Empowering Candidates with Disabilities
11 March 2024
Fostering a truly inclusive work environment for people with disabilities goes beyond making reasonable adjustments. This has been demonstrated by law firm Burges Salmon LLP, who launched their Enabled Candidate Scheme in 2023, to support candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions into a meaningful career. The scheme aims to cultivate a culture and workplace where everyone in the organisation can thrive.
Expanding the disability inclusion focus
When reviewing internal policies, Burges Salmon noticed a gap in the traditional recruitment process. They saw that some neurodiverse or disabled candidates were struggling to fit in standard 9-5 roles or even get through the door. These candidates needed an alternative recruitment process and required a more integrated approach into the working environment. This is especially pertinent when considering that around 17% of Bristol's community, where Burges Salmon operates, identifies as disabled, while their workforce representation is around 5% (which is reflective of the legal sector).
Partnering with an employability charity
In response to this, Burges Salmon thought about how they could reengineer roles to make them accessible for individuals who may only want, or be able to, work one or two days a week. They collaborated with external employability charity Send2Work, a community-focussed recruitment agency supporting neurodiverse and disabled candidates into sustainable employment. Together, they initiated the Enabled Candidate Scheme – a pioneering pilot project designed to match talented individuals with appropriate roles and offer tailored support throughout their employment journey.
Gemma Ferris, the Diversity, Inclusion and CR Coordinator at Burges Salmon, underscored the significance of structuring the initiative as an employment scheme rather than a standard work experience program.
“Feedback from Send2Work and their candidates demonstrated that the barriers to employment mainly fell into interview skills rather than whether they were job ready or had the workplace skills required to fulfil the role. This approach ensured that the candidate could find sustainable employment and kick-start their career.”
Collaborating for success
Burges Salmon launched their pilot programme in July 2023, recruiting, onboarding and inducting an employee on an initial four hour a week contract. The success of the pilot scheme was a result of a comprehensive collaboration and buy-in across various departments, each contributing to the adaptation of recruitment processes, induction procedures and ongoing support systems at the firm. This close collaboration meant that candidate felt comfortable starting their role and had the confidence to build their skills and knowledge while ensuring that the business needs of the firm were met.
“The programme is a great example of collaboration, with multiple teams across the business challenging what jobs should look like and how we can reengineer the way we offer roles to support people with different lived experiences.”
This success and positive impact of the pilot has led to the firm expanding the Enabled Candidate Scheme in 2024.
Read more about the Enabled Candidate Scheme and its impact.