According to The Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey however, only 10% of disabled employees said it was easy to get the adjustments at work that they needed and one in eight were waiting over a year for solutions to be put into place.

In common with many workplace issues, better understanding and communication between employers and employees can go a long way towards helping to improve matters. Let’s look at workplace adjustments in more detail, as well as some ways that businesses can more effectively remove or reduce disadvantages in the workplace.

Understanding workplace adjustments

Workplace adjustments can be for physical or mental health conditions and are specific to an individual, so it’s not a case of an employer following a defined list of changes. They can include the following:

• Physical changes to the workplace, like door ramps or lighting above a workstation
• Providing specialist equipment, services or support, such as noise cancelling headphones, emails in an accessible format or one-to-one help
• Changing someone's working arrangements, such as working patterns, distributing breaks evenly across the day or flexible working
• Finding a different way to do something, such as an alternative way to supply training or seating someone in a different area of the office

It’s important to note that employers are not expected to change the basic nature of the job or make changes that are unreasonable, based on their practicality, affordability or in terms of compromising the health and safety of others.

The employer is responsible for paying for any workplace adjustments, but as these examples demonstrate, many things that can make a difference are simple and affordable, while the size of the employer and the likely resources available for them to effect changes can be reasonably factored in.  If an employee needs support or adaptations that are considered beyond workplace adjustments, there is also the Government’s Access to Work employment support grant scheme, which can provide funding for either all or a share of the costs, depending on eligibility criteria.

Build an open culture

People don’t have to tell their employer that they're disabled but when they do, the employer has a legal responsibility to support them.

The Business Disability Forum outlines that trust is key and that no one generally knows their own disability or health condition better than the individual in question. When a disability has been disclosed therefore, it’s best to focus on the issues that someone is experiencing in the workplace and if they can suggest how to resolve them, rather than on a medical diagnosis.

This ties into having an open and inclusive culture, where people feel comfortable speaking to their manager, for example if something changes that makes a health condition more difficult to manage in the workplace or if someone has a progressive condition that would mean they would need differing adjustments over time. If someone is dealing with a new diagnosis, they may not know what they need or feel ready to ask for support so again, having trusted, open communication is important.

Firms should also look at their induction process and ensure managers are equipped to have conversations at the outset with a new employee around any adjustments required to do their job effectively.

Seeking professional advice

Which adjustments would be considered reasonable or unreasonable can be a concern for employers but to help with this they can refer for an occupational health assessment. This generally costs anywhere between £250 to £600 but the benefit is that it is specifically focused on how the employee does their job and how the job might affect the employee's health. Its aim is always to try to keep someone in employment and suggest practical ways that this can be achieved.

Using the health assessment report recommendations, in conjunction with an employee’s medical records if available, helps to underpin an independent and unbiased approach. If a business does not have its own HR resource, it can also be worth investing in HR support, to both ensure that the right questions are asked within the referral process and to help unpick the report and align the recommendations with workable options within a business.

Businesses can sometimes feel nervous about how to approach issues around disability correctly, but as the findings from the workplace adjustments survey demonstrate, the larger risk is that this results in inaction and a lack of support for the employee, and with this is the potential for legal recourse. By adopting an increasingly open and proactive approach, employers can both fulfil their legal obligations and make a real difference to tackling to barriers for disabled employees at work.

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