Embed good workplace adjustment practices (HR specialists)

Embedding accessibility and inclusion from the start helps overcome the stigma or discrimination experienced by people asking for what they need and reduces the cost in time and administration of retrofitting adjustments to a role or workplace.

For more information, see:

• building accessible, safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces and diverse teams
• case studies of inclusion change undertaken by the Department of Resources and the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation
• recruiting for diversity
• Queensland Government Disability Awareness module (60 minutes)
• applying good work design, universal design and human-centred design principles
• Australian Human Rights Commission accessibility guide IncludeAbility
• the Australian Government Disability and Adjustment tool
• Australian Disability Network resources.

Psychological and cultural safety and respect—which looks like:

• treating parties fairly and with respect
• building trust by encouraging employees to raise their ideas, questions, concerns and mistakes at multiple opportunities, and rewarding speaking up
• addressing legitimate problems quickly
• connecting people to other people and resources to do their work well
• recognising culturally significant connections and cultural rights of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• ensuring support and communication is timely and appropriate
• considering that a person who is asking for an adjustment may feel vulnerable doing so
• considering conscious or unconscious biases and how to prevent their impact
• prioritising lived experience and dignity by relying on no or minimal evidence wherever possible
• considering human rights and documenting decision making.

Procedural fairness—applying a fair and proper procedure at all stages.

Privacy—taking steps to safeguard the privacy of employee personal information.

Timeliness—responding to requests and implementing quickly.

Promoting equity, diversity, respect, inclusion, cultural safety and preventing all forms of harassment and discrimination is an obligation for chief executives of Queensland public sector workplaces. So, it makes sense to embed accessibility as far as practicable in our systems, environments, policies and cultures. It can reduce costs and requests that may otherwise be considered good work practice for all.

Leaders and human resources teams can consider the below steps:

1. Proactive consideration of your own team’s adjustment needs, understanding and visibility.
2. Ensuring your team has awareness and understanding of their ability to request an adjustment.
3. Review employee opinion survey responses for use of adjustments at work or in recruitment, alongside psychological safety and other factors. The sector’s Working for Queensland annual employee opinion survey data suggests when employees feel safe to discuss wellbeing with managers, they are more likely to feel confident to discuss a disability if they have one. Manager-led discussions with teams about employee wellbeing may be one conversation starter to unlock adjustment needs.
4. Determine what action is required to respond appropriately to adjustment requests.
5. Communicate positive messaging and practical information about the request process and how to create inclusive teams that support people who use adjustments—eg posters, scheduled leader messages, establishing an employee network, or providing timely tips and resources
6. Establish a working group to consider options for implementing a centralised model—to deliver efficiencies from streamlined approvals, budget, privacy controls, monitoring and data gathering.

Managers need dedicated practical support and education to improve access across the sector to workplace adjustments. HR teams can support managers by understanding the parameters, process and documentation requirements as well as the legislative requirements and conditions as they apply to implementing workplace adjustments.

The Australian Government Making Adjustments Easy, Effective and Equitable Conversation Guide, downloadable from Job Access, includes the following practical information:

• a Disability and Adjustments tool for ideas about what kinds of adjustments might be useful (particularly for people who have been recently diagnosed)
• guides for managers and employees on how to discuss workplace adjustments
• advice about managing different working styles of employees on the same team
• advice on building workplace adjustment policies, including downloadable templates
• how to use the Job Access Employment Assistance Fund to fund adjustments.

Human resources areas can connect managers with local workplace diversity and inclusion, learning, technology or work health and safety teams to source options and funding. There may also be support from:

• the employee’s existing Disability Employment Service (DES) support provider if they are connected to one—DES providers can conduct accessibility assessments, run training sessions for the immediate team and provide other supports tailored to the employee's needs
• the employee’s treating health practitioner, provided the employee consents to sharing information
• occupational therapists or other allied health professionals for workplace assessments
• federal sources of funding, such as the Employee Assistance Fund.

Human resources areas should also remind managers of their ability to access the entity’s Employee Assistance Service, including Manager Assist services if they need support.

Accessing funding

Funding for adjustments is usually covered in a workplace through a central or local budget. It is a common myth that adjustments are expensive, when many have no or a low cost.

