TY - CONF

T1 - Flex-able Working

T2 - Social Policy Association Annual Conference

AU - Molyneux, Cara

PY - 2022/6/30

Y1 - 2022/6/30

N2 - In 2017, the government set a goal to see 1 million more disabled people in work by 2027. Given the Government has had programmes in place to support disabled people for over half a century, why are only 51.5% of disabled people in work, compared with around 81.7% of non-disabled people? Small and medium size enterprises dominate the UK business sector and they are the largest employer of disabled people. The role that SMEs play is therefore critical in reducing this disability employment gap. But how do SMEs experience the employment of disabled people and how do disabled people experience work in SMEs? To answer this question, I interviewed 13 disabled people and 15 SME employers in 2018 for my PhD. The findings reveal that SMEs lack knowledge of support available through Access to Work, and lack confidence in how to comply with the legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments. Yet despite this, disabled workers report feeling welcome in SME workplaces because of the closer inter-personal relationships, informal practices and the willingness of SME employers to offer flex-able working to accommodate work-body-fit. Disabled people in this study confirmed that when they find a line manager who is willing to adopt a social relational approach to workplace flex-ability they are more likely to feel welcome and respected because individual needs are taken seriously and responded to in mutually reciprocated ways. Of course, employers must still comply with the legal duties to avoid discrimination and reasonable adjustments. However, the key contribution of flex-able working is the benefits that derive from reducing psycho-emotional disablism and the particular dimension of disclosure dilemma.

AB - In 2017, the government set a goal to see 1 million more disabled people in work by 2027. Given the Government has had programmes in place to support disabled people for over half a century, why are only 51.5% of disabled people in work, compared with around 81.7% of non-disabled people? Small and medium size enterprises dominate the UK business sector and they are the largest employer of disabled people. The role that SMEs play is therefore critical in reducing this disability employment gap. But how do SMEs experience the employment of disabled people and how do disabled people experience work in SMEs? To answer this question, I interviewed 13 disabled people and 15 SME employers in 2018 for my PhD. The findings reveal that SMEs lack knowledge of support available through Access to Work, and lack confidence in how to comply with the legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments. Yet despite this, disabled workers report feeling welcome in SME workplaces because of the closer inter-personal relationships, informal practices and the willingness of SME employers to offer flex-able working to accommodate work-body-fit. Disabled people in this study confirmed that when they find a line manager who is willing to adopt a social relational approach to workplace flex-ability they are more likely to feel welcome and respected because individual needs are taken seriously and responded to in mutually reciprocated ways. Of course, employers must still comply with the legal duties to avoid discrimination and reasonable adjustments. However, the key contribution of flex-able working is the benefits that derive from reducing psycho-emotional disablism and the particular dimension of disclosure dilemma.

KW - Disability

KW - SME

KW - Employment

KW - Social Policy

KW - Flexible Work

M3 - Conference paper

Y2 - 6 July 2022 through 8 July 2022

ER -