An updated review of the customized employment literature

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is clear federal priority to develop effective strategies to mitigate the continued disparity in employment opportunities and outcomes for people with significant disabilities. At the same time, there are calls for rehabilitation practitioners to understand, utilize, and implement evidence-based practices (EBP) with fidelity to improve rehabilitation outcomes, such as competitive integrated employment. Customized employment (CE) emerged as a promising practice that promotes improved employment outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this manuscript is to describe published literature on CE and to make recommendations on the best methods for establishing CE as an evidence-based practice. METHOD: We included 10 articles classified as “data-based” articles from a review of the literature on CE conducted by Riesen et al. We also conducted an electronic search of articles on CE published between 2015 and 2021. RESULTS: This review indicates that CE research is predominantly descriptive. Based on the results of the review, we categorized CE research into three types: model description and project evaluation, perceptions of CE, and essential structure and competency. The descriptive studies suggest that CE produces quality employment outcomes for people with disabilities. CONCLUSION: While research on CE has expanded, future research on CE should use more robust indicators including (a) quality descriptions of the participants, (b) quality descriptions of settings and conditions, (c) descriptions of the independent variables, (d) descriptions of fidelity to procedures, and (e) quality descriptions of social validity measures. Researchers should also focus on using correlational research to establish customized employment as an evidence-based practice.