Reasonable Adjustments
Making a reasonable adjustment does not always mean considerable changes, nor does it always
have substantial financial implications for organisations. Making adjustments should be seen
as one element of a toolkit that will assist in removing barriers to people gaining employment.
Adjustments can be made in the way you recruit. You will attract a much wider labour market if
you consider adopting a more creative approach to advertising, and introduce a more flexible
process of selection and interviewing. Adjustments can also be made to improve the working
environment, for instance physical access and meeting the needs of the individual to assist
them in completing the tasks of their jobs.
Making adjustments will also ensure that your organisation is at least complying with the
legal aspects of the current and future legislation. Remember that there are enormous business
benefits to the organisation in recruiting and retaining the right staff. The costs of
recruitment are a major consideration for all employers. All the organizations in your area
are recruiting from the same pool of labour. Become the ‘employer of choice’. Recruitment is
a very competitive business.
In some cases you may be able to access funding for special equipment.
The following sections give examples of some of the adjustments you could make in the
workplace:
Policies
Recruitment
Workplace Opportunities
Workplace Support
Policies
Equality and Fairness
Your Equality policy should go hand in hand with a policy of fairness. It is now considered
that a most employers do treat people equally in terms of pay, employment opportunity and
training. These are the common values we would all expect from an employer and are provided for
in the protection of an individuals employment rights at work. We do not see very often now the
message on a job advert stating ‘we are an equal opportunities employer’. How could you not be?
Treating people fairly relies on the involvement of everybody in the workplace to value each
other and respect them for what they contribute to the organisation. We are not all equal and
to treat people fairly you have to treat people differently. The success of a fairness policy
will rely on effective staff training at all levels of the organisation in the promotion of
valuing people.
Work-Life Balance
Peoples lives are very different in today’s society and a more flexible approach to friendly
policies on balancing the work and home commitments will encourage your workforce to be more
productive and improve attendance levels. There is a growing need to introduce flexible working
hours, supporting the requirements of single parents and carer’s. There may be opportunities
for job share, giving you more than one employee in a job role.
There is an extensive menu of flexible working practices which includes career breaks,
annualised hours, term time working, purchasing leave, home working, voluntary reduced hours,
compressed hours.
Remember to involve the workforce in identifying the initiatives that meet their needs and
the business plans and objectives. It is not sufficient to consult.
Realistic Job Description and Person Specifications
You should ensure that your job descriptions accurately match the tasks within the job and
that the person specification is not creating a barrier by requesting unrealistic or unnecessary
criteria. Check whether some of the essential criteria could become desirable and therefore
encourage interest from a wider pool of potential applicants.
Further legislation will promote employers to consider a persons skill and ability to carry
out the tasks of the job rather than expecting a recognised qualification or for an applicant
to have specific periods of previous experience.
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Recruitment
Open Days
Take the organisation to all parts of the community. Target those hard to reach groups,
black and minority ethnic communities, young people and people with disabilities. Take positive
action to address any under representation in the profile of your workforce in terms of gender,
age, disability, culture and beliefs.
Recruitment days can be invaluable in raising awareness about your organisation in all parts
of the community. Applicants can be selected and interviewed during the event. You can meet your
organisations future staff requirements and begin the process of succession planning. Remember
there is no such thing as a job for life. People by nature, especially young people, move jobs
regularly. Have you assessed the risk that your organisation could be facing in the future due
to job turnover?
This type of initiative can prove to be effective, non discriminatory and extremely cost effective.
Community Recruitment
Explore every opportunity to advertise your vacancies within the community. This will also
promote your organisations involvement and image to a wider audience. Include all centres and
agencies on your database for newsletters and job bulletins. Target a wide variety of
publications that includes all forms of different minority ethnic media opportunities.
Community recruitment can also be very inexpensive and effective.
