Regardless of what industry you're in, it's important that you embrace the value that disabled employees working from home can provide.
Professionals with a disability can benefit greatly from being set up to work from the comfort of their homes. This minimises liabilities while also providing opportunities to diverse employees.
Here's how you and your employees with a disability can get on the same page with remote work.
1. View It as an Opportunity
Remote work can work fluidly and become an asset when you make the right decisions.
People with disabilities already have their homes set up to accommodate their needs. Providing them with the ability to work at home removes stress, and creates opportunities to hire new professionals with disabilities.
Despite making up nearly one in five of the population, disabled people are underrepresented in the Australian workforce. According to the Australian Network on Disability, Australians with a disability who would like to work are twice as likely to be unemployed as those without.
Furthermore, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the workforce participation rate among the working-age people with a disability decreases to 50% (compared to 83% for non-disabled working-age people).
Hiring disabled professionals to work remotely is a win-win for your company and employees. Your disabled employees can work with autonomy, while your company stays productive.
What's more, a diverse company is more effective, well-rounded, and productive in the long-run.
2. Modify Your Company's Approach, Check-in Regularly and Fix Problems Quickly
A recent inquiry by the Australian Human Rights Commission found the key barriers to employment for disabled people include misconceptions, discrimination, not enough access to training and education, stigma and inaccessible work environments.
Consider taking the following steps to support disabled employees within your organisation.
- Tailor your new employee recruitment strategy to always consider disabled professionals who can jump in and fill some remote positions.
- Consistently provide professional training opportunities to your disabled employees so that they learn skills that improve your company and their life as a professional.
- Hold daily meetings or check-in sessions to see how your disabled professionals are adapting. Be prepared to make quick adjustments to make their workflow easier.
- Always ask about their equipment needs and whether you can get them set up with something new that will help. Make sure that their video technology is solid and stable so they can participate in these daily meetings.
Inclusive Design is a key component of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, leading to higher employee satisfaction and retention according to Forbes. We’ve written a whole article about this, check it out here.
3. Push Wellness and Self Care
Finally, always push wellness and self-care information to your employees with disabilities. It can be difficult to strike a healthy work-life balance when a disabled person is earning their living from home.
Encourage these employees to take plenty of breaks and not to burnout working excessively long hours. Keep hydrated and ensure health foods are kept in the house.
There are several exercise resources and opportunities for people with disabilities. They will get intense workouts by working around their limitations. Wellness and self-care also provide stress relief. A less stressed, healthier workforce will always get more done.
A healthy workplace is a productive workplace, so keep supplying everyone with the right information.
Help Your Disabled Employees Thrive
Mastering these tips will keep your company morale high. Your disabled employees will feel supported, which makes your company more productive.
Making life easier for you and giving you the tools to get the outcomes you desire is where we thrive the most. In fact, it's our mission.
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