A range of Guernsey businesses, including the island’s largest employer – the States of Guernsey, have all signed up to a new charter designed to assist with the recruitment and retention of staff with disabilities.
The nine-point plan has been created by the Guernsey Employment Trust, a charity that supports disabled and disadvantaged people prepare for, find and stay in work.
The charter includes the commitment to ‘encouraging applications from disabled people’ by using the charter logo in recruitment advertisements or circulating vacancies to organisations such as GET, Guernsey MIND or Work Rehabilitation.
Among the others are ‘becoming an ambassador’ by sharing your story of how the charter has worked in your organisation to encourage other businesses to follow suit.
Other commitments require businesses to provide work experience placements or mock interview practice.
GET says the commitments will help to provide disabled people with a taste for real work, help to boost confidence, give them insight into their strengths and weaknesses, plug a gap on a CV and generally improve that person’s prospects of securing future
paid employment.
Hannah Beacom, the managing director of Island Coachways which has signed up, said: “Encouraging applications from islanders with disabilities enables us , as an employer, to widen the net of potential applicants for any vacancy we may have to ensure we get the right skills for the role. To that end we work with GET to ensure we meet good practice guidelines for the recruitment and retention of disabled people. Signing up to the charter is a natural extension of the work we already do to make our services as disability friendly as possible. My team challenge each other to continually consider what changes or improvements can be made to encourage islanders with disabilities to consider employment with Island Coachways.”
Paul Whitfield, the chief executive of the States of Guernsey, said: ‘I was delighted to be able to sign the Employers’ Disability Charter on behalf of the States of Guernsey. As an organisation, we are determined to be inclusive and give everyone an equal opportunity to serve their community. The Guernsey Employment Trust has worked hard to develop the nine commitments that signed-up employers will seek to achieve. In our case, we will carry out a number of reviews in 2018 to support our commitment to the Charter. This includes reviewing our recruitment and selection processes and systems to ensure that our commitment to being an equal opportunities employer is clear in encouraging applications from, and the employment of, people with a disability.”
You can find out more about the charter by contacting GET chief executive Nikki Ioannou-Droushiotis on 01481 247999 or online here.
