some very special employees

A personal stake
Walgreens' innovative hiring program grew out of a plan devised by Lewis, who oversees all of the company's distribution centers across the country. For him, the quest to create more employment opportunities for people with disabilities is personal. He has a 19-year-old son who is autistic and is keenly aware of the employment challenges facing disabled people.

The plan began to take shape in 2004, when Lewis was investigating technology for the DCs the company would be building in the next five years. "Our typical approach to technology and automation is to make [each generation] of DCs more efficient [than the last]," says Lewis. When he realized the extent to which advanced technology could reduce demands on the workforce, he began brainstorming with colleagues about possible opportunities for people with physical or mental challenges. "We decided to look into what we would need to tweak so we could employ a group of people who might otherwise not be able to work," he says.

When he approached the Walgreens board of directors with the idea, the directors were quick to offer support for the plan. "I said that we're building a new [center] that will be 20 percent more efficient, and by the way, one-third of the employees will be people with disabilities, and they said 'great,'" says Lewis. "The only thing they've said since then is 'thank you.'"

The company now has even more aggressive plans to hire disabled workers. Walgreens intends to adopt a similar workforce strategy at a DC it's building in Windsor, Conn., that will open in 2009. By 2010, the company hopes to employ 1,000 disabled workers at its 15 distribution facilities nationwide.

Though he acknowledges that 1,000 workers is an ambitious goal, Lewis believes it's attainable. "We needed a number that was achievable but tough enough to ring a bell," he says."We looked around at all of our other distribution centers, and decided on 1,000. It's a big number, but three years is far enough out there, but also close enough that it keeps some heat on us." He adds that Walgreens hopes to have 3,000 disabled people on the payroll by 2015.

Equal opportunities
The Anderson DC's workforce includes people with a wide range of disabilities, including autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. "It's the most interesting crowd you've ever seen. We've got every kind of walk you can imagine," Lewis says, with total empathy. "It is our most interesting place, and it's just an overwhelming experience to visit the facility."

Many of the disabled workers at the Anderson DC started out by attending pre-hire training, spending as much as a year and a half at the training center—without pay— learning the skills they'd need to qualify for a job. Though training does not guarantee a job, trainees who do well are eligible for a paid tryout at the DC. During the transitional phase, employees are accompanied by a job coach who assists with on-the-job training. At the end of the 45-day trial period, Walgreens reviews performance—including productivity and accuracy rates—and decides whether or not to offer the worker a job.

Walgreens has taken a number of steps to accommodate its disabled workers. For example, it has installed wheelchair ramps and redesigned work stations to be more ergonomically friendly for people with physical challenges. As part of that process, it replaced traditional computer keyboards with touch-screen monitors with large icons. It also uses pictures where possible to accommodate those with visual and other impairments. Instead of relying on traditional signage to remind workers to have their bags inspected, Walgreens uses a video of someone opening a bag. In addition, the company convinced vendors to include more information in bar codes on merchandise to cut down on the amount of data employees would have to enter.

Lewis reports that adapting the equipment to employees' needs turned out to be a relatively simple matter. "When it really came down to it, the selection of the technology didn't make that much of a difference," he says. "The biggest thing from a technology point of view was that it got us thinking about how people interact with our IT systems."

The jobs at Anderson aren't limited to production jobs on the DC floor. Today, disabled workers can be found throughout the distribution center, working in receiving, de-trash (where cartons are unpacked), full-case picking, split-case picking, and shipping. They also drive forklifts and the scrubbers used to clean floors. It's not unusual for disabled workers to be assigned to train typically-abled employees, as the disability community refers to workers without a handicap.

Disabled employees can be found in the management ranks as well, from managers with missing limbs to people like Angie Campbell, the facility's outreach manager, who has cerebral palsy (see box below). Campbell graduated from her master's degree program with a 4.0 grade average, sent out 300 resumes, and had 40 interviews. Even so, she didn't receive a single job offer until Walgreens finally gave her an opportunity.

Real work for real pay
When he talks about the center's hiring program, Lewis stresses that Walgreens is running a business, not a charity. The company holds employees with disabilities to the same performance standards as all team members, he says, and it offers them the same pay and benefits as other employees for the same work. "We said we want them to perform at the same level, at the same standard, side by side with other workers at the same pay.We said we want the DC to be an integrated work environment," he says, "and that's what this turned out to be."

In fact, Lewis reports that the Anderson DC is about 20 percent more productive than any of the corporation's other facilities. Although some of that can be attributed to the automated equipment that was installed to allow disabled people to perform the jobs, Lewis emphasizes that motivation plays a big part as well. The disabled workers are very concerned about performing at the highest levels possible, he says, noting that they constantly check their performance against the DC's productivity goals.

Like productivity, morale appears to be unusually high at the Anderson DC. "We've had managers intentionally transfer there or join us because of its mission," Lewis reports. "When I walk through the building, the typically-abled come up to me and say 'This is the best place I've ever worked.' Everybody focuses on two words what you can do, not what you cannot do. It's the building with the best attitude, the best spirit, and the most cooperation. I wish every building was like that."

The day when all buildings are like that may never come. But if Walgreens keeps its word, there might be a lot more of them in the not-so-distant future.