A post-pandemic increase in working from home will not help
reduce the disadvantage faced by disabled workers, a new study
shows.
Instead, the disability employment gap which currently stands at
29 percentage points, will not be addressed unless the government
introduces new measures such as those outlined in the
recently-launched Disability Employment Charter.
Currently just over 50 per cent of working age disabled people in
the UK are employed, compared to around 80 per cent of
non-disabled people.
Working from home has become more widespread during COVID 19,
with 35.9 per cent of UK employees working from home at some
point during 2020, up 9.4 per cent from 2019. It is widely
assumed that this increase has positive implications for disabled
people’s employment prospects.
However, a new paper in the British Journal of Industrial
Relations by experts from Warwick Business School and Bayes
Business School analysed the national Workplace Employment
Relations Survey and found that disabled people are less likely
to work from home than non-disabled people. This is the opposite
of what would be expected if working from home helps address
disability disadvantage.
The difference is explained by disabled people being less likely
to be in managerial/ professional roles in which working from
home is more widely available.
The findings also show that while working from home benefits both
disabled and non-disabled people regarding job satisfaction,
job-related mental health, and job control, it does not have a
greater impact for disabled people. Disabled people working from
home still rate these outcomes more poorly than non-disabled
people who work from home.
Speaking on International Day of People with Disabilities (Friday
December 3), Professor Kim Hoque, of Warwick Business
School, said: “A lot has been said about the benefits of working
from home for disabled people, but our research suggests this
would not help address disability-related disadvantage at work.
“Disabled people may not wish to work from home if it increases
social isolation, and working from home on a hybrid basis might
create difficulties for disabled people given that it requires
employers to make adjustments in both the home and the
workplace.”
Professor Nick Bacon, of Bayes Business School, said: “Working
from home can have negative as well as positive implications for
disabled people.
“For example, if it renders disabled people less visible, it
might reduce the likelihood of employers addressing barriers to
employment, and make it harder to challenge managers’ negative
stereotypes regarding the types of jobs into which they are
prepared to hire disabled people.”
Dr. , Chair of the All Party
Parliamentary Group for Disability, said: “This is important
research that dispels the myth that an increase in working from
home following the pandemic that will help reduce the disability
employment gap.
“The research underlines that, rather than relying on working
from home to improve disabled people’s employment outcomes, more
concerted government action is needed that goes beyond the
measures outlined in the recent National Disability Strategy.”
Professor Kim Hoque recently worked with the Business Disability
Forum, Disability Rights UK, the DFN Charitable Foundation,
Leonard Cheshire, Scope, the Shaw Trust, and UNISON to launch a
Disability Employment Charter outline what this action might
comprise.
The Charter offers a comprehensive set of proposals, including
introducing mandatory disability employment and pay gap reporting
and reforming the government’s Disability Confident and Access to
Work schemes. It has now been signed by 63 organisations
including most of the leading national disability charities, and
corporates including FTSE 250 giant PageGroup.
Dr. , said: “The resounding
support for the Disability Employment Charter from across a range
of stakeholders shows the widespread appetite for the government
to incorporate the proposals the Charter outlines into the
National Disability Strategy.
“Should it do so, the Prime Minister’s promise that the National
Disability Strategy should be genuinely ambitious and
transformative might eventually be fulfilled, and we may well see
a step change in disabled people’s employment prospects.”
Notes to editors
Kim Hoque is Professor of Human Resource Management at Warwick
Business School. He is the co-founder of Disability@Work, a
member of the Commission for Social Justice’s Disability
Commission and serves the All Party Parliamentary Group on
Disability.
Nick Bacon is Professor of Human Resource Management at Bayes
Business School.
