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Attracting and recruiting people with disability

MAC objective 2: Flexible recruitment strategies that are accessible to applicants with disability

APS agencies should position themselves as employers of choice for the diverse Australian community and ensure that their recruitment practices give everyone, including people with disability, the opportunity to compete for jobs fairly and without either direct or indirect discrimination.

What can we do?

1. Consider how and where jobs are advertised

People with disability—particularly those with a visual or other disability that may make it difficult to access print or online advertisements available only in PDF format—often rely on their own networks to learn of vacancies.

In order to reach potential applicants with disability, some employers, including the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, have arranged to forward all vacancies to Disability Works Australia for distribution to Disability Employment Network providers and Vocational Rehabilitation Services.

Agencies should also consider notifying vacancies on JobSearch.⁶⁵ JobSearch is one of Australia’s largest online job boards allowing job seekers, including job seekers with disability, to search for job vacancies nationally.

Wherever agencies place their ads, they may wish to consider including references to diversity, or specific references to disability, in the wording of their job advertising.

The Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs advise prospective applicants that:

The range and nature of work in the Department requires a workforce that reflects our diverse society. We welcome applications from Indigenous Australians, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and people with disability. We are committed to providing an environment that values diversity and supports all staff to reach their full potential. If you have individual requirements that need to be accommodated in order to participate in an interview, please indicate this in your application.

2. Review selection processes

Agencies may wish to consider reviewing their selection procedures to ensure that they do not discourage people with disability from applying for jobs in the agency, or indirectly discriminate against them during the selection process.

Relevant points for consideration include:

Does the agency’s approach to developing selection documents result in material that attracts applicants with disability?⁶⁶ For example:
- Are documents written in plain English and as concise and free of jargon as possible?
- Are the duties of the position set out clearly and simply?
- Are the selection criteria realistic and relevant to the inherent requirements of the job?
- Is the documentation available in different formats to allow broad access?
Does guidance provided to selection panels and delegates make reference to reasonable adjustment and provide for appropriate flexibility? This issue has been discussed at length earlier in this kit, but examples of initiatives include:
- allowing for people with disability to be given reasonable time to lodge applications and allowing applications to be accepted in different formats
- highlighting that direct testing methods may need to be adjusted in some cases so as to not unfairly disadvantage applicants with disability.

In reviewing procedures, agencies may find the Commission’s Get It Right⁶⁷ kit on selections a useful resource.

Agencies may also wish to consider whether staff involved in selection exercises are provided with the right level of training on selection processes. This could include issues such as the application of merit and the diverse needs of applicants, including those with disability (see Part 2 of this kit for more information about training).

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has a policy that staff must undertake general selections training offered by the Commission before they can participate in selection exercises. This training includes advice concerning applicants that identify as having a disability.

Further information on this training can be obtained from the nearest office of the Commission. Contact details are available on the Commission’s website.⁶⁸

Further information and advice about recruitment processes and people with disability is set out in Part 1 and Part 2 of this toolkit.

3. Develop specific policies on disability employment

Under the Commonwealth Disability Strategy⁶⁹ (CDS) agencies have an obligation to ensure that their employment policies and procedures comply with the DD Act. Agencies have a range of other obligations as employers under the CDS, including ensuring that agency recruiters and managers apply the principle of 'reasonable adjustment', that the ongoing employment of people with disability includes some capacity to support the individual's changing needs and ability to pursue a career path, and that workplace strategies are in place to address attitudes inhibiting people with disability from securing and maintaining employment.

Under the Public Service Act, agencies are required to establish workplace diversity programmes that include measures to ensure, among other things, equity in employment is promoted and upheld, through transparent and fair employment decisions and eliminating any employment-related disadvantage on the basis of disability.

To ensure these obligations are met, agencies could consider developing specific policies relating to the employment of people with disability.

In 2006, the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs introduced a new Policy for the Recruitment and Retention of People with Disability.

The policy notes that the department’s principles, policies and resources relating to people with disability are not about providing special treatment but about ensuring merit and equity based access to jobs, resources and benefits for all employees.

