Sport Highlights the Talent and Diversity That Workplaces Need

Creating opportunities, and supportive environments where people can be themselves, discover, hone, and share their talent, is something I have thought about a lot recently, particularly as we planned Konica Minolta’s path to achieving Level 2 status as a Disability Confident Employer. We have always worked hard to be an equal opportunities employer, yet throughout our journey to achieve this milestone (under the Department for Work and Pensions Disability Confident scheme), we discovered and reflected on ways in which we can go further.

It is important to note that this is not about box ticking, or simply complying with regulation. There are huge benefits for us, over and above doing the right thing, such as breaking down stigma and driving behavioural and cultural change. 23% of working-age adults in the UK being disabled and just 5% in work, the size of the talent pool to draw from is huge, at a time when many organisations are struggling with a national skills shortage.

There are several initiatives we have introduced in recent years that have certainly helped, such as Choice-Based Working. Today, many of our employees can decide when and where they work, whether at any of our offices throughout the UK, at home, or elsewhere. It empowers them to manage their workload and commitments (e.g. work, home, caring and medical), in the way that suits them and their needs. For those who come into the office, they will find an inclusive and welcoming environment that empowers rather than impedes them.

However, being a Disability Confident Employer is not only about physical accessibility, but also about embracing individuality at all levels of the business. This may mean making ‘reasonable adjustments’ to remove or reduce the disadvantage relating to someone’s disability, but it is also about helping everyone to support each other.

The disability equality charity, Scope, reports a troubling statistic, that disabled people are nearly twice as likely to leave their jobs as their non-disabled colleagues, with negative attitudes, discrimination, challenges getting reasonable adjustments and inflexible working patterns cited as key factors. However, there can also be more nuanced challenges, with disabled colleagues feeling others overcompensate or underestimate their abilities when all they want (and should expect) is to be treated as equals. Therefore, we have developed our own learning module that will be shared with everyone in the organisation, to raise awareness of disability equality, as well as a specific micro learning package guiding leaders to help them to provide the appropriate level of support, ask the right questions, and communicate with confidence.

Introducing these practices is vitally important but equally so is the need to make people with a disability aware of the many career opportunities that are available here at Konica Minolta (from apprenticeships to senior leadership) and instilling them with confidence that they should apply and will be supported. Scope also states that people with a disability are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people. So, we have also transformed how we advertise the positions we have available.

We now optimise our job advertisements (both on our website and external job sites such as Indeed and LinkedIn), changing how we order content, the language we use, and the clarity with which it is presented, to better engage people who are neurodiverse. Other examples include altering the size and colour of fonts to make it easier for those with dyslexia. These adverts are also publicised in a wider range of places including the Government’s Find a job website. Unlike many other sites, it enables potential applicants to use Disability Confident as search criteria for employers with open positions. Of course, we also proudly display our Disability Confident badge alongside our Top Employer credentials on the Konica Minolta careers page.
This attention to detail continues during the application, interview (we provide support packs to applicants to help diminish any issues that could cause anxiety, as well as guidance for our talent managers conducting interviews), during the onboarding process for successful applicants and of course throughout their career with Konica Minolta.

We are proud of the commitment we are making and our Level 2 status as a Disability Confident Employer is an important stage. However, this is just one step to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, and we are making progress every day. So, whilst we may not have gold medals to award people, we are working hard towards setting a gold standard in the workplace.