Some adjustments may be funded through an application to the federal Job Access Employment Assistance Fund (EAF), such as:

• items that improve physical accessibility (ramps, automatic doors, accessible toilets, parking, signage and visual cues, handrails on steps, clear markings or colour contrasts on steps, clearing aisles or moving filing cabinets)
• sound reduction devices or air cleaning systems
• visual fire alarms added to existing audible fire alarms or use of paging systems
• accessible communications, technology and strategies (vibrating pagers, large screen computer monitors, video magnifiers, screen-reading or voice-activated software, information in alternative formats)
• ergonomic or specialist equipment (height adjustable desks, manual handling devices, electric trolleys)
• Auslan interpreting
• specialist services for employees with specific learning disorders and mental health conditions
• disability, deaf and mental health awareness training for teams.

Supporting managers with decision making

When undertaking an assessment of an adjustment request, the employee and manager or other decision maker will need to work together. Decisions must be made in consultation with the person making the request and genuinely consider their input.

When a request for an adjustment is received, the decision maker should consider:

• what their obligations are under the relevant legislation (refer to legislation requirements and conditions)
• whether further information is required (i.e. from the employee’s treating practitioner)
• if the solution requested will be effective and improve accessibility or inclusion
• what the impacts may be for the individual making the request, other team members and the broader workplace
• the costs, if any
• the benefits the adjustment would provide to both the employee and the organisation.

For a deeper exploration of the factors, consult the workplace adjustments decision-making table (PDF, 231.2 KB) .

To review a summary of the legislation and to understand key terms like unjustifiable hardship, see Legislative requirements and considerations.

Training to support managers

A good practice training program on workplace adjustments for managers would include the following knowledge and skill areas which build upon the Queensland Government Disability Awareness module (60 minutes).

Understanding disability and accessibility

• Benefits of adjustments, accessibility and inclusion.
• Adjustments, disability and carers/assistants/associates as defined under relevant laws.
• Types of and diversity within disabilities, health conditions, differences and needs at work.
• Explanation of concepts: adjustments, social and medical models of disability, reasonableness, unjustifiable hardship.

Practical information

• Adjustment options and funding opportunities.
• Process for initiating and managing adjustment requests.
• Assessing requests, decision making and responding.
• Accessing others’ support, including IT support.
• Inclusive recruitment design and recruitment adjustments.

Legal and ethical responsibilities

• Laws and positive duties to prevent harm and discrimination.
• Addressing common concerns or misconceptions about adjustments.
• Respecting privacy, maintaining confidentiality and responsibilities for documenting decision making.
• Steps to take with disputes or issues.

Nuanced knowledge and skills

• Adjustments and intersections with flexible working arrangements, injury management and rehabilitation, and performance management processes.
• Sensitivity to trauma and discrimination, inclusive language and active listening.
• Ensuring employees understand requests cannot transcend HR and industrial relations advice.
• Fostering inclusive team cultures that allow adjustments to work.
• Creating the safety for employees to share disability information and the trust to enable requests.

This case study presents a good practice approach that benefits both employees and the organisation. It is adapted from resources courtesy of the Australian Disability Network, a peak body working with employers to support inclusion, and the Victorian Public Sector Commission.

A centralised approach to supporting workplace adjustments

An employer established a small team in their corporate services division to manage workplace adjustments. The team were supported by leadership and provided training in mental health first aid and worked with colleagues in work, health and safety, IT, facilities and diversity and inclusion, to design a process and portal to:

• manage adjustments and provide employees with a central channel to make requests
• enable strict privacy controls to eliminate local storage and email distribution of personal information, including medical documentation
• use backend accountability where requests could be tracked and deidentified for reporting.

In the first year, most requests from employees related to adjustments for invisible disability, chronic health conditions and neurodivergence. These employees had spent years in the workforce without having their needs adequately met.

Through the employee opinion survey and focus groups after the first year, employees reported:

• improved clarity, confidence, trust in the process
• more positive outlook on internal and external career options (career mobility)
• improved access to the tools they need to do their job
• increased sense of belonging, respect, trust in leaders and psychological safety in the team
• an uptick in intent to stay in the organisation.

Over time the team was also able to demonstrate:

• a reduction in employee complaints and turnover for employees with disability
• improved privacy protection for employees and the entity
• a reduction in request rejections based on bias, discrimination, misinformation or perceived cost
• a reliable, more predictable budget available to inform planning
• reduced cost by using central purchasing
• the ability to collect deidentified data to monitor types of adjustments, needs of employees with disability, uptake of adjustments and refinement of processes
• more accurate data for reporting and an evolving maturity with each equity and diversity plan
• growing requests to the team for input (e.g. universal design) to office design and organisational practices
• increase in the proportion of job applications and appointment of people of all diversity groups.