How to be an adaptable employer

Flexibility for employees to work from home and vary their hours and duties has taken on new meaning and recognition during the pandemic. An open and flexible approach to all policies and processes goes hand in hand with welcoming and supporting disabled employees and creating win-win situations for both individuals and organisations. The advantages are many. From a recruitment point of view, positively seeking applications from disabled people gives you access to the widest possible talent pool. Retaining valued staff who have become disabled is likely to be much cheaper than trying to recruit, train and develop new ones. It is also important to create a workforce that reflects the diverse range of clients it serves and the community in which it is based. In the context of supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or disabled parents, it makes sense to employ staff who are “experts by experience”.