Tag Archives: pagegroup

Disability, Diversity, News

PageGroup CEO Calls on Businesses to Remove Disability Employment Barriers

FTSE 250 recruitment company, PageGroup, is calling on the industry to do more to support people with disabilities get into work. This rallying cry – led by CEO, Steve Ingham CBE, comes following a survey of over 1,000 UK business leaders which highlighted that almost three quarters (74%) feel that there are barriers to hiring people with disabilities in their organisation.

In a market where there are currently more vacancies than there are job hunters, these businesses are overlooking talented and skilled people with disabilities, including those who are neurodivergent, by closing the door on them at the very first step in the process.

To encourage businesses to improve and diversify their hiring practices, PageGroup has brought together key charities, social enterprises and changemakers in this space to launch a set of free resources designed to foster accessibility in recruitment across all industries, specifically for people with visual impairments, learning disabilities, and the neurodiverse.

In creating these resources, PageGroup has partnered with cloud-based web accessibility experts Recite Me, and worked closely with Leonard Cheshire, Genius Within, and Vision Foundation to identify simple yet meaningful solutions to help open up the jobs market and remove initial barriers to employment for those with disabilities.

With just a quarter (27%) of business leaders in the UK saying their organisation uses assistive technology to improve the hiring experience for people with disabilities, for example tailoring adverts for people with visual impairments or adopting ‘text to speech’ apps, there is a clear need for greater focus on inclusion at all stages of the recruitment process.

To offer greater accessibility to opportunities, PageGroup has installed Recite Me’s website plugin software across its sites to increase access for candidates applying for roles.

Today, job seekers can see the toolbar in action in eight markets on Michael Page and Page Personnel websites, and expect to see it continue to roll out across their sites globally in the coming months. The Recite Me toolbar is a website extension designed to offer users with visual impairments, learning disabilities and neurodiverse abilities a truly inclusive online experience with a range of customisation options to ensure accessibility.  These include screen reading, line-by-line tracking, distraction elimination, text zooming, and colour correction on pages to assist users with a variety of disabilities. Users can design an online experience to best suit their needs, helping every candidate to kick off their job search in the best way. As most job searches begin online, these adaptations are a radical improvement for job seekers included in the approximately one billion web users with dyslexia, visual impairments, autism, ADHD, epilepsy, and hyperlexia.

PageGroup’s CEO, Steve Ingham, said: “For the past 12 months we’ve seen job vacancies skyrocket, with many suggesting that the market is ‘candidate short’. But the fact of the matter is that there are hundreds of thousands of disabled or neurodiverse candidates who are unable to access roles due to inaccessible recruitment processes.

“At PageGroup, we are determined to create change. Whether that’s the industry leading work our award-winning DE&I team do internally, or the support we give our clients through our DE&I Client Solutions team, or our new accessibility resources for businesses across the country – this is a priority that runs through the very core of our business.”

“Accessibility in the recruitment process is crucial, but that’s just the first step for businesses – it’s important to remember that it doesn’t just end there. Whether it’s introducing technology, making offices wheelchair accessible or designing layouts that create spaces for everyone to thrive, businesses must realise that they can never be truly done, only constantly striving to do better.”

Ross Linnett, CEO at Recite Me said: “We are proud to be partnering with PageGroup to deliver resources for businesses that will open up the conversation around inclusion and accessibility in hiring. We have also been working with PageGroup to integrate our website accessibility software across its websites. An important milestone, as visiting a webpage is often the first step of a job seekers’ journey, yet inaccessible websites mean many candidates face barriers at the first hurdle. We’re excited to be helping to open opportunities for those who have previously been excluded from the job market because of inaccessible technology.”

The resources are designed for business leaders and hiring managers, with the advice relevant for workers at all levels across all sectors. The only way to instigate positive change and remove employment barriers for those with disabilities is to take meaningful action. Businesses can learn more and access the resources here.

News

Disability inequity at work: 22% of business leaders unlikely to hire candidates with known disabilities

PageGroup, global recruitment specialist, today releases a study which shines a light on the wide range of perceived barriers facing disabled individuals in the world of work. The findings reveal how far UK businesses still have to go to level the playing field for disabled candidates.

