Author - Lise Austen, Recruiters’ Club Manager, MyPlus
Of all the diversity strands disability is typically the last one employers focus on as it is seen to be the hardest and where they lack the most confidence. However, with 21% of the working age population having a disability it is no surprise that an increasing number of employers are recognising and valuing the talents that disabled individuals can bring to the workplace and focusing on becoming a disability inclusive organisation.
To become truly disability inclusive, it not only involves looking at your strategy and your processes, it is also imperative to create an inclusive culture and your people play a crucial role in achieving this. Key is educating your employees and there are various ways to do this including training, role models, awareness raising events and leveraging disability awareness days.
And this education is really important not least that, for some, disability is an uncomfortable subject; people feel that they don’t know how to act, what to do, what language to use or what they can and can’t say. And in the workplace, with the law hanging over our heads, they are fearful of getting it ‘wrong’. During your recruitment process there is often perceived sensitivity around what can be discussed and nervousness about balancing confidentiality with the need to provide support.
To allay these fears, it is important that everyone in your organisation has a clear understanding of disability, their responsibilities, the assistance available to them and how to access it, and training is one of the best ways to achieve this. To be clear, however, building disability confidence is not about becoming an expert in all the different types of disabilities, it is instead about feeling confident and comfortable to engage in relevant conversations. It is also being aware of what your responsibilities are as an employer and what your legal obligations are.
To achieve genuine disability inclusion MyPlus recommends a variety of different training aimed at different audiences:
Building a disability confident workforce training is designed for all employees to help them understand what is included under the umbrella term ‘disability’, the challenges faced by disabled colleagues, how being a disability ally can support disabled colleagues and building their confidence around behaviour and language.
Disability confident recruitment training for staff involved in hiring, including HR, Recruitment & hiring managers, to ensure they are confident to discuss and implement support and adjustments, know how to handle disability related questions before and during interviews and are confident in their behaviour and language when engaging with disabled candidates. This will help to mitigate for unconscious bias in decision making and ensure a fair comparison is made with any disabled candidates peers.
Disability Confident Training for Senior Management/Leadership Teams is imperative as support and direction from the top will be a critical success factor in your journey to become a disability inclusive employer.
Disability etiquette training for front of house teams who will often be the first point of contact for candidates, new hires, visitors or clients and can create a positive experience for anyone who contacts or visits your organisation
All of this training will ensure that disabled job applicants are supported and able to demonstrate their potential enabling you to recruit the best talent from the widest talent pool. And for disabled individuals who join your organisation, existing employees with a disability, and employees who become disabled they will feel supported, by not just their manager and HR, but by all their colleagues, and they will be able to thrive in your disability inclusive organisation.
As well as an annual calendar of training events MyPlus offers bespoke in-house training for employers looking to become disability inclusive which can be tailored to a client’s needs and delivered in-person or online.
For the last 18 years MyPlus has been working with large corporates delivering disability confidence training. Two of our clients have shared their story of working with us in video testimonials.
Enterprise Mobility testimonial
KPMG testimonial
