Employ and support people with disabilities
Recruiting people with disabilities
It can be challenging for someone with a disability to get into employment. Opening up your talent pool to make it easier for people with a disability to apply for jobs can bring many benefits to your business – see advantages of employing someone with a disability.
Reasonable adjustments for job applicants
Employers can take a number of steps to make the recruitment process as fair as possible for all applicants by making reasonable adjustments so that applicants without a disability do not have an unfair advantage over those who do have a disability.
Employers must be aware of their legal obligations when recruiting. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, employers:
- must not discriminate against someone with a disability when they are applying for a job
- must consider making reasonable adjustments if an applicant with a disability is at a disadvantage compared to a non-disabled applicant
Employers must consider reasonable adjustments at every stage of the recruitment process:
Application form
If the format, layout or structure of the application form puts someone at a disadvantage you should consider having the application form available in large print, Braille or an audio version for someone who is partially sighted or blind.
Aptitude tests
You should consider making additional time available to complete aptitude tests for someone with a disability who requests a reasonable adjustment. Another adjustment could be allowing test answers to be given verbally.
Interview
Ensure the interview room is fully accessible to all applicants. Be aware that applicants may request a reasonable adjustment to be interviewed at a time when they are more alert or pain-free depending on their disability. Consider training for your interview panel that examines the impact of various disabilities on performance at the interview stage, eg how autism may provide a challenge to an applicant during an interview and how adjustments can be made to help them.
Taking positive action to treat disabled people more favourably
Employers can decide to take a step further in positively recruiting someone with a disability. Unlike other forms of equality legislation, the Disability Discrimination Act allows employers to treat people with a disability more favourably than others through positive action.
An employer is not legally obliged to take positive action but employers can lawfully take positive action steps to treat someone with a disability more favourably. There are a number of positive action measures which an employer can choose to take to recruit someone with a disability, including:
- ring-fencing certain jobs so that they are only open to people with a disability
- offering a guaranteed interview to applicants with a disability who meet the essential criteria for a post
- using non-traditional forms of assessment which may only disadvantage people with a disability
- offering work trial opportunities which may lead to permanent jobs if the placement is successful
- creating an alternative post within your organisation for a person with a disability if there are certain tasks they are unable to perform as a result of their disability
Positive action measures should be carefully planned with advice from appropriate support organisations. Employers must comply with other equality legislation – see avoid discrimination when recruiting staff.
Access disability support
There are a range of government initiatives to help employers take on staff with a disability and also help staff with a disability get the support they need in the workplace – see: