Customized Employment (CE) is a flexible, person-centered strategy that supports all job seekers with disabilities and is especially effective for individuals who have not succeeded through traditional job development. CE involves building relationships with employers to align a person’s skills, strengths and contributions with unmet business needs often creating opportunities beyond public job postings. Grounded in a “no-fail” philosophy, CE supports individuals with significant disabilities in securing competitive, integrated employment at fair wages, based on the belief that everyone can work.
In 2014, CE was included in Title IV of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) as a strategy under the definition of supported employment.
CE is defined in the final WIOA regs, Federal Register, 361.5 (c) (11), as:
Competitive integrated employment, for an individual with a significant disability, that is:
- Based on an individualized determination of the unique strengths, needs, and interests of the individual with a significant disability;
- Designed to meet the specific abilities of /the individual with a significant disability and the business needs of the employer; and
- Carried out through flexible strategies, such as -
- Job exploration by the individual; and
- Working with an employer to facilitate placement, including -
- Customizing a job description based on current employer needs or on previously unidentified and unmet employer needs;
- Developing a set of job duties, a work schedule and job arrangement, and specifics of supervision (including performance evaluation and review), and determining a job location;
- Using a professional representative chosen by the individual, or if elected, self-representation, to work with an employer to facilitate placement; and
- Providing services and supports at the job location.
The "Discussion Section" elaborates on CE as follows (WIOA, Federal Register):
Customized employment is an alternative that enables individuals with disabilities and employers the opportunity to negotiate job tasks and/or reassign basic job duties to improve overall production in the workplace. For employers, customized employment allows an employer to examine its specific workforce needs and fulfill those needs with a well-matched employee. Customized employment services are included in the list of allowable vocational rehabilitation services in final §361.48(b). DSUs may expend their resources, including program funds, on supporting individuals in customized employment when appropriate…and must lead to competitive integrated employment.
Note: Although CE is listed as part of Supported Employment under WIOA, CE is delineated as a separate set of tools and strategies to achieve competitive integrated employment.
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