“A job for a person with disability isn’t just about money. It’s a sign of independence and a way to let the world know we’re not a burden on society, but an asset.”
– GSA Associate
What is inclusive recruitment?
Inclusive recruitment involves reviewing and developing your organisation’s recruitment practices and ensuring that the application and hiring process is accessible for people with disability. This means creating policies, practices, and procedures that actively promote diversity and inclusion within your workplace.
Why is it important to have an inclusive recruitment process?
77%of businesses believe it is important for their workplace to reflect the diversity in the community by including people with disability. In Australia, however, only 52.6% of people with disability are in the workforce, compared to 75.2% of people without disability. This 22.6% gap represents a vast pool of individuals with unique experiences, knowledge, and skills. Ignoring this gap is not only ethically questionable but also strategically short-sighted. Research shows that companies offering a diverse and inclusive workplace earn 2.5x higher cash flow per employee and are over 35% more productive.
Having inclusive recruitment practices is essential as it opens your workplace to a wealth of diverse talent and perspectives. By offering an inclusive recruitment process, your organisation is helping to fuel out-of-the-box problem-solving while fostering a dynamically adaptable workforce, which is crucial in the rapidly evolving business landscape.
People power your organisation
By updating your recruitment practices to being more inclusive, your organisation welcomes a more diverse range of applicants. And the benefits of hiring a person with disability are tangible. Staff diversity encourages customer diversity and having a diverse staff helps your business to better understand disability needs. It can also promote a competitive edge and growth within your market share.
An untapped talent pool
Creating a diverse workforce creates loyalty and commitment in your workforce. Studies have found that a person with disability stays with a company 28% longer on average than an employee without disability. 90% of employees with disability record equal or greater productivity than other workers, and 86% have an equal or better attendance record.
Could your workplace recruitment process possibly be excluding future valuable employees?
How does it work?
Build your knowledge and access tools needed to foster a diverse and inclusive workforce when you engage with us at Get Skilled Access.
We start by assessing your recruitment process to identify any barriers that candidates might encounter. This involves reviewing your organisation’s internal procedures and examining how candidates experience the recruitment process. We work to eliminate any biases that may influence decision-making and affect staff retention. We also evaluate how you provide ongoing support to employees with disability once they are hired.
Learn about how Get Skilled Access helped improve inclusive recruitment practices at Medibank.
Actionable ways forward
For our recommendations to be most impactful (and easy for you to put in place), we’ll show you how to update your existing recruitment pipeline for a barrier-free process for all candidates – with disability and without. This might include using more inclusive language in your job descriptions or advertisements, understanding how candidates with disability experience interviews and onboarding, or equipping your recruitment team with the confidence to welcome employees with disability into your organisation.
As you develop a more diverse and inclusive outlook into recruitment, you’ll be in a stronger position to find the best talent and push your business forward.
Learn more about how to hire more people with disability.
