Nashua Family Business Awarded For Disability Hires

CONCORD, NH – A Gate City company received an employment award on Oct. 10, 2018, for hiring and integrating its employee activities to work with individuals with disabilities. Worthen Industries, a family-owned company in Nashua since 1866, was honored at the ceremony for phasing in employees into various departments of its business. The process started after the owner of the company met with the PLUS Company (People Learning Useful Skills) and was inspired to assist with placements.

“Worthen offered an exceptional learning environment for these individuals, pairing each client up with a natural support at the company, and proactively offering to make universal design changes and reasonable accommodations,” it was noted at the event. “This gave PLUS the ability to manage performance and give as much time as needed for clients to learn tasks.”

Grace Zarka, a payroll department employee at the company who accepted the award, explained how other employees assisted and supported her and helped her become a success at her job.

Worthen Industries is one of about 500 employers in the state that has hired more than 610 employees with disabilities in fiscal year 2018.

“It is great to see so many New Hampshire companies filling positions with high quality and highly committed individuals who need and want employment,” said Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education. “This is a success story for NH Vocational Rehabilitation that they don’t share widely enough.”

Read more about the Employment Leadership Award winners for 2018 in this .pdf online.