Abstract
Many countries struggle with non-participation of vulnerable groups. Countries give priority to Active Labour Market Policies (ALMP) to help unemployed and disabled people get back to work, preferably in regular employment. In recent years, some innovative policies have tried to involve employers. There seems to be a paradox between desired social policy outcomes, such as getting people out of social security into regular jobs, and preferred Strategic HRM outcomes, such as being a highly productive, cost-efficient and flexible organisation. The explanation and solution for this social issue- integration of disabled people – can thus not solely be found in the Social Policy literature, as strategic employer behaviour ultimately decides whether ALMP succeed. In this paper, we combine insights from Social Policy and HRM literature and discuss several factors that play a role in the process of (not) offering jobs to disabled people. We present a conceptual strategic inclusive HR model and conclude that different HR perspectives, focusing on economic rationality, wellbeing, social legitimacy, may lead to different hiring strategies. With this study the authors enrich the existing literature on hiring disabled by taking a multidisciplinary perspective and gathering qualitative data on this issue. These insights from HRM research have clear implications for policy interventions, which will be discussed.
