ORLANDO, Fla. — In this tight labor market, it can be difficult to find quality applicants and keep employees.

What You Need To Know

  •  Lighthouse Works program employs sighted, visually impaired and blind individuals

  •  Around 500 people employed in call centers across 20 states

  •  Another 13 full-time employees in Lighthouse's fulfillment center

  • Non-profit's attrition rate is less than ten percent, thus many hired stay with Lighthouse

But one local organization, which supports blind and visually impaired workers, is finding success doing just that.

Lighthouse Works said that their attrition rate is less than 10%, meaning that the vast majority of people they hire stay at their jobs.

The non-profit’s Jon Wano explained that the number is even lower, at about 5%, among their blind or visually impaired employees.

“The individuals we have working for us, a lot of them have college degrees, master’s degrees, owned their own businesses before, so our knowledge base is very, very high,” said Wano, who serves as the Director of Client and Partner Development. “We’re changing the trajectory of people’s families on their day-to-day life, so now kids of people who are blind and visually impaired can see their parents going to work every day. Change the value system within the day-to-day life of their family. I really love that part of it.”

Lighthouse Works employs around 500 people across 20 states in their call centers, and another 13 full-time employees in an Orlando fulfillment center.

It’s where Ned Moye said that he found fulfillment of a different kind.

The 59-year-old has been working at the center for more than six years; 16 years ago, Moye found the Lighthouse organization after losing his sight and going through the roughest time of his life.

“Horsing around,” as Moye put it, led to torn retinas and failed surgeries, led to total blindness. 

As he grappled with his changed circumstances, self-medicating and accidents led to the former truck driver losing both legs below the knee.

“I was the breadwinner. My wife had ovarian cancer, and we had my daughter. She couldn’t work. I was working three jobs. My focus wasn’t on me, it was on my family,” he said, tears pooling in his eyes. “My kids were young. It was a rough time. But the Lord spoke to me and said, get up, your life’s not over. That’s when I realized I still had things to do.”

Moye, who now lives in Fern Park in Seminole County, said that the hope he found at the non-profit changed his life once again. 

He finds purpose each day in his work, even as he sits in the same spot — a corner desk — and assembles items, sprinkler heads to theme park wearable technology.

Even now, he remains perpetually positive.

“As I can get up and put these legs on, I’m good. I can make it through the rest of the day,” he said. “I loved my truck driving job. I got to see a lot of places. But coming here, I met a lot of wonderful people. I wouldn’t have met them if I still had my sight. I say, ‘I’m going to ride it until the wheels fall off.’”

Per Lighthouse, seven out of 10 people who are blind in the U.S. don’t work. But, last year, 25% of new blind jobs in the states were through the non-profit in Orlando.