Having a disability presents a lot of challenges for those
who suffer with one, but bias in the workplace should not be one of them.
Badenoch & Clark, a recruitment organisation in the UK,
found in a new survey that three in five disabled employees have experienced
this bias, a result that has taken its toll on workers. Almost half of the
respondents (48%) admitted that they’d left a job or refrained from applying
for a role or promotion simply because of such bias. This doesn’t bode well for
the progress of equality in the workplace which is already failing when it
comes to gender.
These results are vastly different from those by
non-disabled individuals, with only 35% of them having experienced bias in the
workplace and 20% having held off from employment opportunities because of
that.
Nicola Linkleter who works as the President of Professional
Staffing at Badenoch & Clark was shocked by the results and commented that:
“Organisations need to realise that poor inclusion practices
are bad for business […] In the UK today, 16% of working age adults have a disability,
15% of which have a degree. With skills shortages an undeniable threat,
employers need to start viewing candidates with disabilities as untapped
talent.”
The survey also found that 51% of people had actively tried
to hide their physical disability from potential employers when going for a
job, while 60% had done the same with their mental disability. It’s concerning
how many people fear their disability will affect their chance of being hired,
especially when workplaces are supposed to now be more proactive in making the
office a welcoming place for everyone, but as with other issues of equality, the UK obviously
still has a long way to go.
Linketer concluded her comments by saying:
“We’d like to see more employers taking the initiative to
remove barriers to disability in the workplace, developing attraction and
retention strategies that capture an underrepresented talent pool, and working
with universities and recruitment consultancies to advise disabled students on
how to interview confidently.
“Each worker that has experienced bias is one too many, and
employees will only ever flourish if they feel they can truly be themselves at
work. Businesses need to commit to living and breathing diversity and inclusion
throughout the entire employee lifecycle and in everything they do – every
strategy, every hire, every decision. Ultimately, they should become inclusive
by instinct.”
James Darvill
James
is a passionate scriptwriter and reluctant poet with a talent for the
dystopian. When he’s not staying up late watching the Simpsons he’s beating the
world at Mario Kart, always with a glass of wine in hand.
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