In this week’s guest column, Business Disability Forum’s (BDF) CEO Diane Lightfoot shares some key insights and recommendations on how to better attract and retain disabled talent.
It is great to see many more businesses recognising the real value that diverse teams bring and the need to include every part of the talent pool. This is partly about skills shortages at a time when employers are struggling to fill vacancies in sectors ranging from health and social care to hospitality and tech, but also about rapidly changing needs from business and demands from customers, which mean a more diverse skill set is needed – creativity, innovation and problem solving.
But increasing the diversity of our organisations will not happen by itself. We need a concerted and intentional effort to raise aspirations of young disabled people, provide better support through all key life stages and ensure that they can “see who they want to be” with disabled role models across business. And we need employers to rethink how they recruit to open up opportunities to disabled talent.
ATTRACTING DISABLED TALENT
Stage one is attraction. Employer brand is huge here. It’s not just enough to say you welcome a diverse talent pool, you have to prove you mean it! This could be about sharing stories of people who you already employ who work with adjustments or flexibly.
We often hear that candidates really want to know whether adjustments and flexibility will be possible in a role but struggle to find the information. They could ask of course but applying for jobs is a high stress situation so it is unlikely that candidates will want to mark themselves as different by asking.
So, a quick win for employers is to advertise the adjustments that you offer and that you know are an option in the job you are advertising for. Similarly, throughout the process, proactively mention adjustments and working differently. Offer them at every stage and give examples of what is possible.
Some years ago, we carried out a project for an organisation which wanted to identify where and why disabled candidates were falling out of the recruitment process. We discovered that they were routinely using telephone screening as the first stage of the process – and didn’t proactively offer other options. Unsurprisingly, candidates who were Deaf or had hearing loss, dropped out at this stage. This is an organisation which is good on disability inclusion, and I am sure that if a candidate had asked for an alternative – an adjustment – it would have been granted. But clearly for those candidates, asking for something different simply felt too high a risk.
GIVE AN AUTHENTIC IMAGE OF YOUR ORGANISATION
Think about what you are asking for – the qualifications and experience you routinely require may not really be necessary. Think about the broader language you use. Words like “energetic, fast paced” may well put someone off who has an energy limiting condition for example. And be specific in what you are asking for. For example, what does “good communication skills” actually mean? Someone might be brilliant at written communication, yet struggle with interpersonal skills. Or vice versa.
Look out for cognitive dissonance. First, between your recruitment messaging and your main branding. I’ve seen many examples of attractive, inclusive and accessible recruitment packs and job portals that look totally different to a main corporate brand. Which will candidates believe is the “real” you? Most importantly, make sure that the image you are giving is authentic.
There is no point in representing a fabulously inclusive culture if that is not the reality of your organisation. Better to be clear who you are and what you are looking for so that candidates – including disabled candidates – can make an informed choice. After all, disabled people are all different. So if the job really IS fast paced, don’t pretend it isn’t. But be clear about the specific skill sets you need and what a successful candidate is likely to bring.
TESTING FOR CORE COMPETENCIES
At interview, test core competencies. In other words, test applicants on the skills they will need for the job itself. Getting applicants for a software engineer role to fix a bug or design some code is likely to a much better test of aptitude than a traditional panel interview. Core competencies are also a critical test of what is reasonable in an adjustment for recruitment.
Giving questions to candidates in advance is a request that often comes up. Is that “reasonable”? If the core of the job is the ability to respond quickly to unprepared questions (a sales job for example – or a trainee barrister!) – then no, giving question in advance is not reasonable as it does not allow you to test the skills that are needed to do the job.
If, however, you are recruiting for a role that will not need to do this (and many won’t), then it’s probably perfectly “reasonable” to give the questions in advance. Ultimately, getting it right in recruitment is about enabling every candidate to perform at their best. So instead of asking about adjustments for disability, how about asking every candidate: “how can we make this the best possible experience for you?” Or: “What do you need to show us your best?”
We will be discussing the challenges that disabled people face in getting into and staying in work at Business Disability Forum’s annual conference “Back to the Future” on 28 June, hosted and sponsored by NatWest. Click here to find out more.
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