Moving from policy to practice

Most HR teams have great policies that take into account their duty to make reasonable adjustments in the Equality Act 2010. Is this enough? How do you inspire your line managers to follow best practice during their interactions with their team?

Most organisational HR policies and procedures cover reasonable adjustments. As an employer you have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to any elements of the job which place a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. And, at the very least, most organisations have policies and procedures in place for managing reasonable adjustments. These tend to include clear guidance on hiring disabled people and supporting Access to Work grant applications. But, is this enough?

We recommend that organisations go further and run mandatory training for all their line managers in handling the workplace adjustments process. This is the only way to move from policy to practice and to avoid a potential £4.7M mistake.