Almost eight in 10 (77%) disabled knowledge workers believe outdated technology in the workplace is limiting work opportunities for people with disabilities in the UK, according to new research from Citrix. Nearly three quarters (73%) of IT decision makers agree with this \u2013 despite 92% confirming that technology now exists which should enable any business to employ a disabled individual as a knowledge worker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commissioned by Citrix and carried out\nby Censuswide, this research aimed to identify the current role\nof technology in opening up employment opportunities for individuals with\ndisabilities and discover whether UK organisations are set up to\nsuccessfully employ new talent from this potentially untapped\nworkforce. By surveying 500 respondents \u2013 250 IT decision makers and 250 disabled knowledge workers with a physical or\nsensory impairment \u2013 in large UK businesses, this\nresearch examines the extent to\nwhich companies are deploying technology\nand tasking the IT department to facilitate greater\ndiversity in the workplace, with a focus on the disabled workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IT versus employee disconnect<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n IT leaders revealed that most\nUK businesses (88%) set up their IT department with a specific role and budget\nto support workforce diversification, such as employing people with\ndisabilities. Additionally, the majority of CIOs or IT\ndepartment leads are involved in discussions\nwith HR (89%) and the wider C-suite (86%) to create\nnew ways of working and facilitate disability inclusion in the business through\ntechnology, including physical and systems accessibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this departmental collaboration, specific allocated budget and C-suite focus, the research revealed a disconnect between business preparations and what employees with disabilities actually need in terms of technology and support. Almost a quarter (24%) of disabled knowledge workers think the majority of UK businesses are not properly prepared to employ individuals with disabilities and set them up for success \u2013 with a further 37% believing only some businesses are capable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Building diversity into business\nprinciples<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n More than half (57%) of\nIT leaders claim their organisation has overarching business\nprinciples across IT, HR and the board which value diversity\nspecifically \u2013 helping the IT team get the right IT architecture and\nstrategies in place to support a more varied workforce. A further 31% confirmed\ntheir business is in the planning stages of doing this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In spite of this business-wide\nfocus on supporting diversity with the right technology, almost\na quarter (24%) of disabled knowledge workers believe companies don\u2019t\nreally consider the impact of new technology on employees with disabilities\nwhen deciding on new technology to roll out in the business. A\nfurther 43% feel it is only considered sometimes. This missed\nopportunity to apply the overarching business principles to\nconsistently focus on implementing the right IT for a more diverse\nworkforce was reflected in IT leaders\u2019 responses: just 48%\nalways consider the impact of new technology\non disabled employees, despite the existence\nof such agreed upon principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet UK companies are\noften succeeding when it comes to flexibility in the workplace. The majority\n(65%) of disabled knowledge workers feel that employers and prospective\nemployers have been flexible when it comes to implementing technology that\nhelps them do their job. This flexibility may stem from budget made available\nwithin UK organisations to successfully deploy technology to open up\nopportunities for disabled people in the workplace, such as IT which enables\nflexible working to cut out the commute, or assisted technology. While\nless than half (44%) of IT decision makers believe they have the budget and\nsupport to do this, a further two in five\n(42%) believe their budget alone is not sufficient but<\/em> they\ncan request more on a case-by-case basis, such as a new hire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Greater flexibility for a more diverse\nworkforce<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although 39% of disabled\nknowledge workers believe having a disability \u2013\nparticularly a physical or sensory impairment \u2013 makes no\ndifference for an individual\u2019s career options and progression, almost\na third (30%) do think it has a negative impact. Of these respondents, the\nmajority (72%) say a key factor is that businesses are not set up with the\nright technology to allow disabled employees to work in the way that best suits\nthem, while almost two thirds (61%) believe businesses are still\nsubject to \u2018presenteeism\u2019 \u2013 and it is harder for those with disabilities to get\ninto the office every single day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The research highlights that technology which enables staff to work in a more flexible way, such as from a remote location, is a major draw for potential disabled employees. When deciding whether they would want to work for an organisation, 86% of disabled knowledge workers are influenced by the technology that an employer makes available to staff and 85% also factor in whether there is an option to work remotely. In fact, two in five (42%) cite the flexibility to work remotely as a ‘major factor’ in their decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disabled knowledge workers recognise the\nproductivity benefits that come\nwith the flexibility to work remotely: almost half\n(49%) believe it definitely enables them to be more productive, with\nanother 38% agreeing it has the potential to boost their productivity. Some UK\nbusinesses are acknowledging this by both enabling and<\/em> advocating\nflexible working, but this is not yet widespread. Less than two\nfifths of disabled knowledge workers (34%) and IT decision makers (37%) view\ntheir employer as a big advocate of flexible working. Despite the\npotential productivity benefits, almost one in five (19%) disabled\nknowledge workers say their employer enables but does not encourage\nflexible working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany IT departments are playing a pivotal role in improving workforce diversification by collaborating closely with HR and senior business leaders. Yet efforts to set aside budget and deploy the right technology do not go far enough. Businesses must follow through on their pledges and adapt workplace culture if they are to create an environment which enables a truly diverse workforce,\u201d said Darren Fields, Regional Vice President, UK and Ireland, Citrix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The evolution of diversity in business<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n While this research outlines many positive steps to facilitate disability inclusion in UK businesses, close to a quarter of disabled knowledge workers (27%) and IT decision makers (22%) ‘strongly agree’ that the organisation they work for ‘talks a good game about diversity without really acting’. This suggests that large UK organisations have an opportunity to improve their use of technology to support workforce diversity, or at least to better communicate how they are doing this to their workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this, almost three quarters\n(72%) of disabled knowledge workers paint a more positive picture, stating that\nBritish businesses are improving at supporting employment opportunities for\ndisabled people by updating technology platforms, implementing policies like\nflexible working and generally evolving the company culture to support a\ndiverse workforce which includes those with disabilities. In\nfact, more than two in five (41%) IT decision makers believe\ntheir organisation is ahead of the curve when it comes to supporting employment\nopportunities for disabled people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy pairing up-to-date, reliable and adaptable technology with a workplace culture that supports a variety of working patterns, UK businesses can champion diversity at work and access a wider pool of talent, including employees with disabilities. This is a true differentiator for recruitment and can remove barriers to this largely untapped workforce, leading to subsequent enterprise productivity gains,\u201d said Fields. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Almost eight in 10 (77%) disabled knowledge workers believe outdated technology in the workplace is limiting work opportunities for people with disabilities in the UK, according to new research from Citrix. Nearly three quarters (73%) of IT decision makers agree with this \u2013 despite 92% confirming that technology now exists which should enable any business to employ a disabled individual as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":33689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,93,23,24],"tags":[3851,13401,13400,3967,13402],"class_list":["post-33688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-story-newsletter","category-top-stories","category-united-kingdom","category-used","tag-citrix","tag-disabled-knowledge-workers","tag-disabled-workforce","tag-diversity","tag-workforce-diversification"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33758,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33688\/revisions\/33758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}