In 2021, we’re living in what feels like a dramatically different world to the one before March 2020. We’ve made huge adjustments to how we live, work, and communicate. These adjustments have affected everybody in one way or another, the world over.
However, what was found within the Attract and Recruit research was that in Scotland, disabled people are disproportionately affected with almost three quarters of employed disabled people reporting an impact on their employment. This was through loss of income, furlough, redundancy, reduced working hours, temporary unemployment or sickness.
Although there have been improvements in employer attitudes, education and intentions, many disabled people are still discriminated against due to mistaken perceptions of disabled people at work, specifically their performance and productivity. Unfortunately, as businesses recover from the shock of COVID-19, inclusion may be deprioritised and any advances that have been made could be rolled back.
The pandemic has both magnified existing inequalities and, in many cases, exacerbated them.
Apt will work closely with employers to not only ensure that their hiring pool is more diverse and inclusive but that they understand the benefits of hiring disabled people. We understand that employers may have a lot of apprehensions about the costs, admin, and risks of disabled people and we want to tackle these mistaken beliefs and reassure employers about their hiring decisions.
The Attract and Recruit Workstream investigated the barriers that disabled people face when accessing employment. A significant barrier we identified was the number of vacancies that are solely advertised through digital online platforms, excluding a wide number of disabled people.
Over the coming months, we will create and implement an Inclusive Recruitment Model which will be thoroughly tested and proven to benefit employers and promote best recruitment practices.
By the end of this year, we will have worked with 12 employers who are confident recruiting disable people by using practices which are equitable, resulting in more disabled people successful applying for and gaining jobs.
The Attract and Recruit Workstream identifies barriers to disabled people accessing employment and seeks to effectively tackle them. They have identified that there are a number of areas that are currently providing barriers to successfully attracting disabled applicants, their recruitment and their ongoing retention and development.