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- Jo Faragher
While employers seem to be making sure, if slow, progress in many areas of diversity, it’s still shocking how difficult the recruitment process can be if you suffer from a disability.
According to the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative, up to 85% of disabled people found that their condition had an impact on job-hunting, and more than half faced barriers as early as the application stage.
In a survey of 300 jobseekers with different physical and non-visible disabilities, only 3% said that their disability did not impact on their job hunt whatsoever.
Some barriers were glaringly obvious. One applicant commented how many jobs required a full driving licence, which she does not hold because of the nature of her health condition. She was still able to travel, but was refused interviews on the basis she herself did not have a licence.
At an interview, a deaf applicant who has a hearing dog said that interviewers “did not want to know” when they saw her dog, while another commented that once the hiring manager noticed her Bell’s palsy facial disfigurement, the rest of the interview was “pointless”.
In many cases, discrimination wasn’t even unconscious, or hidden, it was quite blatant. In some, it was the fault of outdated processes or job requirements that disadvantage people with certain impairments. For example, almost a quarter of candidates in the survey faced challenges with telephone interviews, yet these are often a required part of the process for many roles.
As Morgan Lobb, CEO of DiversityJobs.co.uk, points out – employers need to think about how “small changes in the way they communicate with disabled candidates can make a big difference to accessibility”.
What are “essential” parts of the recruitment process, or what can be adjusted for particular candidates or be more inclusive? Research has shown that, in employment, disabled workers can be among the most loyal and productive, so organisations could be missing out on a valuable pool of talent.
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