Flexible Application Process
Application forms and processes can present a barrier to recruiting from the widest possible
labour market. An applicant can be easily put off applying for a job because of the inability to
understand the language and the sheer amount of information requested. The friendly application
form and the one to attract the applicants is the easy to read and quick to fill in one. Care
should be taken to provide alternative versions, e.g. large print. An offer to support the
applicant to complete the form is good practice.
Employers should be aware that they are not discriminating against any groups by asking for
information or certain kinds of identification that the candidate may not have as a result of
their status or disability. Be sure that you allow for all applicants to provide a suitable
form of identification that satisfies your legal requirements as an employer. Do not ask for a
driving licence if the job does not require the applicant to have one, a disabled person may
never have one.
Make sure you ask the applicant if they are able physically to attend and access the
interview venue. Offer alternative arrangements.
Working Interview
The working interview has been introduced to support the fairness policy of an organisation
and provides an alternative to the traditional method of interviewing job applicants. The working
interview is particularly useful for people with disabilities or people from different cultural
backgrounds whose first language may not be English.
The working interview is a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to the traditional interview and allows
a person who would not be able to fully understand or answer questions but may be able to
demonstrate their skills and answer the questions in a practical way. By providing this method
the employer meets the requirements and recommendations of the Disability Discrimination Act
and also helps to eliminate the possibility of discrimination under the Race Relations Act.
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Workplace Opportunities
Work Experience
Work experience is a valuable tool to engage people form all diverse backgrounds to gain real
experience of what it is like to work for your organisation. Work experience also provides a
classic opportunity for employers to prove that they are the ‘employer of choice’. You are
supporting your workforce needs in creating a register of ‘expressions of interest’ from a
diverse range of potential employees. Remember to include everybody from all ages and backgrounds.
Employers who provide work experience have an ideal opportunity to assess the skills and
abilities of the candidate and their commitment to timekeeping, attendance and team working.
These are some of the most important factors in an employees working life that determines their
ability to retain their job and progress their career.
Work Trial
Providing a work trial means offering a job for a specific agreed period to allow the
applicant a fair chance to demonstrate their abilities, an opportunity for them to learn and
develop further skills related to the job. The employer has the ability to decide on whether
the individual is the right person to fit into the department of the organisation. This
initiative is designed to eliminate the risk of recruiting a person who may not be considered
a future long term employee.
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Workplace Support
Job Creation / Job Carving
Many jobs could be created by considering the possibility of ‘job carving’. Job roles that
have not been reviewed for a considerable time do not always use the specific skills of the
individual. Some jobs call for extensive levels of multi-tasking that uses the time of a skilled
person in completing low skill related tasks.
If the skilled worker was allowed to use the whole of their time in employing their specific
skills then there may be an opportunity to create another job. A job created could be offered on
a part time basis or give the opportunity for a part time worker to take overtime or increase
their hours. In many instances and examples of job carving a full time position has been created
when several job roles have been reviewed.
The outcome of this process can be that skilled workers can become more productive and
efficient resulting in increased productivity or improved service provision.
Induction and Training
It is necessary to tailor the induction process to meet all individual needs. Offering a
‘company handbook’ will not be sufficient to meet your legal requirements under the Heath and
Safety at Work rules. All employees should be supported to adjust to their working environment
and familiarise themselves with the company policies and procedures. The employer should be
satisfied that the employee is aware of all risks in the workplace and how to manage them.
Employees should also be aware of their responsibilities to the health and safety of their
colleagues and the employers’ premises and equipment.
As and where necessary you should consider a variety of methods of transferring information
and learning to different people, e.g. simple picture messages can be very useful to continually
remind people and support verbal instruction. Remember to review the induction process and assess
the effectiveness of your systems by talking to people and asking and assessing if they are fully
understanding instruction and guidance.
Buddying / Support
People like to feel supported in the workplace. You are more likely to benefit from a
committed workforce by providing support and having a ‘buddy’ system in place. Providing
colleague support and creating an ‘open door policy’ assists the process of continuous staff
development and their progression within your organisation.
You may be able to apply for ‘access to work’ funding for support workers.
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