Some of the ways in which we meet this committment include:
 

• Structured recruitment practices that are planned in advance and subject to Equality Impact Assessment

   

• Blind shortlisting practices that remove non-essential personal information from application forms before our interview panels access them

   

• Regular monitoring of disability demographic information from our applications

   

• All of our advertisements are digital, suitable for screen reader and colour adaptation

   

• We train all of our recruiting staff in the risks of unconcious bias and supportive interview techniques

   

• All interviewers express a commitment to inclusive recruitment practices at the start of each interview on our candidate records

   

Some of the work we still have to do:

• We want to create easily accessible processes to enable candidates to provide an application in a different format, without feeling the discomfort of contacting us (as a potential employer) to have to ask

   

• We want to give our team more confidence in their understanding of disability through wider Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training

   

• Standardised promotion of roles including our website, our recruitment portal and social media channels for all roles

   

• Additional promotions on national or local resources such as Charity Jobs, Indeed, SU Careers, the Gaurdian and the Caterer as required

   

• We focus on the presentation of our roles, ensuring that approriate expectations for our potential candidates and that appropriate language is used to support and engage with a wide pool of candidates

   

• We have action statements available prominently on our advertisements, alongside our Disability Confident badge, to support candidates to identify that we welcome and encourage applications from all in our community.

   

• We want to access additional sites and resources to promote our roles - both to our community here at Staffs and wider - to encourage applicants from under-represented groups

   

• We want to be clearer about our flexible application processes that allow us to adjust for disabilities and enable candidates to best engage and demonstrate their skills, interests and personalities at application and interview

   

• Flexible interview routes as reasonable adjustments to provide opportunities for candidates to best engage at interview

   

• Through blind shortlisting and HR managed support, shortlisting panels are not made aware of disabilities until reasonable adjustment conversations have bee completed pre-interview or post-offer. 

   

• We commit to provide every interview candidate with a feedback report within 30 days of their interview which gives both quantitative and qualititative feedback on their performance at an individual interview using the appreciative feedback model

   

• We want to introduce a garaunteed interview process to support candidates with disabilities to develop their interview competencies and to encourage applications

   

• We want to create more opportunities for work-shadowing and observation to help members of our community with disability to best recognise and develop their skills and experiences

   

• Our Managers and Employability and HR Team provide responsive support for candidates to discuss reasonable adjustment in advance of interview

   

• We work with our people, our on campus inclusion experts and our Occupational Health provider to ensure that the support and adjustments we make are sustainable and match the needs of our team

   

• Our people are friendly, supportive and aware of disability and so are placed to support our people to identify potential adjustments our people may need and engage with support 

   

• We want to support our team and our managers to be more than just aware, instead becoming allies and advocates by having a wider understanding of disabilities that can and do affect our people

   

• We will better use data, provided by our people and by our community more widely, to educate our training plans and approaches to support reasonable adjustment

   

• Through Equality Impact Assessments, changes to our spaces over the coming campus development plan, we will look to make our environment more accessible and inclusive reducing wherever possible the barriers to inclusion

   

• We offer a flexible and supportive environment, enabling our team to take time they need for appointments, wellbeing and support

   

• We provide our team with access to the Student Wellbeing Service or our Employee Assistance Programme, alongside strong line management support to enable our team to access support at an early stage

   

• Our managers work closely with our people during times of illness or adversity, providing support and information throughout the process with a focus on returning to work in a sustainable way

   

• We want to better use our Occupational Health service to support our people at an early stage, making the expert support offered by this service an everyday part of our work 

   

• We want our people to continue to feel supported and to see continuous improvement and high ratings on our People and Engagement Surveys