Accommodating diverse working-life patterns
Managing disability as a natural part of working life enables disability confident organisations to develop more sustainable, innovative and equitable employment practices for everyone.
Psychological contracts between employer and employee are changing as lifetime working patterns are becoming more diverse, with education, employment and personal leave mixing to form a 'blended' working life. Agile responsive employers address disability as an integral element of the flexible working agenda.
Approaching disability as a factor which affects employees working life patterns enables employers to treat disabled people as individuals rather than as a homogenous group, which can be the result of a more 'strand' based approach to diversity. The needs of a young disabled person who has had an impairment since birth are likely to be very different to the middle manager who acquires an age related disability.
The intelligent employer response to disability across working life:
- Attraction: Adjustments may be needed to help overcome past disadvantage and discrimination - for example past discrimination in education. Lack of experience is the most cited reason for not employing disabled people.
- Inclusion: Create an inclusive workforce where everyone can contribute. 1 in 8 of all UK employees have a disability; 3 million workers are caring for a disabled person. Ensure career development - many disabled people are stuck in low level positions
- Retention: Incidence of disability increases with age - flexibility and reasonable adjustments are needed to retain corporate intelligence and maintain productivity. On average 2% of the workforce becomes disabled every year
- Retirement: 44% of workers aged 50 - 64 are disabled. Older workers would like more flexible options to replace the retirement cliff.
Building skills in flexible management will help employers to plan for an aging workforce. 60% of workers rate time and flexibility as very important factors in retention [i] 2005); however only 28% of employers used alternative scheduling as part of their retention strategy, compared to 60% which included salary adjustments and promotions. [ii]
The fasted growing source of 'new' labour will be older people, including those already retired. The workforce is growing increasingly diverse, not only in terms of age but also in terms of gender, ethnicity, background, education, lifestyle and other variables.
Employers need to] act now to adjust workforce management practices before the labour and skills crisis builds. Those who act early will be prepared for a demographically inevitable future and enjoy short term work productivity benefits along the wayDychtwald, Erickson, Morison,
'Its time to retire retirement' Harvard Business Review, 2004.
Equality and Human Rights Commission
The EHRC offers a number of flexible working patterns to facilitate the retention of employees who become disabled, for example V Time. This scheme enables individuals to 'buy' additional leave by a monthly reduction in salary. Additional leave may be bought in amounts of 5 days up to a maximum of 20 days per annum.
The V Time policy was introduced as a result of the EHRC working towards being an exemplary employer. As the EHRC employs approximately 32% of disabled staff we were keen to ensure that we make adjustments that support the retention of employees who are disabled or become disabled. We see offering flexible working options as part of our own retention policy. The EHRC recognises that people have different abilities and skills and also as part of continuous improvement we review our employment policies and practices. We do this in consultation with EHRC colleagues and also the union. Also, as part of retaining the valuable skills of employees whose circumstances may change during the course of employment, may require staff to adapt to a different work pattern.
The EHRC regularly reviews its flexible working policies. As part of this review, the regularly benchmark the EHRC flexible working practices against similar organisations. Also, as part of this review we researched new initiatives that could potentially be introduced to support flexible working practices. The results collated informed the recommendation that a V-Time Scheme could support the retention of staff and provide staff with a variety of flexible working options. The collated results and recommendations made from this study were presented to our Senior Management Team who gave a full endorsement to this Scheme being introduced at the EHRC. We also presented the details of the scheme to our Joint Consultative Committee who commended the introduction of this scheme to EHRC staff.
All positions within the EHRC can be considered for V-Time, with varied durations considered to ensure we meet the needs of the staff members and the EHRC. The number of flexible working options available to staff has increased. Staff requesting V-time as a flexible working option has increased. The EHRC has continued to deliver key programmes and core business objectives.