At AFDO, we believe that a new approach is needed – one that focuses on the needs of employers and the skills of people with disability. This approach needs to get more people working, meet the needs of businesses and increase productivity.
Between 2013–2014, we met with a range of stakeholders, including the Chair of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council and individual Council members, to talk about ways to improve the number of people with disability in the workforce.
Then in 2015, a two-year pilot began in Geelong, Victoria, to trial the new employment model, which included two Diversity Field Officers that provided specialist advice and worked one-on-one with small and medium businesses that were committed to hiring people with disability.
This project was a significant step forward for the employment of people with disability in the Barwon region of Victoria. Due to the success of the 12-month project, we continued this service to businesses in the Barwon region, and to date, we have worked one-on-one with 110 small to medium businesses to improve their disability confidence, which has created 124 employment pathways for people with disability.
With the success of this service, we have launched a new name and logo for the service – Business Inclusion & Diversity Services, which we launched last week in Geelong, Victoria.
The new Business Inclusion & Diversity Service is now available to all businesses and organisations in Australia, to help them to become “Disability Confident.” Our service includes working one-to-one with a business and is focused on building the ‘disability confidence’ within the business to become more welcoming, confident, inclusive and accessible.
Our service includes:
- One-to-one approach to build the capacity of your business and leadership to implement good practice as a leader in your industry
- Customised business analysis to understand your business and its objectives
- Disability friendly check to explore what your business needs to become more confident, such as removing recruitment barriers and improving work practices and accessibility
- Tangible practical steps and early wins that your business can adopt
- Specialist advice plus the right connections to implement recommendations seamlessly
You can learn more about Business Inclusion & Diversity Services (BIDS) on our website.
We hope you enjoy the photos below from our recent event to launch our new service.
