Employers today face challenges in both hiring and retaining employees who can help them meet their business needs. According to the ONS figures from September 2024, there’s 875,000 unfilled job vacancies in the UK and yet there are 1.8 million people who are currently not economically active due to health and disability. Embedding inclusive recruitment practices is no longer a nice tick alongside corporate social responsibility for UK Businesses but an imperative for business to continue to thrive.
Why aren’t more UK Businesses recruiting inclusively?
As part of the Disability Confident Leaders Group and through BASE’s work with DWP Strategic Partnership Team, I know that Employers want to recruit from a more diverse workforce but the barrier to actively doing this is always the same: how to get started! They feel that including disabled and neurodivergent young people in their workforce will be an enormous undertaking and that the recruitment process will be complex and difficult. There is also lack of understanding amongst Employers of the barriers to employment that exist for this section of the population and myths that disabled and neurodivergent people will take more time off or be less productive, when in fact the evidence demonstrates the opposite is true.
How is BASE helping UK Business to recruit disabled and neurodivergent young people?
Utilising a model called Supported Employment, BASE and its members provide practical support on a micro and macro scale to Employers and their potential workforce. This support can range from supporting employers through the Disability Confident Scheme, to move from intent to action, to helping organisations review the entire lifecycle of their employees through a disability lens, ensuring this is inclusive of all disabled and neurodivergent people.
What is the Supported Employment Model and how is it different?
It’s an internationally established framework for enabling disabled and neurodivergent people enter and stay in the workforce. This framework is built upon a values system, quality standards and a unique 5 stage process. Pivotal to the supported employment model is the Supported Employment Job Coach, an amazing multi-tasker whose role is to support the job seeker, the employer and their new colleagues to be disability confident. What makes the Supported Employment different to other employment-focused programmes, is that allows the needs of the jobseeker and the employer to have equal focus. By providing personalised support and using tried and tested tools, supported employment providers match people into the right job with the right employer and provide ongoing support to ensure the person and workplace flourish. By focusing on supporting careers not just jobs, employers tell us the whole experience feels positive
Supported Employment is the answer!
A bold claim, we know! But we know it’s true. Organisations such as Microsoft, Amazon and Coca Cola, have all embraced the supported employment model to ensure they can access disabled and neurodivergent talent and retain existing workforces. Over 80% of disabilities are acquired within a person’s working life, these businesses have recognised that being Disability Confident in Action with supported employment is the driver for creating workplaces of the future. And that supported employment works just as well for other groups who face barriers to employment such as NEET’s, Care-leavers and the long-term unemployed.
Supportive networks, strategic partnerships and collaboration are the place to start.
There’s no shortage of guidance and reports for employers on how to be more inclusive, which offer the solutions to easily transform companies into Disability Confident organisations. At BASE, we recognise that Employers need something more than a written guide, and we provide a different kind of support which encourages and supports Employers to create working environments which are empathic, accepting and inclusive.
BASE provides free assistance to Employers through their Disability Confident planning by acting as a critical friend, supporting action planning and enabling Employers to build the right partnerships with local BASE members. We then build on this relationship and develop their confidence as inclusive recruiters by helping them to move from action planning to implementation.
Finally, we bring our wealth of experience in building quality Supported Employment programmes into workforce planning and utilise our strong partnerships with others such as Youth Employment UK, to realise our shared mission of ‘Careers For All’.
Want to tap into the different type of support that BASE can provide?
We regularly hear that BASE, and the supported employment model is one of the best kept secrets with Employers. However, we find that once Employers discover how working with BASE can easily support their Inclusive Recruitment programmes, they never look back. Many of our existing business partners started their journey to Disability Confidence in Action at one of our annual conferences and have progressed to becoming Disability Leaders and Ambassadors.
This year we are offering Employers a unique opportunity to attend a one-day CPD accredited Disability Confident Business Summit, hosted by Microsoft in partnership BASE where you learn from leaders Microsoft, Amazon, Nando’s & Rangam, discover practical strategies for building your own inclusive recruitment programmes and network with other businesses. We’d love to see you there and support you to realise the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce.
For more information on the Disability Confident Business Summit visit Disability Confidence in Action Business Summit | British Association for Supported Employment (base-uk.org)
For more information on Supported Employment visit www.base-uk.org
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