We caught up with an employee from one of our inclusive employers to find out about their experience of working at RS Group with a disability.
Could you just introduce yourself, job role and length of service?
I’m the Talent and Diversity Coordinator and I’ve been in this role for just over two months.
Can you talk me through your disability and your current lived experience?
I’ve had mild cerebral palsy since birth the condition is known as spastic diplegia, it affects mobility in my legs and gives me very tight muscles and getting around can be quite difficult.
It’s obviously created challenges in the workplace but I’ve received a lot of support. Teaching was probably the most difficult in my career, constantly pacing around the room was exhausting. Now that I work in an office environment and work from home for most days, now it’s just my two-year-old son who is exhausting me! I’m just having to adapt and keep myself as fit as possible so I can keep up with them.
Do you mind outlining what your challenges would be on a day to day in the workplace?
I work from home and the office. I was in our Corby office recently and I needed to go and find the tech hub; I couldn’t find it. That is a lot of moving around for me up and down stairs and that kind of thing, obviously I was in the lift where one was available.
When I’m not sat at my desk and I am up and moving about. What is a very short trip, even down to the canteen at lunch, just up and down a couple of flights of stairs can be quite exhausting for me.
Did you have the opportunity, and did you feel comfortable raising your disability during the recruitment process?
I don’t think I was offered the opportunity and it was something that I had to bring up myself. I struggled for years with being open in advance or just letting people find out for themselves, of course that can create a lot of anxiety. Interviews are an anxious thing for people to go through anyway let alone when you’ve got that at the back of your mind. Trying to find a way to bring that up was quite difficult. There’s an innate fear of:
- Will this go against me if I say I’ve got a disability?
- Is that going to hinder my chances of getting the job?
In hindsight, I know now that wasn’t the case,. I missed it in the first interview there just wasn’t an opportunity to talk about it. In the second interview, diversity and inclusion was brought up and I thought this is a great time. I felt more confident because I got to a second interview, I just felt I need to be honest because this is who I am. I got a great sense about the people who were interviewing me and they made me feel comfortable.
What has your experience been with approaching the business about any support you need to ensure your setup for success?
I completed an occupational health form, they’re sent out to everybody when they when they start a role at RS. I was told I would receive an appointment with the occupational health nurse, but I did have to chase. Gladys our Occupational Health nurse is just wonderful, she’s the loveliest person and she was so apologetic. It was just an error, I didn’t need anything immediately so it didn’t hinder my start to RS.
I did have other people in mind because I thought if somebody did need something and maybe they weren’t confident enough to ask for it, that could have applied a lot of pressure when they’re starting out a new role.
My line manager spoke to me before I started and I’ve been supported really well. Walking down to the canteen, people will say, do you want to take the lift? Or are you okay with the stairs? Or if I’m carrying something, do you want me to get that for you? It’s those lovely little things that help me so that I’m not struggling, people would make sure that it’s taken care of and I can focus on getting myself around, which is really comforting.
When you joined RS and through the recruitment process, do you feel we got it right the first time?
I’d say RS absolutely got it right first time. I don’t understand that pressure of opening up to the interviewees and asking them, have you got anything that would create a barrier between you and performing this role to the best of your abilities?
You could reassure people by talking about the diversity in the business, I appreciate that that’s not going to be the case with some teams in other areas of the business or within other regions.
I was confident enough to speak about it at the interview stage. Had I not been interviewed by two people that made me feel as comfortable, then I may not have brought that up and that would have lingered and been a very awkward first day.
How can RS improve their support for people with disabilities?
Reassure people and make them feel like they’re in a safe place to talk about themselves and discuss their challenges. We’ve got wonderful, talented people out there who push through barriers.
The Occupational Health Survey could be sent along with the job offer. I had a four-week notice period, I could have completed that weeks before day one at RS. That may have sped up the process had I needed adaptations to enable me to work from home.
My only other suggestion is we should shout about our disabled colleagues, whether it’s physical disabilities or neurodivergence, and let people know that we’re a company that looks after our disabled colleagues, because I genuinely believe we do.
Would you recommend RS as a disability-positive employer?
Absolutely 100%. I know we’ll be working to ensure that this is a common thread across our business.
