As a business owner, you have to be prepared to face all kinds of obstacles that you will need to clear if you’re to remain legal, ensure your business operates smoothly, and ultimately bring in the money. When it comes to your employees, you’re also obliged to cater to whatever needs they might have when you take them on.

What this means in practice will depend on the raft of thighs, but when it comes to disabled employees, there are significant legal obligations that must be met in order for them to feel safe and carry out their duties in an environment that is able to cater to them. This article will look at the various steps that your HR department can take to ensure these obligations are met and that any existing or future disabled employees aren’t made to feel like second-class citizens when trying to perform their jobs.

Implement Assistive Technology And Tools

Offering a way for your employees to work in a manner that suits their circumstances will not only ensure that you remain legal in your dealings with them but can also make them far more productive by giving them the tools they need to carry out their jobs. This can include having your HR team speak with various medical professionals to find out what specific medical conditions will need in terms of support. For instance, if you have an employee with cystic fibrosis, you can use a platform like MediFind, where you can check out their list here to connect with doctors specializing in that particular issue. You can do this for all kinds of disabilities, but the primary point is to speak with medical professionals who specialize in whatever condition your staff has in order to get a better understanding of the sorts of arrangements that need to be set into motion. 

Offer Flexible Work Arrangements And Schedules

If any one of your team has an issue that requires them to cist their doctor on regular occasions, you might need to figure out a flexible working arrangement with them that enables them to see their physician as and when required but still allows them to do the work you’re paying them for. This could manifest as your HR team discussing with them which hours suit them based on the schedule they need to keep regarding medical visits, etc. 

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Understand Legal Requirements For Accommodations

Before setting off on what will likely be a significantly large mission to help out your disabled employees, it’s first prudent to double-check what your legal obligations might be. This isn’t to say that you must only meet those standards and nothing more, but it will give you a good idea about how to proceed. Although most jurisdictions will have relatively similar regulations regarding the issue, you should always consult with your local government as well as the national one to find out exactly what’s involved. Failure to comply with any of the rules could result in enormous fines, legal action, and possibly a severe hit on the reputation of your business if it were serious enough to warrant being put out on the news of social media. You can also simply speak with your team member with a disability, as they will probably already have a good idea of what’s expected of your company, and also show them that you care and want to facilitate their needs wherever possible. 

Promote An Inclusive Workplace Culture

Although most average people are well aware that some folks have specific disabilities that might require additional resources to cater to, it’s always a good idea to promote a feeling of inclusivity throughout the workplace. This could involve setting up a training program that educates everyone regarding the more common ailments and having an open-door culture where your employees, both disabled and able-bodied, can enter your office and discuss anything that they might be concerned about. While you ought to have these policies in place as the owner, it will usually fall into the remit of your HR team to set up times when employees can discuss matters affecting them.

Provide Accessible Training And Resources

Any and all training resources you have that are aimed at teaching staff how to conduct the tasks they’ve been given correctly need to be made accessible to all. What this means in practice will depend on which disabilities you’re catering to, but if in doubt, ask your HR department to liaise with your local government departments focusing on these matters and check what sort of options you should have as standard. While you can facilitate other forms of less well-known disabilities as they come along, you ought to have the most basic options already set up.

Facilitate Open Communication With Employees

In the same vein as you would do with the point about prompting inclusivity throughout your workplace, you must also allow your employees to feel free to discuss any problems they might have. This goes two ways and should include not only your disabled staff but also your entire team. While you will want tot to reduce the number of meetings you conduct (to preserve the sanity of all your employees), it can help to set up semi-regular meetings between your employees and the HR team to air problems and ideas, which will help the entire unit. 

Conduct Regular Accessibility Audits And Evaluations

The only way you can ever guarantee that your actions have the intended outcomes and, by extension, that you’re staying on the right side of whatever disability laws exist in your country is to conduct regular audits. You can perform these in-house if you have a large enough team and members who are trained in conducting such thighs. If not, then you can usually outsource the job services dedicated to entering your business and performing an audit based on your criteria. They will produce a report full of suggestions that should help to direct you towards any actions needed to rectify problems.

Ensuring your place of work is open to people of all abilities is not only a legal requirement but a moral one. By ensuring all of your employees are able to perform their duties unobstructed, you will boost productivity and overall morale throughout your organization.

Guest writer