Specific measures in the policy include:

Recruitment

establishing links with universities to make graduates with disability aware of opportunities in the department
identifying and participating in relevant events, such as career expos and International Day of People with Disability
establishing close contacts with community and peak bodies to raise the department’s profile as an employer
publicising the support available to potential job applicants with disability in recruitment literature and making sure the department’s promotional material in general reflects its diverse workforce
submitting all vacancies to the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (Disability Works Australia⁷⁰) which provides employers with access to a single contact point for recruiting people with disability
writing job advertisements in a way that focuses on the inherent requirements of the job and encourages people with disability to apply, e.g. through reference to reasonable adjustments and by providing contact details for the department’s Disability Access Coordinator (where relevant—see Supporting managers and building their capability for an example of how such a role can work in practice)
providing information and advice to staff involved in interviewing for jobs on disability issues, such as the reasonable adjustments that can be arranged to facilitate equitable participation in selection processes
ensuring that external recruitment providers are aware of the department’s diversity commitments and policies including reasonable adjustment

Retention

providing information about disability issues to all new employees as part of the induction process
making relevant reasonable adjustments prior to a person with disability commencing work; monitoring and evaluating the adjustments on an ongoing basis; and consulting with the relevant individual when assessing adjustments
consulting and informing co-workers about reasonable adjustments where the changes will impact on them in the workplace
consulting and taking into account the needs of people with disability, e.g. when upgrading facilities, revising procedures, such as fire evacuation procedures, and arranging work and social events
making employees with disability aware of the department’s internal support networks as well as promoting external support services, e.g. employee assistance programmes
providing employees with disability with the same opportunities as other employees to participate in career development activities and opportunities, e.g. by including information about reasonable adjustment in material relating to promotion opportunities and making such information available in alternative formats on request
ensuring that the promotion of learning and development programmes includes information about their accessibility to people with disability and taking into account the requirements of people with disability in the design and delivery of programmes
arranging awareness programmes and training for all staff in order to promote an inclusive culture where people with disability are valued and treated equitably.

4. Ensure that recruitment agencies are properly briefed

Some APS agencies contract external recruitment agencies to conduct selections on their behalf.

It is important for APS agencies that do so to ensure that recruitment agencies they use abide by the APS agency’s policies and procedures, are fully conversant with the APS Values relating to employment, and encourage and support applicants with disability. Agencies should ensure that contractual arrangements with recruitment agencies clearly set out these expectations.

It is good practice for APS agencies to maintain a contact point in their agency that an applicant with disability can contact if they feel that they are not being dealt with properly in the course of the selection process.

Centrelink makes adherence to the agency’s workplace diversity and disability policies a key criterion for selecting recruitment providers and this requirement is written into contractual arrangements.

5. Develop links with specialist organisations

Agencies may wish to consider developing links with organisations specialising in placing people with disability in employment, including the Disability Employment Network, the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (see box below), strategic service providers, disability liaison officers in universities⁷¹ and lobby groups.

The Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs:

notifies the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator, Disability Works Australia, of all advertised vacancies in the department, for distribution through its networks
sends information about graduate opportunities to disability recruitment coordinators in universities
has developed links with a number of specialist placement agencies.

The National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (currently Disability Works Australia⁷² (DWA)) offers a single point of contact for the recruitment of employees with disability.

The Coordinator is also able to link agencies with Disability Employment Network members and Vocational Rehabilitation services and help agencies establish a working relationship with them.

Referral and advice services are free to APS employers. Job vacancies can be forwarded to DWA for distribution to Disability Employment Network (DEN) providers and Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS). Agencies then receive enquires direct from DEN, VRS and Job Network members, as well as referrals of possible candidates.

DWA is also available to provide a range of services to agencies on a fee-for-service basis, including reviewing recruitment processes and developing strategies to increase employment of people with disability, job design, job-matching, pre-screening of applicants, placement services and disability awareness training.

DWA has worked with a number of State and Territory public sectors, including the South Australian, Northern Territory and Victorian Governments to assist in developing strategies to increase the level of employment of people with disability.

Several State public services work with DWA to facilitate the employment of people with disability on short-term contracts. Non-ongoing employment can be a good way of gaining valuable workplace experience for people with disability and provide a pathway to ongoing employment.

65 https://jobsearch.gov.au/Login/Login.aspx?WHCode=0&TextOnly=0

66 Documentation of this type is not only more encouraging for people with disability it is more likely to attract applicants generally.

67 http://www.apsc.gov.au/getitright

68 http://www.apsc.gov.au/regional

69 http://www.facsia.gov.au/disability/cds/cds/cds_index.htm

70 http://www.dwa.org.au/about.htm

71 http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/disability/regional/dlo/index.html

72 http://www.dwa.org.au/about.htm