We Are Disability Confident: How We Support And Help Disabled People With Entering The Workplace

In the UK over 6 million people of working age are disabled or have a health condition. A large gap between the number of disabled people who are in employment compared with non disabled people exists and the government created the Disability Confident campaign with the aim of halving the employment gap between disabled people and non disabled people.

Through the campaign the government is working with employers to challenge attitudes towards disability, increase understanding of disability, remove barriers and ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations.

Both Easy Internet Services and Easy Internet Solutions are proud to be a Disability Confident partner, and we are committed to helping disabled people enter the workplace, as well as fully supporting this government initiative.

We have employed and provided support to disabled people for a number of years, including our Web Hosting Administrator Paul Simpson. We were recruiting for the role at the same time that we attended the launch of the Disability Confident campaign in 2013, and we were greatly inspired by Easyjet’s Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s speech during the event.

Paul applied for the role and we contacted him, but it was clear that he had some sort of disadvantage in the workplace as he couldn’t undertake a normal interview process. We modified our interview structure to make it more of a discussion as Paul suffers from dyslexia and has a hearing problem. We offered him the position and identified what training he required, and sought help from “Access To Work” who arranged to have a special phone implemented for Paul to help him in his role with us.

Speaking of his role as Web Hosting Administrator with us, Paul said: “The Disability Confident campaign is a great idea, as it encourages business to see disabled people in a more positive light and as an asset to their business that can improve workplace diversity and company image. This is much more positive than being seen as a negative burden and a drain on both businesses and societies resources. Thanks to the scheme and Easy Internet Services & Solutions I have been able to show that I can get on and achieve my goals and targets without my disability being a barrier. I was thrilled to be mentioned in Iain Duncan-Smith’s speech during the 2014 Conservative Party Conference and recognised for my efforts”

We also support our employees with flexible working and homeworking, where we have seen great benefits. Allowing our employees to work from home has led to increased productivity, happier staff, higher morale, better motivation and has enabled us to retain our staff more effectively. Homeworking options have also enabled us to employ disabled people and those who need additional support, or those who can’t travel far and need to be home based, but who are still valuable and productive employees. It has also meant we can consider candidates who don’t live locally.

Lisa Peach, our Digital Marketing Manager, works from her dedicated home office and comes in 2-3 times a month for face to face meetings. Lisa lives in Worcester and could not have considered the role if it meant commuting to the office on a daily basis due to the distance she would have to travel. Of her role with us she said: “I saw the advertisement online for the vacancy of Digital Marketing Manager, but at first I overlooked it due to the offices being based in Leicester which was a huge shame as I felt the role would be perfect for me. When I looked into it further I found out that the company supported home working, so I applied for the role and was thrilled to get an interview. Although I have been with the company for a short time I love my job and find that I am much more productive working from home, I can do everything for my role as if I was in the main office and I have regular contact with the team and the Directors via Skype. It has given me a great work life balance and I can work during the time I would have been commuting or stuck in traffic too.”

You can view our listing as a Disability Confident partner by clicking here.

For more information about the Disability Confident campaign, click here.

To view the 2014 Conservative Party Conference speech by Iain Duncan-Smith about the Disability Confident campaign, click here.