Accessing the New Normal
Without question, the pandemic has changed the way that we all live and work. There have been and continue to be many challenges, but perhaps this is a chance to look around and draw on the experiences of disabled people as to how adapting can often result in more than we were hoping for.
Untapped potential?
Within the U.K there are 7.7 million people, of working age, who are disabled. The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes disability as “a broad umbrella term that covers not only impairment and activity limitations but also participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations”.
Government figures show before the coronavirus outbreak only 4.1 million disabled people were in employment pre-COVID but were more than twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people. For those with learning disabilities, only 7% are currently in paid employment, whereas, 65% would like to work and pursue a career. Mental health can also be a significant barrier to people gaining and retaining employment.
At the onset of lockdown most industries had to go on a steep learning curve of adjustment to working remotely, however, for many disabled employees, regular adjusting is standard. Flexible working – including home-working, staggered or compressed working hours etc. often determines whether a disabled person is able to continue working, particularly at the onset of a disability or health condition. Leonard Cheshire’s research shows that “disabled people are often in a precarious position when in employment. 73 per cent of disabled adults in the UK said they have stopped working due to their health condition or disability”.
If employers are able to turn their attention to the unique skills people have, rather than defining them by what they cannot do, they will be able to recruit from the widest pool of talented individuals possible and successfully meet their organisations’ ever-changing needs.
What can we learn from disabled people in the workplace?
For those disabled individuals who obtain employment, they are acutely aware of how difficult looking for a job can be, and often make greater efforts to demonstrate that the employer made a good decision. The many hurdles and limitations which they might encounter on a daily basis motivate them to accomplish even more. Statistics show that employees with disabilities display greater loyalty demonstrated by staying longer with one employer.
Whilst COVID presented, to many companies, the greatest challenge they had ever faced, people with disabilities are confronted with unexpected challenges on a daily basis. We are used to finding solutions which require flexibility, creativity and an open mind. This creative way of thinking and of handling challenges can be beneficial to the whole business.
Within a team, employees are required to work together on a task and, therefore, a much more diverse company can boost productivity levels by using a wider variety of talents. In all settings, employees are able to learn from one another; embracing different strengths and experiences, resulting in fresh ideas being brought to the table.
Everyone is repeatedly told as a child how important patience is and as an adult you understand how true that really is. For those with a disability, the patience required is at a whole new level. Such patience can be invaluable when trying to implement new processes and taking time to evaluate work undertaken.
Having a disability is definitely difficult, but you do get to learn lessons that able-bodied people rarely get to experience. There can be rather stressful moments – broken wheelchairs, equipment, inaccessible buildings etc. so we learn early on to not let our stress levels get too high.
When living with a disability, you learn to be OK with receiving help. Being weak or disabled isn’t necessarily a negative thing and positive attitude to assistance should be embraced by all. Everyone needs help in their own way and employees should feel confident and able to discuss this with their employer and colleagues.
What next?
Differences and disabilities are a fact of life. They can begin at birth through life’s genetic lottery, take hold of us following an event that goes devastatingly wrong or slowly creep up on us as we grow older. These impairments/results are not actually what disable people. It is the attitudes towards the impairment but, hopefully, the massive changes we’ve all had to go through with COVID has highlighted that we can learn a lot from each other. Recruiting and retaining staff should be on merit, their skills and attitude which are far more important than ticking boxes, meeting quotas or because “we’ve always done it this way”. Diversity and inclusion should be engrained into the company culture and represent a basic commitment of any company doing business in today’s ever-changing world.
