Disability is becoming an increasingly important and yet often overlooked aspect of the complex strategic challenges that businesses must now manage in talent management, markets, technology, new product development, supply chains and employment relations. It is becoming especially important as technology expands the limits of human potential and the population ages and the incidence of disability increases.
Understanding how disability affects everyone brings unique benefits to those organisations that seek to build closer, more productive individual relationships with key stakeholders. Despite the fact that there is an increasing awareness of the contribution that people with a disability can make to our national economy, unfortunately many agree that when it comes to employing people with disability, Malta could do much better.
One of the problems that is limiting the opportunities for people with disability from participating in the workforce is the long-held belief that recruiting a person with a disability presents a problem to the organisation. This often results in employers not knowing what do with people in their workplace who have a disabilitiy. On this subject, Suzanne Colbert, chief executive of the Australian Network on Disability, said: “When it comes to mainstream workplaces, employers need to become more confident about hiring people with disabilities.”
Donna Faulkner, chairwoman of ACE, the leading body for Australia’s disability employment network, argued that a lack of confidence about having someone with a disability in the workplace is creating a whole lot of myths and misconceptions among employers. She adds that these often include perceptions that are hidden, such as the one that says people with a disability also have other impairments or that someone with a disability will have no skills or will be unemployable; that employing people with a disability poses a health and safety risk and, finally, that employing someone with a disability will cause disruption and upset other members of staff.
Faulkner argues that the solution to overcoming these common myths and misconceptions is employer education. She further explains how she has signed 70 businesses within her region to Gippsland Employers Making a Difference, a charter of socially inclusive principles for people with disability. These businesses are invited to business breakfasts where the speakers are people with disabilities. Here the attendees can ask the questions that they have always wanted to ask about disability but were always afraid to do so, such as: “How do you as a blind person live independently?” or “How can you develop a relationship with someone when you can’t see them?”. Faulkner says that these questions help employers feel more comfortable interacting with people with disabilities and hence makes them more confident and open-minded about recruiting them.
The Employers Forum on Disability UK explains the characteristics that a disabled-confident organisation would have. A disabled-confident organisation understands how disability affects every aspect of its business- people, markets, communities, suppliers and key stake- holders. It creates a culture of inclusion and removes barriers for groups of disabled people, as well as making adjustments that enable specific individuals to contribute, and does not make assumptions about what people can do on the basis of label.
Furthermore, the Employers Forum on Disability UK mentions the benefits that arise from being a disabled-confident organisation. These are the ability to attract and retain the best people, having higher productivity and lower costs, benefiting from excellent customer relationships, satisfaction and retention, innovative products and services and, finally, having strong stakeholder relationships and an enhanced reputation.
In addition, the Employers Forum on Disability UK stated that disabled confident organisations would be better placed to deliver high quality management as well as to respond quickly to changes in the business environment.
Joe Gerada, CEO of Floundation for Human Resources Develop-ment, said that in most cases the adjustments needed in the place of work are unbelievably minor while the returns to the company for this initial effort, by way of loyalty and the work delivered by the person with a disability, is proportionately so much more.
Accommodating people with a disability in an organisation is by no means a costly exercise. Conversely, those organisations that develop a business case for disability confidence will see huge long-term gains across their organisation.
Ms Camilleri is a researcher at the Foundation for Human Resources Development