Action 3.2B Mandate training and development for hiring managers and human resources on disability-inclusive recruitment practices.

Guidance

If you want your organisation to hire the best people regardless of their background or disability information, it is important to equip your recruitment teams with the skills they need to manage unconscious bias and provide a platform for all candidates to demonstrate their talents.

“We need to train our employers to expect variability – a universal design mindset is required.”

WIDE Consultation Participant – Disability Organisation

Mandating training and development activities for hiring managers and human resources personnel in inclusive recruitment practices can support you in this goal.

In small organisations, this might involve providing self-directed training resources to this cohort, whereas medium to large organisations should provide deeper training and development drives on a periodic basis.

Depending on which staff you are targeting, areas to cover in such training and development drives might include:

• Addressing Bias: Training should include strategies to identify and counter both conscious and unconscious biases related to disability. This involves raising awareness of how biases can influence recruitment decisions and providing tools to mitigate their impact. Examples might include supporting screening professionals to look past unexplained gaps in a CV, or to focus on what someone is communicating rather than how they communicate it.
• Reducing Barriers in Job Descriptions: Training should cover how to ensure that job descriptions are free from bias and inclusive of all potential candidates. This includes using inclusive language and avoiding unnecessary requirements that may inadvertently exclude disabled people (see Action 4.1B).
• Providing Effective Accommodations: Train hiring managers and HR personnel on how to organise and implement a range of effective accommodations during the recruitment process. This ensures that disabled candidates have the necessary support to participate equitably in interviews and assessments (see Area of Effort 4.2).
• Guidance on Interviewing Disabled People: Offer specific guidance on best practices for interviewing disabled candidates. This includes understanding different types of disabilities, appropriate communication methods, and developing flexible and accessible assessment methods (see Action 4.2C).

Note that grants are available to NGOs and private businesses through the Work and Access Fund (see Resources) to cover the majority of costs related to disability-inclusion training drives.

“There’s about 80%-90% coverage of costs for disability awareness training for private sector employers in state funding schemes, but a lot of employers don’t know that.”

WIDE Consultation Participant – Employer

By mandating these training programs, you demonstrate a commitment to creating an inclusive recruitment process that values the contributions of disabled people. This approach not only enhances equity and inclusion in your workplace, but also ensures you reach talented professionals which might otherwise be screened out of the process.