According to Parliamentary Briefing Papers on Disability Equality in the Workplace, 8.4 million[i] people in the UK are disabled and of working age, yet only 4.4 million are in employment. During a period of candidate shortages across multiple sectors, PageGroup polled 1,000 business leaders to understand the obstacles their business faces when looking to hire disabled candidates.

The findings suggest the top five common barriers business leaders face are:

 

  1. Having the right internal support in place to accommodate the needs of disabled staff members – 23%
  2. The cost of modifying equipment / technology for disabled employees – 23%
  3. Concerns around legal proceedings if disabled hires don’t work out – 20%
  4. Additional resource commitment to onboard disabled workers – 20%
  5. A perception that disabled people may lack the right skills – 20%

 

Steve Ingham, CEO of PageGroup said: “During a time of national skills shortages it is extremely disappointing that businesses are not broadening their talent pools to include disabled candidates as they search for applicants to fill the gaps in their organisations. The disabled community has so much potential and untapped talent to offer the workplace. I am confident that many of the disabled individuals I have met are capable of fulfilling the jobs of ‘able-bodied’ workers and in many instances would far exceed the expectations of business leaders and HR managers. As a disabled person in a wheelchair myself, I have seen firsthand the hidden workforce that the disabled community represents and recognise the critical need for businesses to find ways to appeal to this community more and understand the strengths they offer.”

Despite the range of perceived barriers, many businesses are making steps to enhance hiring processes for all demographics, which suggests that becoming more inclusive is a business priority for leadership. In the last year over a third (35%) of companies have offered inclusivity training to all interviewers of potential candidates, and 34% have altered the language in job adverts to remove gender biased language. However, there is a drop off when considering policies which directly benefit the disabled community searching for employment. Only a quarter (27%) have introduced tailored job adverts for people with sight difficulties or adopted ‘text to speech apps’. Furthermore, only 13% have hired a specialist recruiter that can advertise a role to underrepresented communities, such as disabled people.

PageGroup is striving to do more to help businesses. Its Diversity & Inclusion services include online content, interactive inclusivity workshops, Diversity & Inclusion Fitness Assessment and Diversity & Inclusion Strategy Development. PageGroup is also committed to promoting learning and development regarding unconscious bias and inclusion.

Ingham continued: “I am proud to announce today that PageGroup has launched a new D&I Solutions team to help bridge the gap between businesses, disability charities and disabled candidates. This team will address many of the perceived obstacles that business leaders identified in our research and will build partnerships to match talented disabled individuals with future employers.”

“I am also delighted to announce the hire of Ollie Thorn, PageGroup’s new Client D&I Manager, who will run the team entirely made up of employees from under-represented communities.”

Ollie Thorn, PageGroup’s new Client D&I Manager said: “Our research highlights a huge awareness challenge that disabled people must overcome to obtain employment in the UK. The truth is, I recognise how I am one of the luckier members of this underrepresented community in the workforce. However, there are many like me who have not had the same opportunities to find work. The team I am leading are committed to unlocking the hidden talent within the disabled community and providing a meaningful difference to the lives of millions of people. We cannot solve disability inequality in the workplace alone, so I urge businesses to get in touch so we can help educate them as they navigate their D&I strategies.

Caroline Casey of the Valuable 500 has also commented:

At a time of the “Great Resignation” and employers searching for talent, PageGroup‘s research highlights the huge opportunity that companies getting inclusion right enjoy – and the need for businesses to improve disability inequity in the workplace at all levels. 18 percent of the U.K. population have a disability – they also have huge talent. The Valuable 500 is striving to fundamentally transform the global business system and fight for an equal and inclusive society for all. By engaging with the world’s largest organisations and thought leaders and ensuring that disability is on their agenda we can collectively reach our goal of inclusion. We have developed and created tools to support our business leaders and their boards on their inclusion journey.  At some point in our lives, every single one of us will experience disability and we all have a responsibility to make humanity function better.”

[i] House of Commons Library, Briefing Paper Number 7540, Disabled People in Employment, 24 May 2021