Is your workplace disability confident?

How can employers let disabled job-seekers know that they welcome their application? If disabled people choose to apply, how can employers ensure that interviewers are not going to put them off? And how does an organisation hold on to an experienced employee who has just discovered that he or she has a disability?

Phil Friend, one of the UK’s leading consultants on disability, and Fiona Morden, have written a good practice guide on disability for XpertHR, to guide employers through the different stages of the employment cycle to develop a disability-confident workplace.

To create a welcoming environment for disabled applicants, employers should think about all aspects of the workplace. First impressions count, and if the applicant is the best person for the role, employers need to make sure that he or she won’t refuse an offer of a job because he or she felt uncomfortable at the interview. Employers should train receptionists and other front-line staff, because while some candidates may have informed them about a disability before the interview, others may not have done so.

Employers should also think carefully about selection tests. While it may be a normal part of the selection process in an organisation, a selection test could eliminate candidates with potential. Selection tests should be role-relevant, otherwise they are potentially discriminatory and may disadvantage the best applicants.