Active on and off the field of play: Disabled people a crucial part of the workforce

The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) is committed to ensuring disabled people have a key role within our work- both internally and externally. Improving the diversity of an organisation's workforce has numerous rewards. The national charity wants to increase the number of disabled people included in sport and physical activity workforces.

EFDS works to increase participation at every level and support partners to value disabled people in all aspects of sport. This could be as an athlete, official, coach, administrator, teacher, volunteer etc.

But to support others to deliver more equal opportunities in sport we, as the national charity dedicated to disabled people in sport and physical activity, need to be in a position to show better practice. So EFDS is constantly seeking ways to improve our own equality and diversity, especially with disabled people.

As well as ensuring our policies and procedures provide equal opportunities for disabled people to be employed by EFDS, there is a wider business case, which is often overlooked in sport. Our ongoing plans are shaped by disabled people’s needs in sport. The wider aim is to build on our and others’ insight and become a more customer focused organisation.

With disabled people the central stakeholder in these plans, it makes perfect sense to ensure our own workforce is representative of those we seek to build relationships with. We can also draw upon first hand insight from EFDS’s most valuable asset- our employees. To have internal stakeholders, who are disabled (including employees and Board members) means our insight is strong at all levels.

Part of our work is to increase disabled people’s participation in sport, and help other providers to do the same. Disabled people like non-disabled people range from being uninterested inactives to active obsessives. Our work needs to reflect these diverse needs on different levels and one key element we note in EFDS is that we actually have disabled employees within this vast spectrum. These crucial contributions can be fed in directly to all EFDS decision-making processes, and it certainly helps us to call upon immediate insight into target audiences.

In 2013, the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) was involved in the Disability Employment Conference - Working Together. The conference was a unique opportunity for business and government to come together, identify the challenges that others are facing when employing disabled people and provide innovative solutions to be able to tap into this underemployed pool of talent. It was the start of two year campaign- Disability Confident- to create the partnerships that will support all employers to become disability confident, improving organisations, workplaces and customer service.

Whatever sector you work in, it is logical to diversify the talent pool you employ because your audiences are just as diverse:

“If you want to employ the right person for the job, you need to widen your talent pool. If you want to better understand your customers, you need to have colleagues who understand them. If you want to build your relationship with the local community, you need to be able to connect with them.” Fiona Cannon OBE, group director, diversity and inclusion, at Lloyds Banking Group

 

Within the EFDS workforce, we actively promote any advertised positions to disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet minimum criteria are guaranteed an interview. We also ensure other areas of recruitment, such as for Board members, will encourage disabled people to apply.

Although our charity name immediately determines the nature of our work with disabled people, it does not mean that disabled people automatically apply for positions. Just as the word Sport in the charity's name does not mean we only employ sporty people, the word Disability is not a guarantee to attract disabled candidates.

Currently within EFDS we have five disabled paid employees- a quarter of our workforce. They range in position from Senior Management to administrator. All have equal opportunities for training, promotion, decision-making and other staff benefits.

EFDS’s work means, by nature, the organisation is already flexible due to sport not being a continual 9am-5pm structure. Our general ethos has to accept flexible working routines to meet deadlines and targets. Adapting working patterns to suit the needs of the organisation is common in many workplaces, so our disabled employees are not given a different policy, but dependent on the role, all employees are offered a flexible workplace. We are also committed to support any employee who becomes disabled during their career with us to stay in employment too.

EFDS’s position means our disabled employees are also an advocate for inclusion. Many are regularly meeting with a network of sports organisations and other key partners. Whether this is ensuring meeting venues are accessible or a BSL interpreter is present, these help our partners to be aware of the wider needs of any customer they may meet.

Asking the right questions can often be the most important part of customer service for any sports organisation and is not costly if planned. As a large proportion of our population, good customer service, like good marketing, should consider disabled people. So our disabled employees’ work within the sport sector in various roles means they can increase the general awareness of disabled people’s needs too.

Government has published a guidance, which provides a summary of information for employers to help them recruit and support disabled people in work. It has links to other resources to enable employers to become more confident when attracting, recruiting and retaining disabled people. For more ideas and ways you can include disabled people within your sports workforce, contact EFDS's team.