Add the jobs you hire for and every tool in this
journey computes on them: your wages, your competition, your talent shed.
Find and recruit
The Table: interview coaching for the hiring chair
Prepare to interview people returning from incarceration, in recovery, leaving the military or living with a disability: what you may and may not ask, the mistake most employers make, practice from both chairs, and a structured interview you can print.
Built from The legal rails for each group as of October 2026 (ADA, EEOC arrest and conviction guidance, Indiana Code 35-38-9-10 on expunged records), structured-interview evidence (Sackett et al., 2022; Kuncel et al., 2013) and if-then commitments (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006)
Five population briefs, seven hiring-chair modules, every scenario the candidates practice, and a four-step interview builder that prints a scored guide. Everything you build stays on your device; nothing is sent to Invest Hamilton County.
A new hire just asked for something. This is a process with a name, and it is easier than you fear.
Your new hire writes: 'To do my best work I would like to request written summaries of verbal assignments and a flexible start time within a one-hour window.' What the law expects now is called the interactive process, which is a formal name for a cooperative conversation: understand the need, explore options, land on something reasonable. Most accommodations cost little or nothing.
Your reply: “How do you respond to the request?”
Strong move
Prompt, cooperative, focused on the work. That is the interactive process done well, and notice what you did not ask for: a diagnosis. Accommodations run on function, not medical detail. Where documentation is genuinely needed, HR requests it narrowly and confidentially, and it never routes through the team. Two accommodations like these cost approximately nothing and are the difference between a hire who performs and one who struggles quietly.
Depends on the room
Documentation has a lawful place when disability or need is not obvious, but as an opening move for two low-cost requests it converts cooperation into gatekeeping and teaches your newest employee that asking costs. Proportion is the principle: trivial accommodations, trivial process. Save the documentation machinery for requests where it genuinely matters, and route it through HR, never the supervisor.
Costs you something
That sentence undoes the yes. An accommodation is not special treatment, it is the adjustment that makes equal performance possible, the same category as a monitor stand or a left-handed setup. Say the plain yes. The pattern you actually want to encourage is people telling you what they need to do great work.
Now you, out loud
Draft your default first reply to any accommodation request, so your real one is written by calm you instead of surprised you.
One way it can sound
“Thank you for telling us what you need to do your best work. I want to get this right, so let me connect with HR on the details and come back to you by Friday. Is there anything about your first week specifically we should set up now?”
Keep these
The interactive process is a cooperative conversation with a legal name, not a legal trap.
Function, never diagnosis. Narrow documentation, through HR, only when genuinely needed.
The employees who ask for what they need are showing you how they succeed. That is a gift, not a burden.
The Table, part of Alex for Workforce and Alex for Business · alexhamiltoncounty.com · Free practice, both chairs · In crisis, call or text 988
The Table gives general information and coaching
support. It is not legal advice and creates no attorney-client relationship.
It never screens, assesses or treats anything. For your own situation,
including expungement, licensing or what you must disclose in a regulated
field, talk to a licensed attorney. Free and low-cost help:
Indiana Legal Services,
the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic,
and your local public defender's reentry program. In danger now: 988, 911,
or the Indiana Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. Facts current as of
October 2026.
Programs that fit this work
Add roles to your set and these rank to your own hiring.
Eligibility is set by each program, not by us.
Free job matching, career services, and labor market resources for job seekers through WorkOne centers. Helps employers find workers and job seekers find jobs.
Who qualifies:
Universal access, ALL job seekers and employers, no requirements. Free.
WorkOne reimburses employers up to 50% of a new employee's wage during a contracted training period. Minimum wage: $13.50/hr for adults, $11/hr for youth. WorkOne pre-screens and refers qualified candidates.
Who qualifies:
Participant must be WIOA Adult/Dislocated Worker eligible. Employer: public, nonprofit, or private sector. Must not show pattern of failing to retain OJT worker…
Places youth ages 16-24 in employer worksites at ZERO cost to the employer. WorkOne pays all wages and workers' compensation. Youth attend weekly career workshops. Hamilton County contact: Dorothee Cooke.
Who qualifies:
Youth meeting WIOA Youth eligibility. In-School: 14-21. Out-of-School: 16-24. Must be low-income (ISY) or face barriers (OSY).
Federal tax credit for hiring people from certain groups, such as veterans, SNAP recipients and people with a conviction. It applies only to people who began work on or before December 31, 2025. Congress has not renewed it for later hires as of September 2026.
Who qualifies:
Employer hires from targeted groups. Ten target groups under 26 USC 51(d) (veterans are split into five sub-groups with different wage caps), including: TANF re…
Free fidelity bonds ($5,000-$25,000) for employers hiring individuals with barriers: ex-offenders, individuals in recovery, poor credit history, or dishonorable discharge. Covers first 6 months of employment.
Who qualifies:
At-risk individuals: ex-offenders, poor credit/bankruptcy, recovering substance abusers, dishonorable discharge, lacking work history, TANF recipients.
Ask about the local labor market in plain language, on top of
your dashboards. Answers carry their sources and point to the tools for the
math. It is an AI coach, your chats are private, and they are never used to
train anything.
The Analyst Coach is a $50/mo add-on · monthly only for
Member or Industry or Premium or Coalition accounts.
Sign in or
see plans.
In crisis? Call or text 988, free, 24/7.
Built by Alex, the Hamilton County Data Hub, from BLS wage records, Census commuting and business patterns, O*NET skill profiles, and licensed Lightcast postings. Wages are set by employers. Ranges, never promises.
