Every week, well-known employment lawyers post articles about current litigation where organizations discriminated against people with disabilities and thus they left the company under the concept known as “constructive discharge.” Constructive discharge, as defined by the EEOC, is “when a worker’s resignation or retirement may be found not to be voluntary because the employer has created a hostile or intolerable work environment or has applied other forms of pressure or coercion which forced the employee to quit or resign.”
The cost of turnover in Silicon Valley for entry-level software engineers is estimated at over $58,000 per employee. However, this cost never shows up on a line item on the organization’s profit/loss statements. What goes into this $58,000? Recruiting, training, ramping up, administrative costs, loss of institutional knowledge, lower morale and productivity for remaining employees, and brand damage.
The most likely causes for constructive discharge of employees with disabilities include:
1) Lack of Accessibility: do you hire non-disabled people and then not give them the environment they need to be successful? Most people would say no, but it is extremely common to hire someone with a disability, and then not provide accessible tools and environments.
2) Difficult accommodations process. Do you ask for an employee’s entire health history to get an accommodation. That’s illegal by the way, but doesn’t stop companies from doing it all the time. Do you require $700 worth of medical visits to get the documentation necessary to provide an accommodation? That’s not illegal, but frequently dissuades people with disabilities from applying from accommodations in the first place.
3) Workplace discrimination / harassment: Most of the disability litigation described above describes at least one instance of workplace discrimination, harassment, or ongoing bullying. A collection of these items can be seen to be a toxic environment, leading to constructive discharge.
4) Limited career advancement opportunities: Do you provide “fast tracks” or special training to employees to give them the skills to be promoted, but don’t make sure that these opportunities are accessible? Do you fault employees in their reviews for taking time off for medical care? Both of those are discrimination.
5) Inflexible work arrangements. Did your organization pivot on a dime to provide work from home opportunities during COVID, but are now requiring people to come back into the office? That approach disproportionately impacts employees with disabilities.
To assess high turnover rates, organizations need to provide psychologically safe exit interviews, preferably done by third parties, to identify the areas that need to be addressed to reduce the hidden turnover costs.
Alt: turnover is the largest organizational that is not tracked in any cost centre.
This hidden cost can frequently be prevented. But first, you have to be aware of this cost and monitoring it.