Australian Employers Network on Disability

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING REASONABLE ADJUSTMENT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Robust Reasonable Adjustment Policies and Procedures are foundation stones for the successful and equitable inclusion of people with disability.

When communicated effectively a Reasonable Adjustment Policy makes it easier to attract skilled and talented people with disability, and to retain employees who may acquire a disability throughout their working lives.

Your Reasonable Adjustment Policy tells people that you have the intention to be inclusive and that you have developed the systems and knowledge to ensure the process is both timely and effective.

Your Reasonable Adjustment Policy should be readily available and well communicated within the organisation.

IMPORTANT DECISION POINTS:

• Who are the key people that will need to be involved in the development and approval of the Policy and Procedure?
• Who will pay and how will these expenses be managed?
• Who will be ultimately responsible for refusals of requests? (ideally only one person)
• What data will be kept?  By whom?  How will the data be used?
• What are the expectations of various roles in the organisation? E.g. recruitment team, hiring manager, OH&S team, diversity practitioner?
• What information will be available on the internet to prospective employees?
• What information will be available to existing employees, and will employees be able to download the request form from the intranet?
• Will you measure “time taken” to satisfy a request?
• How will you ensure that cost implications do not impact on managers’ performance assessments?