What is Disability Confident and why is it important to Irwin Mitchell?
Disability Confident is a voluntary government initiative which supports and encourages employers to think differently about disability and take positive action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop individuals with disabilities.
Irwin Mitchell is committed to becoming a leading responsible business and the Disability Confident scheme is a key part of that by ensuring that we continue to take positive steps to making our careers more inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities and long-term health conditions and our workforce mirror the communities that we serve.
We are currently a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer, working towards Level 3 status, as a part of which we need to demonstrate our leadership on disability inclusion, encouraging others to become Disability Confident and reporting publicly on our progress.
What is the Disability Confident Interview Scheme?
As part of our commitments within the Disability Confident scheme we offer an interview to applicants with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria for the job vacancy where it is fair and proportionate to do so.
This applies to all vacancies based in the UK.
What is the definition of Disability?
The Equality Act defines a person with a disability as someone who has a mental or physical impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. ‘Substantial’ is a more than minor or trivial adverse impact on your ability to carry out normal daily activities e.g. reading, writing, walking or having a conversation. An impairment is considered to have a ‘long-term’ effect if it has lasted or is likely to last at least 12 months.
Interviews for Disability Confident Candidates
We are committed on assessing candidates on their ability to undertake the relevant vacancy, as indicated by their CV and application form. We are also committed to removing barriers during the recruitment process where we can and there is an option on the application form to share any requests that will assist. This could be related to reasonable adjustments (both for the recruitment process and beyond) or requesting specific days or times for an interview.
Candidates are not obliged to share that they have a disability on their application, although there is a space to do so. Candidates that choose to share that they do have a disability can then opt into the Disability Confident Interview scheme. Disability Confident candidates that meet the essential criteria set out in the relevant job advert will then be offered an interview where it is fair and proportionate to do so.
There may be occasions where it is not practicable to interview all relevant Disability Confident candidates, for example where there is a high volume of applications and where we need to limit the number of interviews offered across the board. In these circumstances we commit to offering a proportionate number of interviews to Disability Confident candidates and this will be determined by those who best meet the overall requirements of the role.
What happens next?
Once you have submitted your application a member of the Talent Acquisition team will be in touch to either discuss your application further to or to confirm whether or not you have been shortlisted for interview. If you are offered an interview, we will also be in touch to confirm any reasonable adjustments to that you have requested to allow you. If you have any queries at any stage in the process, please do contact the team member assigned to the relevant vacancy, or (if you are unsure who this is) recruitment@irwinmitchell.com.
For general enquiries
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