I have spoken to a number of agencies recently who have been candid enough to say they have lost bids based on their lack of knowledge and compliance of disability. More and more recruiters are asking me how they can help their client attract disabled candidates, and if you employ consultants with disabilities what reasonable adjustments you should make. 

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) means that as an employer or service provider, you cannot discriminate against disabled people. The DDA covers nearly seven million people of working age in the UK, of whom one million are unemployed but want to work. Disability and employment is a big issue – for policy makers, employers and disabled people themselves.

With over 20 years in recruitment, I understand all too well the pressures of competitive tendering. Clients that won’t let us help them. Legislation that gets pushed down the supply chain with little guidance on how to comply. I’m pleased to say that change is in the air and the support you need is more readily available than ever before.

Employers’ Forum on Disability (EFD) was set up to provide advice, support and guidance on recruiting and retaining disabled employees and serving disabled customers. I joined recently to spread the word to the recruitment industry.

Many agencies have little knowledge in this area. “Disabled people” covers a wide range of individuals. Often, it is not obvious who is disabled. Wheelchair users make up fewer than 8% of the UK’s disabled population. Yet one in three of us is disabled or is closed to someone who is, and we know little of the help that is available to access their talent.

You should be able to provide your clients with information about the services you can provide to the employer and the candidate. This includes:

• Details of the numbers of disabled candidates on your books.
• An assessment of the local labour market and competitors for the same applicant pool.
• A plan for accessing the talent pool that includes other recruitment partners if necessary (such as Remploy and Job Centre Plus).
• A marketing plan for attracting potential applicants who are long-term unemployed and not active job seekers.
• A description of the financial and expert support the agency can provide, for example, Access to Work, safety audits, “trouble shooting” post job offer support.
• The appointment of a dedicated account manager with sufficient authority to make things happen.

You won’t always know if your candidate has a disability. They may not want to tell you for various reasons: for example, a person with a hearing impairment or mental health condition might not think of themselves as disabled.  However, you can make it easier for disabled candidates to talk to you about how their condition affects them at work by asking all candidates whether they require any adjustments to the recruitment process.

It makes business sense to remove the barriers to your clients recruiting disabled talent. Disability confident employers will see immediate commercial benefits through being more attractive employers and service providers.

The recruitment industry has grown into a £22 billion business. Now, more than ever, it makes business sense to get it right on disability.