A Passport for Keeping Staff with Disabilities

A Passport for Keeping Staff with Disabilities There are currently around 4 million people with disabilities in employment in the UK; that’s just over half of the total number. While that percentage is increasing, it’s still poor in comparison to more than 80% employment in the general population. Worryingly, around 10% of people with disabilities drop out of work each year and one in seven change their jobs. Those figures have inspired the Trades Union Council (TUC) and the GMB to take action to ensure that employers are meeting their obligations to staff with disabilities. They’ve launched a campaign in the south West of England aimed at helping the 95,000 people with disabilities who live in the area to get what they need to keep them in work. The campaign includes a model Reasonable Adjustments Employer Agreement for organizations, and for the employee a passport in which they can record which adjustments have actually been made. Nigel Costley, the TUC’s Regional Secretary in the area said, ‘People with disabilities face many barriers when it comes to finding good, rewarding jobs. Employers must do more to ensure they provide reasonable adjustments legally required to support their workers.’ What are Reasonable Adjustments? The Equality Act of 2010 requires employees to make sure that reasonable adjustments are made to ensure that people with physical or mental impairment are able to carry out their jobs. Companies are required to provide equipment and put policies and practices into place to ensure that no employee is disadvantaged. Examples of reasonable adjustments could be: Providing specific types of equipment such as chairs of keyboards for staff who have back problems or arthritis Installing a ramp to allow a wheelchair user access Allowing a staff member to have a designated parking space in the case of mobility issues Changes to hours of work Allowing the staff member to work remotely, full or part-time. Altering the sickness policy to ensure it does not automatically trigger for staff with long-term illnesses. The aim of the adjustment is to ‘level the playing field’ to make sure that staff with disabilities are not put at a disadvantage just for having them. When Should Reasonable Adjustment be Made? Adjustments are required to be made under the following circumstances: When the employer becomes aware, or could reasonably know of the disability When the staff member requests an adjustment If the employee is having difficulty with any part of their job If any part of their sickness record is linked to their disability. It is best to organize a meeting with the employee and discuss their role and what adjustments might be needed to ensure their success in the role. Documenting this meeting so that both sides are aware of the commitment is key. The Advantages of Hiring People with Disabilities The benefits of a more diverse team are now widely recognized in business. Adding people with different life experiences increases productivity and creativity. Cultural insights can be invaluable when considering how to reach out to or deal with new groups of people. There are a large number of people living with disabilities who are out of a job. That’s a huge pool of potential talent, from people who have already learned lessons about flexibility and determination. Making reasonable adjustments to add that sort of talent to your team really is a no-brainer.

Im Glad I Took That Vacation. Take Yours. Marla Gottschalk

Im Glad I Took That Vacation. Take Yours. Marla Gottschalk Ive always been a staycation advocate. Alright â€" Ill be entirely honest, I really love to hang out in my home office and work. Personally, I have found that vacations away from home, can actually become stressful. There are routes to to decipher, planes to catch, maps to re-fold, thunderstorms (and hail) to contend with and new routines to master. (Might I add, leaving my trusted coffee maker behind). However, these are not satisfactory excuses. We all need a break. We likely feel this deep in our bones. Whether you can devote an entire month, a couple of weeks or just a couple of days, a break should become a priority. (Preparation is important.) Even if you qualify as a die hard staycation addict â€" there are advantages to planning a vacation away from your usual milieu. Here are just a few: Youll catch a glimpse of you. Somehow when your surroundings shift, you become louder. (What is that inner voice muttering?) With the ambient noise of your work life absent, youll hear yourself much more clearly. Trust me, your work will benefit from this kind of clarity. Knowing yourself is step one toward a healthy, and productive work life. Nature can take over. I am officially obsessed with changes in scenery. A new scene through my viewfinder, provided by the power of mother nature â€" recharges my mind (and soul) in a manner that I cannot even begin to describe. This time around I requested a room with a view (and got one) â€" Grand Traverse Bay was a breathtaking part of my morning routine. Work rarely entered my mind. Your metrics shift. It may take a couple of days to get into the groove â€" but, once over the hump â€" your days will be measured in a very different manner. The places youd like to visit and the people you havent had the time to really connect with in ages, become your focus. Other priorities do begin to fade. Time slows. For the first time in quite a long while, the passage of time wasnt quite as fast. Time away from work allows you the luxury of savoring the moment. My only regret? I wish the break lasted just a tad longer. Next year Ill be sure to make the effort to extend the time frame. I would love to hear your vacation experiences. Share them in comments. Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist. She is the Director of Thought Leadership at Kilberry Leadership Advisors, Toronto.   Photo Credit: M. Gottschalk Chateau Chantal Winery Inn, Traverse City, Michigan, USA.

Looking for graduate job ads Start here! University of Manchester Careers Blog

Looking for graduate job ads Start here! University of Manchester Careers Blog Quick, convenient, hassle-free job-hunting thats what you want as a finalist or graduate. Thats why weve created Graduate JobSearch. In a couple of clicks, you can be looking at real live job ads aimed at new (or soon to be) graduates. Its mobile friendly, so now you can browse on the bus or click over coffee. It targets jobs suitable for new graduates. Access 200+ targeted job searches or job sites all from one site. Graduate JobSearch Know what you want? Go directly to job searches for charities, science, media culture, environment, using languages, engineering, marketing and many more. Open to anything interesting? Try our general graduate job searches, or search by jobs in a particular part of the UK. University of Manchester students and recent graduates In addition to all these external job sites, login to Careerslink or sign up to the Manchester Graduate Internship Programme for opportunities from employers targeting Manchester students. Seeing jobs which arent suitable for new graduates? Unfortunately, thats inevitable! Weve filtered where we can (by job type, keywords, graduate/entry level, reasonable starting salary etc) but its not foolproof. You can always ignore the featured ads paid content, often irrelevant to your search, which appear near the top of the list. The further down the list you go, the less relevant the ads are likely to get with general job search sites. Important: The University of Manchester cannot control or endorse any of the external adverts you may see. Check out our guide to spotting scam jobs if you have any concerns about an advert. Not found the type of job you want? Not all jobs are covered. Weve targeted the most popular jobs with our finalists and recent graduates. You can use our targeted searches as a starting point and change the search criteria to see more or fewer jobs many will let you search by salary, location, function, experience level etc. Drop us a comment below if you want to: Suggest another type of work we should cover or a really useful search site for graduate jobs.* Report a broken link or inappropriate content in the searches. Adverts are not the only way of finding a job Many new graduates find their first job through word of mouth, direct speculative applications or agencies. Use our guide to Finding graduate jobs for even more ways to find the job you really want. Let us know what you think just drop us a comment below. * Job site owners Sorry, but we reserve the right to ignore any pleas to link to sites unless we feel they would add something different and would be of real value to our students searching for their first graduate job. Undergraduate-highlighted job hunting jobs