The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published a guide to help employers support disabled workers’ full participation in hybrid working. The guide provides practical tips, conversation prompts, questions, and case study examples. It covers recruitment and employment.
What does the law say about reasonable adjustments in employment?
The Equality Act 2010 recognises that achieving equality for disabled people may mean changing the way employment is structured, removing physical barriers, or providing extra support for disabled workers.
This is the duty to make reasonable adjustments. The duty aims to ensure, as far as is reasonable, that a disabled job applicant or worker has the same access to everything involved in getting, doing, and keeping a job as a non-disabled person.
When the duty arises, an employer has a positive duty to take reasonable steps to remove, reduce, or prevent the obstacles a disabled worker or job applicant faces.
The duty applies in recruitment and during all stages of employment.
What is a disability?
The Equality Act defines disability as a physical or a mental impairment or condition which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to do normal day to day activities. Normal day to day activities includes the person’s ability to participate fully and effectively in working life on an equal basis with other workers.
When should you make adjustments?
Consider whether a disabled worker or job applicant is put at a substantial disadvantage by:
- The way you do things.
- A physical feature of your workplace.
- The absence of an auxiliary aid or service.
If this disadvantage is more than minor or trivial compared with someone who is not disabled, you must make reasonable adjustments.
The aim of the adjustments you make is to remove, prevent or reduce the disadvantage.
You only have to make adjustments that are reasonable, which may differ from business to business.
How will you know if a worker is disabled?
You must make adjustments where you know or reasonably could be expected to know that a disabled person is, or maybe, an applicant for work.
Except in specific circumstances, the Equality Act makes it unlawful for an employer to ask any job applicant about their disability and health during the recruitment process up to when a job offer is made. However, you are permitted to ask questions to determine whether you should make reasonable adjustments to enable a disabled job applicant to take part in any assessment, such as an interview or other assessment process, to test their ability to do the job.
Any information on health or disability obtained to adjust recruitment arrangements should be kept separate from other information in the job application. It should not form part of the decision-making process about a job offer.
You could:
- ask job applicants if they need any adjustments as part of the recruitment process; for example, adjustments could include providing extra time during assessment exercises, using closed captions for online interviews and tasks, providing a British Sign Language interpreter or doing the interview online instead of in person
- send an adjustments checklist to candidates to ask if they require any adjustments during employment.
During onboarding:
- invite new starters to tell you if they may require reasonable adjustments
- be clear that they can request reasonable adjustments at any time
- share a copy of your reasonable adjustments policy if you have one
- consider whether a worker may need adjustments to remove or prevent barriers in the workplace. This could be discussed in regular supervision meetings.
How can you identify barriers to effective hybrid working?
Speak to your worker directly about the challenges and barriers they face in the workplace.
Specifically:
- encourage your worker to talk and lead any discussions
- give them plenty of opportunity to explain the situation in their own words
- ask simple, open, non-judgemental questions, starting with ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘tell me (more) about’
- listen actively and carefully
- be prepared for some silences
- be patient.
Explain to the worker what you need to discuss, how you will use the information, and who else may need to be informed. Let them know that this is to help them remain healthy and safe and thrive at work.
What should you ask?
- Which elements of your role or workspace are creating barriers to you doing your job?
- Where does this affect you – in the business premises, at home, during online and hybrid interactions, for example, a meeting combining in-person and online participants, or another setting?
- Is the impact on you likely to vary or change over time?
- Are there any parts of our organisation’s hybrid working arrangements that create barriers for you? For example, can you participate in and contribute to online and hybrid meetings?
- Do you have all the IT equipment, software, and physical equipment required on the business premises or in remote settings?
How can you identify the adjustments needed to overcome the barriers?
Once you understand your worker’s challenges, you can make the required reasonable adjustments. The conversation should be open and supportive. Several adjustments may be required.
If an adjustment is reasonable, you, as the employer, must pay for it. The cost of an adjustment can be considered when deciding whether it is reasonable or not. Remember that the responsibility is not on the worker to suggest adjustments. However, both you and your worker can suggest what adjustments might help. They are more likely to be effective if the worker is involved in identifying them.
Make sure your worker knows about the government’s Access to Work scheme. Access to Work can provide practical advice and financial support where someone needs support or adaptations beyond reasonable adjustments. Although the guidance and support are given to the worker, you will benefit too.
Check if your company has an occupational health scheme. Occupational health can carry out an assessment, informing discussions about reasonable adjustments. An occupational health assessment is not mandatory. You may have enough information to agree on reasonable adjustments for your discussions.
