resource Solutions, for allowing us to share her words of wisdom this month.

• Natural Work Place Supports Quality Checklist  This handy, still relevant checklist was first published by Syracuse University in 1993 as an appendix to Developing Natural Supports in the Work Place: A Manual for Practitioners (Murphy et al., 1992). Scroll to Appendix A.

For more tips and strategies on developing natural supports as well as insights on how intrusive and exclusive behaviors impact workplace supports, enroll in Advanced Supported Employment training this summer! Watch your email for more information, or see the Employment Specialist Trainings page on the Center on Community Living and Careers website.