The disability employment gap – specific knowledge

 

This post explains the problem that while workplaces do not go far enough to recruitment and promote disabled workers they contribute – unwittingly maybe – to the injustice imposed on the disabled population. This human rights issue manifests as the increased likelihood that disabled people will struggle to get work and remain unemployed for long periods. The size of the disabled population is far larger than most think. Take a company of 1000 employees, one in ten or 100 workers will probably have impairment whether they identify as disabled or not. Far more than the number parked in the few accessible bays outside the building. However, for many, this scale is a revelation, as we tend underestimate the size and diversity of the disabled population overall. Which means that we tend to underestimate the sheer scale of the problem, the cost of the disability employment gap to industry - and society as a whole.

 

Quite clearly, there is a bigger issue than the occasional lack of personal fit. Better practice is patchy, and owing to the diversity of impairment, while it is likely that most difference have been accommodated somewhere, overall inclusive practice is not yet a reality disabled professionals can take for granted. Our organisation and institutions seem to be the source of much injustice, as  disabled workers have no less experience, skill or wisdom than their non-disabled colleagues. They do however face far more barriers than most employers imagine.  Many have to  rely on those organisations willing to take action to remedy the disadvantage they face. For business leaders, the challenge therefore, is to align  organisational change to benefit both disabled individuals and the wider working community.

 

Culture shock 1 in 4 unemployment rate, drops substantially for people with learning disabilities, compared to 1 in 10.   Fewer than 1/10 disabled individuals are in work, as opposed to 1 in 10 non-disabled people. This has far more than financial implications in terms of well-being, self-esteem, relationships and health.    86% of all disabled people in UK acquire their disability during the course of their working lives.   The employment rate of disabled people currently stands at 45.4%, compared to 81.2% for non-disabled people, representing a gap of 35.8 percentage points.

 

Attention has often been given to accommodation of impairment with training solutions targeting frontline staff,  far less has challenged senior leadership teams. Understandably therefore, training has met with resistance from workers who have felt powerless and a tad afraid of the amount they needed to learn. Furthermore, without the support of those in positions to make decisions about money, minimal effort was made available for strategies to be implemented. It seems, also that disability training when delivered, is typically given less time and has a poorer attendance compared to other Equality strands. A difficult situation for all, as professionals become aware of the depth and breadth of knowledge needed to act on these matters.  Many now realise that without the support of senior management, leadership teams and boards, strategies rarely join together or achieve change needed. Time consuming and costly tweaks at individual level rarely add up to altering department aims within company purpose. Viewed this way, few do nothing, most do something, and far more could do more!

 

** The net result is that few do nothing, most do something, and far more could make better use of what can and is being done together.**

                   

 

why is being seen at work important?