Raytheon Helps Carve New Employment Paths for People with Disabilities

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sept. 27, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Raytheon Company recently facilitated a day-long strategic retreat to address the barriers and challenges that people with disabilities have when trying to enter the workforce.

The event, titled "Creating Pathways to Work: Strategic Visioning Retreat," was hosted by Rhodes to Independence, a nonprofit entity operated under the auspices of the University of Rhode Island's College of Pharmacy.

A variety of policy makers, service providers, educators and key individuals with disabilities participated in the retreat, including Rep. Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, the first and only person who is quadriplegic to be elected to Congress. The participants engaged in an intense dialogue about current federal and state social security disability, healthcare and employment policies.

In Rhode Island, research on work incentives programs demonstrated that there are many challenges for people with disabilities to change their income and healthcare source from public assistance (federal and state programs) to full employment.

"It is amazing to see how the powerful combination of committed stakeholders and the Raytheon Six Sigma process produces tangible results in documenting system changes and actions required to truly remove long and short-term barriers for people with disabilities to be competitively employed," said Larry Harrington, Raytheon's vice president of Internal Audit, who participated in the event. "We now have the ability to absolutely change the lives of people with disabilities nationwide by creating a model for employers large and small to tap into this unique pool of talented workers."

A team of Raytheon Six Sigma(TM) experts used the Raytheon Six Sigma process to validate and prioritize issues, determine root causes of barriers and identify and document optimal system changes and implementation actions required to truly remove barriers for people with disabilities to be competitively employed.

Raytheon's unique application of Raytheon Six Sigma uses a knowledge-based process to transform culture, maximize customer value and create business growth. Unlike "traditional" Six Sigma applications, Raytheon's six step process integrates stakeholder analysis, facilitation, high-performance teaming, data-driven tool sets and committed sponsorship to solve problems and foster innovation across many functional business areas. As a direct result of this retreat, the Raytheon Six Sigma experts identified a variety of solutions that can greatly improve the system for employment and support services for people with disabilities.

Some of the solutions identified range from an effort to create leadership driven, cross-service provider knowledge management, which engages top leadership across state agencies in collaboration to the creation of a compelling business case of larger employers to enable small-to-medium sized businesses to tap into the value offered by hiring individuals with disabilities. One solution, coined, "Informed Choice - Youth First," is designed to address culture and the state education system so that young people who have disabilities can fully transition to the workforce.

"In the years since my accident we have made great strides -- employers are learning how to make workplaces more accessible and utilizing assistive technology to open doors for employees with disabilities. But barriers still remain," Langevin said. "I believe that through education these obstacles will begin to erode further until all people are treated equally. I applaud every participant for taking this challenge on."

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is a technology leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 85 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 73,000 people worldwide.

Contact: David Albritton 703.284.4353