RIWC_PARA_A146 Business Disability Forum

1© Business Disability Forum 1© Business Disability Forum

Recruiting and retaining great employees with disabilities

George SelvaneraDirector of Strategy & External Affairs

2© Business Disability Forum

Context: recruiting from widest pool matters

Organisations want the best talent.

Structural changes in labour market show way to a growing focus on adjustments

For example:3.7 million more workers aged 50- 65 by 2020Ages 35- 49 most common years for acquiring first disability. 49% of women over 50 are caring for a parent, while 39% are

caring for a child. PWC report that by 2024, people aged 50+ will be the largest

segment of the workforce.


Need to recruit and retain

And there are skills shortages and skills mismatches More than 207,000 skills shortage vacancies in UK in 2015. This is being made substantially worse since the UK referendum

on remaining a member of the European Union

Retention is costly e.g. Staff turnover in 5 sectors costs UK businesses >£4bn p.a. Cost of replacing staff approx. £30k per staff member. At any one time, 1 worker in 6 experience depression, anxiety or

stress. Mental health accounts for 40 per cent of all sickness absence in UK. Adds up to £8.4 billion a year in sickness absence.


Research on recruitment and retention

• BDF has operated for nearly 25 years and with 300+ Partners and Members that account for almost 20% of the UK workforce.

• We know that we need to do something different to remove the barriers

• What does research and best practice show us.


Research about key aids to retention

145 employers with workforce of close to 2 million.

June 2015 launch & further research with 352 employees.

•A Retention Maturity Model & toolkit created & launched in April 2016.•More than 80 case studies, links to videos, resources, guidance.


Key learning in retention: what hinders

Only 1 in 4 organisations have visible disabled role models within their organisations- and only 1 in 5 within the public sector.

Strong relationship between skilled, confident line managers and organisations that have visibility of disability within the organisation.


High impact priorities for retention

1. Ensure visibility of disability e.g. Sainsburys, Santander

2. Build skills and confidence of line managers e.g. Royal Mail

3. Need consistency in key policies so policies not operationalised in ways that create differential impacts for disabled colleagues e.g. Airbus, EE

4. Good workplace adjustment process that delivers the right adjustment quickly. E.g. Lloyds Banking Group

5. Targeted development opportunities for disabled colleagues e.g. Barclays

1.


What Lloyds Banking did re: WPA

Best practice approach to WPA processes where they took a whole business approach to transformation. 80,000 people have used the process. Key features of the approach are:

- Recently we have implemented a new real time evaluation process whereby colleagues receive a e-survey on completion of their adjustment. We ask a industry standard net promoter score question which has seen us in achieve approx NPS score of 70 which shows how good our service it. The evaluation measures both Lloyds and Microlink’s involvement in a WPA.- We are also surveying colleagues we don’t support via the WPA to show how we can improve the overall experience for non-disabled colleagues too- The survey results are still being fully signed off, but a few snippets

Feature Key outcomes

Trust employees

• Reduced average case duration to 15 days when originally 60-90 day average.

• 96% satisfaction rate for colleagues.

Centralise funding and use experts

• Q1 2016, MI: 90% of colleagues who went through WPA found their line manager was supportive and 69% of colleagues know how to transfer their adjustments if they change roles or they are relocated.

• Average case cost reduced by 53% using Microlink (adjustment expert) catalogue, centralised procurement


What Lloyds Banking did re: WPA

, but a few snippets


Driven by MI

• Time and cost reductions at same time as 5% increase in referrals from 2014

• Reduced costs by encouraging colleagues to use internal products from an ergonomic catalogue as part of self-assessment.

• In current survey of 2,536 users of services• 96% Colleague Satisfaction Rating• 90% reduction in condition related absence • 70% reported reduction in absence directly due to

adjustments• 89% Report significant improvement to relationship with

their line manager• 93% Report significant improvement to their happiness in

the workplace• 94% Report significant improvement to focus and

concentration• 93% Report significant improvement to Productivity and

efficiency.


But Lloyds Banking are still learning

, but a few snippets


A whole business approach

• Work with Access to Work.

• Lloyds are sharing best practice

• Implemented a new real time evaluation process whereby colleagues receive a e-survey on completion of their adjustment. The evaluation measures both Lloyds and Microlink’s involvement in a WPA.


In summary

• Commitment is fundamental to getting it right for disability.

• Planning for, and making adjustments for disability affect the whole organisation in ways that are different to other diversity strands.

• The best employers recognise and are planning for the structural shifts in the labour market. They want to recruit and retain talented people which includes a growing number of people with disabilities and health conditions.

• To do so, means embedding disability know-how into all recruitment and retention processes.


Thank you. Any questions?

• Call me at +44-79-7685-3491• Email me at [email protected]• Connect via Linked In

Presentations & Public Speaking

RIWC_PARA_A146 Business Disability Forum