Cameron calls for help to get disabled people into work

Cameron should show commitment to his call on employers to help get disabled people into work by investing the resources required to raise awareness and challenge negative attitudes. Although some organisations have made considerable progress in addressing disability and employment more effort is needed to overcome employersí resistance, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Dianah Worman, CIPD Diversity Adviser, says: ìThere is a clear business case for recruiting a diverse workforce which includes opening doors to disabled people, such as reflecting a broader customer base, improving products and services to meet more diverse needs and improvements in the recruitment and retention of talent.

ìA diverse workforce ñ recruiting people regardless of disability, background, gender, and age ñ will help employers to adapt to the challenges organisations face in todayís highly competitive and complex global marketplace, enabling them to find opportunities to grow new business ideas, identify new markets and keep ahead of competitors.î

The CIPD report ñ Diversity in Business: how much progress have employers made? ñ finds the diversity issues that are most frequently covered by organisations in their policies are namely those protected by anti-discrimination legislation, such as disability. Yet still 40% or organisations fail to include disability in their diversity policy which suggests employers still have much more progress to make.

ìThere is a real need to raise awareness to alert employers to the importance of diversity issues, why it makes business sense to address diversity, how to do it, and how to implement policies and manage,î says Dianah Worman.

The CIPD report, Incapacity Benefit Reform: Why it is Needed and How to Engage Employers, investigates employer attitudes to long-term IB claimantsí employability. It includes findings from a survey of 750 employers, drawn from all sectors of the economy, and shows:

1 in 3 (33%) employers say that they deliberately exclude people with a history of long-term sickness or incapacity when recruiting staff. This includes people with disabilities.

Even amongst employers who do not exclude the long-term sick hardly any (only 3%) target them as part of their recruitment strategies.

43% of employers surveyed think long-term IB claimants would be less productive at work.

60% think long-term IB claimants would be more prone to absence.

26% think long-term IB claimants have potential but 32% also think they would be less adaptable, and 45% that they would be less reliable.

ìThere is a perception that people with disabilities are more likely to take time of work due to sickness absence than able bodied people and CIPD research shows that employers are wary when it comes to hiring people with a history of health problems, especially those who have been jobless and on incapacity benefits for long periods of time which can include people with disabilities,î adds Worman.