When attending interviews you may come across a range of employer concerns. While these concerns may be genuine, they are often based on assumptions or a lack of knowledge or experience of employing people with disability. Dispelling some of the myths will provide you with an opportunity to correct misinformation and to positively market yourself to employers. You may also like to talk to employers about some of the benefits to their business when they employ people with disability.
If you are receiving assistance from an Australian Government employment service provider, you may also want to speak with them about how you can address any employer concerns.
The following information covers the major categories of employer concerns and the information that you can provide to the employer to help allay these concerns.
Previous bad experiences
The first response of many employers is that they have already tried hiring someone with disability but it was unsuccessful and they would not want to try it again.
In responding to this concern, you may like to talk to the employer about:
- how you have considered all the inherent requirements of the job and that you are able to complete each requirement as a result of your skills and experience
- if you are registered with an Australian Government employment service provider, how you are receiving support from them and that they are also able to provide assistance to the employer
- the financial help available to the employer if you require any workplace adjustments or modifications at work.
All the pages on our web site print out in a user friendly format. You may like to print out some information on the financial help available to employers so that you can hand this to employers during an interview:
Gaps in your employment history
If an employer is concerned about any gaps that you may have in your employment history, you may like to talk to the employer about:
- any study, volunteer work or other activities you completed during this period
- your keenness to work
- your future career goals and how the job fits into this path.
The following guide provides more advice if you have an episodic work history due to mental illness:
Higher insurance and safety costs
A common misconception among employers is that workers compensation costs will increase due to hiring people with disability or that employees with disability are more likely to have accidents at work. This is definitely not the case. Whether an employer has employed people with disability is irrelevant to the calculation of such premiums. Premiums are based on accidents at work and not the characteristics of particular groups of employees and there is no proof that employees with disability are more susceptible to workplace injury than others.
In fact, research suggests that people with disability can have fewer accidents at work—the workers compensation costs for people with disability can be as low as four per cent of the workers compensation costs of other employees (Graffam et al 1999).
You may like to print out the following information so that you can hand them to employers during interviews if you are finding that this issue is a concern:
In addition, Safe Work Australia has produced a report that answers the question: Are people with disability at risk at work? See our Related Links for more information.
Possible side effects of medication
A related concern among employers is the safety implications of medication in the workplace. Most people with disability do not regularly use medication but if you do, be aware of the nature of any side effects.
You are only required to tell an employer about any medication that you are taking if it will impact on you job performance. It is therefore important that you consider how the medication might impact on your work performance and what adjustments might be necessary to alleviate them.
For example, if the medication makes you feel drowsy for a few hours after you take them, you may need to take extra precautions during that time, or alternatively you could start and finish work at a later time.
If you do require adjustments as a result of any medication, have a conversation with the employer and:
- be clear and matter of fact about why you are disclosing details about your medication and your desired outcome from doing so
- be knowledgeable about your disability and the medication
- provide some options and strategies for making the reasonable adjustment to make it easy for the employer.
The following guides provide more advice on disclosure and reasonable adjustments:
Lower productivity
Some employers will argue that it is not financially viable for them to hire people with disability as they work too slowly. But the reality is that most people with disability work at productivity levels equivalent to other employees and receive full wages.
If you are concerned about your productivity as a result of the nature of your disability, then you may wish to consider the Supported Wage System. With the Supported Wage System eligible people with disability can access a reliable process of productivity-based wage assessment to determine fair pay for fair work.
The following guide provides more information on the Supported Wage System:
Negative co-worker or customer response
It is quite common to hear employers say that hiring a person with disability will ‘not work’ as customers will complain or the person will not 'fit in' with co-workers. Neither statement is true and in most cases customer and co-worker acceptance comes with familiarity and the observation that workers with disability are competent and efficient in their jobs.
Furthermore, people with disability make up 20 per cent of the Australian population and the likelihood of customers and co-workers having a relative or friend with disability is therefore reasonably high. Employer initiatives in hiring people with disability can consequently have positive bottom line spin offs in the form of increased staff morale and community recognition as good corporate citizens.
References
Australian Safety and Compensation Council 2007, Are People with Disability at Risk at Work? A Review of the Evidence, Australian Safety and Compensation Council, Canberra.
Graffam, J, Shinkfield, A, Smith, K, and Polzin, U 2002, ‘Employer benefits and costs of employing a person with a disability’, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, vol. 17, pp. 251-263.