Legal responsibility for making reasonable adjustments remains with you, the employer, even where Access to Work or occupational health services are involved in providing advice or, in the case of Access to Work, funding for support.
Adjustments should be tailored to the individual worker’s requirements. A combination of adjustments may be needed.
Adjustments may relate to different aspects of hybrid working, including:
- Digital support.
- IT equipment.
- Online and hybrid meeting etiquette.
- Travel to work.
- Policies and practices about remote working.
Many software suites, like Windows, include free accessibility features, such as screen reading or voice-to-text software. These may meet the needs of some individuals or act as an interim measure until an assessment is completed. Specialist accessibility technology may be required for others.
Our guidance for employers on workplace adjustments sets out some of the factors to consider when deciding whether an adjustment is reasonable.
What should you ask?
- Do you have any suggestions for adjustments in addition to those already discussed?
- Tell me about any adjustments that have worked for you before in similar situations.
- Are there any adjustments that did not work for you before?
- Are you aware that you may be able to get funding and support through Access to Work for support and adaptations? This is a government scheme provided to you, the worker. Would you need help making an application?
This is not the end of the conversation. The worker can come back with any thoughts that occur later or arrange another conversation to discuss any of the topics in more detail.
How can you implement the adjustments?
Once you have agreed the adjustments with your worker, implement them promptly. This should include delivering and installing any equipment needed at home.
Make sure you keep your worker updated on progress throughout. If the worker cannot work because of a barrier identified with them, you should discuss any interim arrangements that need to be made. These may include:
- Temporary changes to a job role.
- Temporary changes to working practices or procedures.
- Potentially paid disability leave, which doesn’t count towards a worker’s sick leave.
Ensure you have considered what adjustments the worker might require at all the locations where they work or could work. Provide updates on progress and any delays and keep notes of your conversations and decisions. Share those notes with your worker. These should include what you have agreed upon when you will make adjustments, and when to review them. Remember to treat health and disability-related information, including about adjustments, confidentially.
Should you use an adjustment passport?
You may consider using an ‘adjustment passport’ to record the adjustments the worker has in place, which is particularly useful where the worker is likely to change managers or roles. It means they do not have to share information regarding their access needs in the workplace multiple times. Where appropriate, train your disabled worker to use the reasonable adjustment.
Train managers and other colleagues, where necessary, to support them in implementing the adjustments in practice; for example, this could include supporting staff to use alternative text in digital documents to describe images and charts to someone who is visually impaired and cannot view them.
What should you ask?
- Can you continue or start work while these adjustments are put in place, or do we need to make interim arrangements?
- Would you or anyone you work with need any training to implement the adjustments?
- Would other support be helpful for us to consider together?
- Would you like to use a reasonable adjustment passport to record any adjustments?
- What information, if any, would you like shared with your colleagues about the agreed adjustments?
- How and when would you like this information to be communicated to colleagues? Do you want me to do it, or do you?
What if you can’t agree whether an adjustment is reasonable?
If you have considered all the factors and decided that a particular adjustment requested by your worker is not reasonable, it is good practice to provide a detailed written explanation to the worker. Remember to provide an appeals process.
How should you review whether the adjustments are working?
- Agree regular review periods with the worker.
- Keep a note of the conversation and any actions.
- Advise the worker to update their reasonable adjustments passport with any changes that have been agreed.
- Make sure that the worker knows that they can speak to you or another appropriate person if their condition or working conditions change.
What should you ask?
- How are the adjustments working for you?
- Are they effectively removing or reducing the barriers to hybrid working we identified?
- Are there any other adjustments you require, or that may be more helpful to consider?
- How often would you like us to review the adjustments to ensure their effectiveness? You can always raise any issues with me before then if you need to.
CIPD’s Hybrid working – practical guidance includes tips to help managers to support the health and wellbeing of hybrid workers.
AbilityNet’s ‘how to’ guides provide simple steps to make a computer, tablet or phone easier to use. It also provides advice, support and information on digital accessibility including reasonable adjustments.
Acas’s information on hybrid and home working includes responding to requests for hybrid and home working and health and safety when working at home.
Acas’s toolkit on mental health and workplace adjustments includes template letters for employers.
The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on managing home workers’ health and safety covers hybrid and home workers, including risk assessments, stress and poor mental health, safely using equipment like computers and laptops, and the working environment.
