Making sure policies are inclusive for disabled candidates

 

To find work, disabled people apply for 60 percent more jobs than non-disabled people.

A third of disabled people worry they won’t be hired because of their impairment. Having inclusive policies supports attracting and retaining disabled talent.

Monitoring the effectiveness of inclusive policies and procedures can be subjective. Collecting and comparing data can help identify areas that need improvement.

Representation of disabled staff

Monitoring data

You can monitor:

• data from HR system on employees with an impairment or condition
• data from staff surveys on employees with an impairment or condition

Insights

Analysing this data provides an insight into the representation of disabled staff.

Possible actions

Disability awareness sessions and training initiatives can encourage employees to talk about disability.

It encourages employees to:

• self-identify as disabled
• discuss more than one condition if they need to

To create openness in the workplace:

• Build trust and confidence with employees.
• Deliver internal communication campaigns where employees can share their experiences.
• Highlight the benefits and motivation behind collecting the data.

Reasonable adjustments

To show a proactive approach to reasonable adjustments, we suggest that employers:

• monitor how long it takes to put adjustments in place
• introduce satisfaction surveys or interviews to get employee feedback
• provide support during recruitment and onboarding
• publish a statement explaining your approach to providing adjustments to employees

Include a case study in your statement if you can. This will help build confidence in disabled applicants to discuss their individual needs.

Reasonable adjustment requests

Monitoring data

You can monitor:

• the number of adjustment requests
• how many requests are agreed
• how many requests are rejected and why

Insights

This will give you some insight into how your organisation is doing:

• Number of requests can show how comfortable employees are making requests.
• Monitoring how many adjustments are agreed helps to identify any issues in the process.

Possible actions

After getting data, you could put in place:

• Awareness training for line managers in reasonable adjustments.
• Training for line managers on embedding adjustments into performance reviews.
• Disability adjustment passports to ease transition between teams and departments.

Reasonable adjustments timeline

Monitoring data

You can monitor:

• Time required from request to implementation.

Insights

Getting data can highlight potential issues with:

• agreeing and putting in place adjustments
• purchasing equipment
• organising interpreters or support workers

Possible actions

There are some changes that could improve your processes:

• Named contacts responsible for making reasonable adjustments on time.
• Disability adjustment passports to ease transition between teams or departments.

Reasonable adjustments evaluation

Monitoring data

There are different things you can monitor:

• Record if there has been review a meeting with the individual, once the process is complete.
• Satisfaction survey for those who have used the service.

Insights

These insights can:

• highlight if the adjustments are meeting the employee’s needs
• help you evaluate if the process is accessible and effective

Possible actions

• Review policy and procedure.
• Disability adjustment passports to ease transition between teams or departments.

Progression of disabled staff

Monitoring data

You can monitor:

• Percentage of disabled employees at various levels or pay quartiles of organisation.
• Employee surveys and exit interviews.
• Consider any grievances or HR cases with employees that have left.
• Percentage of disabled employees that apply for promotion and are successful.

Insights

These insights can:

• show areas of unintentional bias within the organisation
• highlight potential issues with workplace inclusivity

Possible actions

There are different actions you could take as a result:

• Disability awareness sessions for staff.
• Running Scope’s disability recruitment session as part of your programme. Ask your account manager for more sessions if needed.
• World of work sessions to meet potential candidates.
• Using End the Awkward resources and Scope for Business workplace inclusion articles.