August 18, 2017
Board buy-in is key to closing employment gap for disabled people in workplace
There continues to be a significant gap between the employment rate of disabled people and the rest of the population; according to the Office for National Statistics, just 49 percent of disabled people of working age are in employment. This is why getting genuine buy-in from the top is key to improving levels of disability disclosure and helping to facilitate requests for workplace adjustments. That was the conclusion of a recent round table hosted by the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI) which also found that while some HR and diversity specialists are sceptical about the level of support available from senior leadership teams, once the topic is brought to the attention of the board, the response is often overwhelmingly positive. Practical ways in which leaders can bolster disability initiatives shared at the event include; identifying disability champions within the business who can communicate their own stories, implementing unconscious bias training, instigating & reverse-mentoring initiatives where senior managers are partnered with disabled colleagues and leading by example by being open about their own disabilities.
It may still be the summer holiday season but if you’re finding it easier than you’d expect to get hold of people, it’s because they’re probably checking their emails on the beach. A new survey by Wrike claims that 73 per cent of British employees work while on holiday. The main reason? They can’t relax unless they know everything is going okay in the office. Those from France and Germany have a slightly more relaxed state-of-mind. While 35 per cent of UK workers said they feel better keeping in touch with the office and the Germans aren’t that far behind, with 30 per cent saying keeping one eye on their work was the key to relaxation; in France only 22 per cent felt the same. Brits also said that working while away was because they were hoping to minimise the amount of work they would have to come back to (22 per cent).
There is growing sentiment among younger workers that flexible working is less a right – as outlined by the Government in 2014 – and more a ‘selective benefit’ for a choice group of employees. New research by 
UK employment is predicted to grow strongly in the third quarter of 2017, but wage growth is likely to remain weak, according to the latest CIPD/The Adecco Group Labour Market Outlook. Although the UK labour market remains buoyant, basic pay award expectations for the next 12 months remain at just 1 percent. Put against the backdrop of poor productivity growth, the report points to an increase in labour supply over the past year as a key factor behind the modest pay projection. This is driven by relatively sharp increases in the number of non-UK nationals from the EU, ex-welfare claimants and 50-64 year olds. This increase in labour supply may explain why the jobs market remains challenging for some jobseekers, especially those seeking lower-skilled jobs. Employers report a median number of 24 applicants for the last low-skilled vacancy they tried to fill, compared with 19 candidates for the last medium-skilled vacancy and eight applicants for the last high-skilled vacancy they were seeking to fill. Overall, employers felt that around half of applicants were suitable for each role they were trying to fill.
