Companies that make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees better represent UK's rich cultural variety. It helps build a company's reputation based on diversity and justified treatment of employees, and also boosts your brand rapport. There is a correlation between a company's moral standing and the loyalty of its employees and consumers.
Disability-friendly workplaces are more likely to make sure that candidates with disabilities have been accommodated as much as possible during the hiring process. Not only will this get more people with disabilities to apply, but it will also give you a pool of candidate to choose from. If your hiring process isn't friendly to potential disabled employees, you might miss out on hiring talented people who would be good for your business.
According to Scope, there are over 4.4 million disabled people who are working in the UK right now. This is almost 14% of all the people working in the UK. Even if you don't have any disabled employees right now, this is likely to change in the future. By making your workplace accessible to people with disabilities, you also protect their health and safety. A workplace that is accessible and safe for people with disabilities reduces risk and makes the workplace easier to get to.
But disability inclusion is more than just hiring people with disabilities and taking care of their health. It also means treating all employees the same and giving people with any kind of disability the chance to succeed and be treated fairly. A strong programme for including people with disabilities is a must.
If you want to know the steps to creating a friendly office environment, read this post.
1. Create a Supportive Environment
If your workplace has the right culture, it can help and support people who are disabled or who have long-term health conditions.
Make the health, safety, and inclusion of workers a top management priority if you want your workplace to have a supportive and helpful culture. Make sure you do this as long as they work for you. Everyone can benefit from a supportive culture at work. Take care of the health and well-being of all your workers in a consistent and proactive way. Work and talk with staff disability networks or worker representatives.
Managers should act and behave in the right way. They should always act in a fair and consistent manner. Staff should be able to talk to managers, supervisors, and owners. Managers need to be able to listen to and understand their employees.The followed practices must be easy to understand and always explained to newly appointed candidates and updated with existing workers.
2. Take an Inclusive Approach to Workplace Health
Inclusive workplace practices assist you in hiring, retaining and making the most of the abilities of disabled employees especially those with long-term conditions. In companies, workplace practices are inclusive procedures, policies, rules and arrangements.
Such inclusive workplaces guarantee business benefits including bigger talent pool, increased productivity, and greater innovation and creativity. Ensure creating a workplace so that it is inclusive to everyone and no one is at the disadvantage.
To ensure an inclusive workplace, practices must be clear, accessible, concise, and easy for all workers to understand. Raise awareness within and outside the company through promotion activities including visibility of peer support networks and training on stress management.
3. Understand the Work Barriers and Find Solutions
As an employer, you must understand the work barriers that impact disabled employees especially those with long-term health conditions. Ensure talking to your employees regarding their obstacles and barriers so that they feel valued. Also, this communication will assist you in developing a shared understanding of how these aspects affect work. This impact can be on on-boarding, recruitment, selection, starting work and throughout an employee's work life.
Communication is a good way to identify barriers of work such as physical, organizational, social, and attitudinal. Most of the disabled employees have physical issues with desks. Experts recommend using standing desks as they are height adjustable desks. They can help employees improve posture, be more productive, and perform better.
Employers must find customized solutions to remove barriers which suit workers' situations.
4. Ensure Customized Workplace Adjustments
It is an employer's responsibility to ensure that all employees, including those with disabilities or chronic illnesses, have access to the same benefits and opportunities.
Adjustments and improvements to the workplace may greatly improve a worker's sense of security and well-being there. These may also be useful in removing the obstacles that prevent employees from giving their 100%.
Have a conversation with your employee to see what alterations or adjustments will best assist them succeed on the job. Verify that the changes you make are both practical and long-lasting. Depending on the nature of the disability, this may need individualized workplace modifications.
Adjustments in the workplace are often more cost-effective than hiring and training a new employee. Modifying the way you work doesn't have to break the bank. Some of the strategies of adjustments include new ways of working, transitional return to work, communication formats and assistive software.
5. Support Sick Leaves
Employers must care for sick employees and those on leave. A person from the HR must get in touch with an absent worker to see how they are doing while they are on sick leave. Keep in contact with your employees to make them feel more appreciated and in the loop when they are away from the office.
When making initial contact with an employee, it's important to think about their individual situation. Think about why they are absent from work as well. Timing is important, so remember that while planning things like hospital visits or doctor's appointments, you should get in touch with them during the first four weeks of their vacation.
If the employee has not been reached by a responsible party early on during their absence, someone should reach out to them to establish communication protocols.
This person should be someone the employee respects and trusts. Ensure keeping your contacts encouraging, sympathetic, and concerned with the employee's well.
Final Word
Creating a workplace that is accessible and welcoming to everyone is challenging, but it is always worth it for employers. Workers with disabilities will gain a lot from the mentioned initiatives and it will help them be more productive, feel like they belong to the company, and have more job security. Employers will be able to find more diverse workers if they make their workplaces accessible to people with disabilities.
