The growing pressure on recruiters to ensure their minds and shortlists are open to disabled candidates was ratcheted up yet another notch last month with the Employers’ Forum on Disability’s (EFD) launch of a 10-point protocol aimed at providing barrier-free recruitment.

Speaking at the 20 October launch in London, Susan Scott-Parker, EFD chief executive, told the audience of blue-chip employers and recruiters, that the world of work was “surrounded by low expectations” of disabled candidates.

To improve their access to work will require employers and recruiters alike to “challenge these expectations”, she said.
Under the protocol, employer-clients will require their recruitment partners to do the following:
1. Actively seek and welcome applications from disabled candidates.
2. Ensure every step of the recruitment process, including online recruitment, is attractive and barrier free for groups of disabled people (ie people with hearing, mobility, sight or speech impairments.
3. Have provided disability training to all employees on their legal obligations as a supplier of recruitment services.
4. Check all job descriptions and person specifications to ensure that they concentrate on output rather than process, so that they do not inadvertently discriminate against disabled people.
5. Have checked all assessments and interviews, including by telephone or online ensuring that they are free of bias and that reasonable adjustments can be made to enable disabled candidates to demonstrate their ability to do the job.
6. Offer to facilitate work trials and extended interviews for candidates disadvantaged by traditional assessment techniques, where appropriate.
7. Engage with Access to Work and other government agencies that support disabled candidates.
8. When placing temporary workers, have processes in place to ensure onsite provision of any reasonable adjustments and support that the individual might need, as required by the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR).
9. Provide feedback to unsuccessful disabled candidates or candidates from disadvantaged groups more generally.
10. Monitor the number of candidates who tell you that they have a disability, and how successful they are in obtaining work through your agency.