Disabled employees in the workplace.
Disabled employees continue to struggle at work despite improvements. Disabled employees continue to face individual and wider barriers in the workplace and in the working culture, according to Business Disability Forum’s latest survey.
The business membership organisation’s analysis, published this month, shows that although managers’ confidence in making workplace adjustments has improved since the first survey of employees and managers in 2019, most affected individuals have to ‘push’ for the adjustments they need.
The Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2023 also found that a significant number of barriers remain after adjustments have been provided for disabled employees.
Significantly, just short of 80% of disabled employees surveyed said it was they, rather than their employer, who had to initiate the process of getting adjustments.
In addition, although the speed of getting adjustments done has slightly improved since 2019, 1-in-8 is waiting more than a year to get the adjustments they need.
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF MANAGERS AND WIDER WORKPLACES ABOUT THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF HAVING A DISABILITY AND BEING DISABLED IS NEEDED
In the first survey, Business Disability Forum found that managers’ lack of confidence in the adjustments process or how to fulfil requests for disabled employees’ support was the main reason for many delays and employees not getting adjustments.
Although managers’ knowledge, skills and understanding has improved since then, the latest survey found a lot of their time and energy is being spent dealing with adjustments-related support services that are often disorganised and are not streamlined.
‘Multiple contracts and different types of support appeared to be accessed through and across different departments in organisations and was rarely brought together behind one internal centralised service where managers could contact one person as their way into all of the support they could offer their employees,’ notes the survey.
‘The result was stressed managers who were trying to do the right thing for their team members and upset employees who just wanted to do their job, but didn’t have what they needed in terms of adjustments to do it.’
One of the common themes to emerge from the 2023 responses was that the most difficult conversations and tensions in employee and manager relationships often arose when adjustments needed to change or when a ‘first choice’ of adjustments could not be fulfilled, notes Business Disability Forum.
From the employee’s perspective, they felt let down while from the manager’s perspective, they felt they had fulfilled workplace decision-making processes. The business membership organisation urges action on resolving this important area.
MANAGERS NEED SUPPORT SO THEY CAN SUPPORT DISABLED COLLEAGUES AND ALSO RECOGNITION FOR THE ROLE THEY PLAY IN THE ADJUSTMENTS PROCESS
In terms of the remaining barriers, responses from disabled employees reveal that the workplace adjustments that had been made tend to be ‘for their specific situation, their specific job, and to their immediate direct working location and set up’.
However, these do not resolve barriers experienced elsewhere in the organisation, the survey notes. Disabled employees cite a number of barriers, which include bullying and harassment and regular hostile comments and micro-aggressions from colleagues and senior leaders.
The survey concludes these factors have contributed to overall work-related stress and a detrimental effect on the level of employees’ mental wellbeing.
Business Disability Forum concludes that work-related situations and getting adjustments are only part of the solution. It adds: ‘A better understanding of managers and wider workplaces about the whole experience of having a disability and being disabled is needed, and it is also why an improved and more mature approach to removing disability-related barriers for disabled employees at work is needed’.
The business membership organisation outlines a list of recommendations for employers to improve on the current situation. These are:
- Identify any ‘simple’ or standard ways of working in the organisation, which can be signed off without having to go through a formal adjustments procedure or occupational health assessments such as access to noise-cancelling headphones and suitable car parking, and allowing employees to plan their working day around when they best perform different tasks.
- Establish what ‘clear communication’ means across the entire organisation. Access to clear communication in a person’s job should not be seen as an adjustment. This should just be the norm for all communication in your organisation.
- Employers should build better understanding between employees and managers of their different perspectives during the process of making adjustments and refer to workplace and occupational health services only as needed.
- Managers need support so they can support disabled colleagues and also recognition for the role they play in the adjustments process.
- Have one ‘single entry’ point into employer-provided health, adjustments and wellbeing support as this will make decisions and finding support quicker and easier. Employers need to review what is not currently working and provided and then ensure it sits within a single service offer.
- Don’t over complicate services or processes; identify ones that are not working and fix them. Do not ‘add on’ additional forms and processes to resolve a problem as they often make the situation worse. The priority is investing in, and continuously reviewing, fit-for-purpose workplace health support and adjustments procedures, and good team and colleague relationships.
Source: IOSH
Published: 5th October 2023
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