According to the Equality Act, employers must ensure that they cater to changes that help people with disability. The act stipulates that the employer has to provide employees with a disability the right support that would help them perform their job.
It’s not always easy to identify a disability, so how do you? Disability can be described as an individual suffering from long-term mental or physical impairment that makes regular everyday activity impossible. This can also imply that illnesses like acute anxiety or depression can be categorised as disabilities. Therefore, the disability doesn’t have to be physical for the employer to take responsibility for adjustments.
Pro-actively engaging in discussion, helps to explore whether or not reasonable adjustments might be necessary within the place of work. The act of making proper changes in the workplace requires conscious effort. It is crucial that employers watch for signs that point to employees needing help. Ideally, employers should not wait for employees to state their disability before making changes. Here are six steps to follow to make reasonable adjustments in the workplace.
Six Steps to Make Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace
- Don’t wait for employees to approach you: Waiting isn’t ideal, especially with employees that have a mental disability. As an employer, should you discover or suspect that an employee suffers a mental disability, do not hesitate to reach out.
- Seek Medical Documentation: The purpose of the medical documentation is not to disprove the claims of the employee’s disability. It is to help you understand the nature of the disability and then take reasonable action.
- Treat employees with respect and implement changes that would improve productivity.
- All conversations should be confidential: Employers should be careful not to reveal a staff’s disability needlessly. Unless the employee gives permission, then the disability talk should be kept private.
- Discussions should flow both ways: Employers should try their best to avoid an authoritarian approach. They should always factor in the opinions of their employees on what changes to make. Therefore, all disability request for change should be treated with care.
- Document your engagements: Documentation will help provide a trail that can be tracked and replicated in the future. It also allows for reflection and improvement.
Examples of Workplace Changes
Below are some suggestions to consider when making workplace changes. They are as follows:
- Provide an assistant
- Change the work schedule plans
- Assign position to the employee that best meets its requirements.
- Offer additional device or equipment
- Allow pets that serve as assistant to the employee
- Alter the model of supervision by breaking jobs into smaller bits
- Provide training
- Make homeworking opportunities available