Could 2021 be the year for inclusive employment?

By Stephen Salmon, Marketing Executive

​​For many of us, it’s going to be hard looking back on 2020 and remember it for anything other than the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact on businesses and workers will be felt for some time and the global pandemic will shape how our ‘new normal’ looks as we move forward.

For all the negatives brought on by the pandemic and the impact of the measures introduced in response, there is now an opportunity and an increased need to speed up the momentum of inclusive work and recruitment practices.

Prior to 2020, there were already too many obstacles facing disabled workers.
The measures taken in response to the pandemic have increased the need for change. In March 2020, seven out of 10 disabled people’s employment was affected by being placed on furlough or being made redundant.

Adding to the challenge, when questioned by health and welfare charity, Leonard Cheshire, 42% of UK employers indicated that COVID-19 had made them more hesitant to employ disabled workers, due to concerns around supporting them properly during the pandemic.

With a broad commitment from businesses to truly ‘build back better’ in 2021, momentum in inclusive practices should ramp up to benefit both disabled workers and businesses.
For disabled workers, true inclusion will ease access to work and career progression without unnecessary hurdles and barriers to navigate. For businesses, there will be a larger talent pool to recruit from as 7.7 million people of working age (16-64) report to have a disability – that’s 19% of the UK’s working age population.

A key experience from 2020 that could and should challenge any biases against employing a disabled candidate is remote working.
If working from home was a mass experiment, it would have been regarded a success and it may see the end of the traditional Monday to Friday 9-5 in favour of more flexible working arrangements. Flexible working is also an experience that even disabled workers would hugely benefit from.

Whilst working from home hasn’t come without its challenges – juggling work commitments with home schooling and strains on internet connections. – it has proved possible during the most trying of circumstances.

With interviews and assessments also being of a virtual nature during the majority of the past 12 months, access needn’t be a barrier in the future.

My own experience on flexible working has meant that as a wheelchair user, some of the obstacles that can occur whilst commuting which are out of my control (such as a broken lift or a flat tyre) haven’t meant that my ability to work has been affected.

We need to ensure that working remotely is not viewed as the only option for employing a disabled candidate.
Inclusive design and implementing adjustments when required still need to be priorities.

With concentrated efforts by businesses and recruiters towards an inclusive future, disabled workers can look forward to more equal opportunities.

Taking the first steps to becoming inclusive isn’t as intimidating as it seems…

• Make your recruitment process accessible: Take a look at your job ads – try limiting your job requirements to “must-haves”. Does it inform candidates you are open to making adjustments?

• Ask and learn about adjustments: Employers shouldn’t be nervous about making accessible adjustments for their candidates. Communicate with your talent. More often than not, the adjustment is simpler than you think – an adapted keyboard for someone with arthritis, a larger screen for a visually impaired person or an adapted telephone for someone with a hearing impairment.

• Learn from lived experiences: It’s important to also talk to and learn from disabled people, D&I initiatives and organisations committed to inclusion will help to remove barriers before encountering them.

While 2020 was a year of challenges for the inclusion movement, it has also demonstrated that being physically present in the office is not as important as it once was. While we may never be closer to a hard restart of recruitment and work practices, the global pandemic has provided companies with a real opportunity to start thinking about how they can be more inclusive with hiring talent.

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