Conversations About Support in the Workplace

A key focus of the session is moving from conversation to action. Line managers develop confidence by practising supportive workplace conversations. They develop a clear understanding of how conversations can inform decisions about reasonable adjustments and other workplace support. Support needs are identified earlier, and conversations lead directly to practical next steps.

Conversations about support in the workplace work best when they are part of how work is done. They should not be something separate or occasional.

In organisations where this is embedded, talking about disability at work becomes easy because it is built into the working culture of the team. Line managers develop confidence to proactively engage in conversations. These conversations lead to supporting disabled employees through reasonable adjustments. As a result, disabled employees are supported to get on with the fundamental task for which they were employed. They do this without the concerns of having to work through the barriers to achieve their goal.

This session encompasses lessons and opportunities to understand why disability disclosure can be difficult for disabled employees. As such, line managers can create psychologically safe environments where disabled employees and candidates feel confident to talk about their support needs. This allows them to do so without having the need to disclose a disability.

Rather than encouraging workplace support conversations to be had in isolation, line managers will develop the confidence and skills to have conversations about support regularly. They should have these conversations with every employee in the team, as part of business as usual. Therefore, both disabled and non-disabled employees are encouraged to feel psychologically safe to talk about the support they need. These habits lead to creating disability inclusive workplace environments. Every employee can then have a sense of belonging.

Why conversations about support matter

Over 80% of disabled people have invisible disabilities, and 80% of disabled people acquire their disability whilst in work. Therefore, it is imperative to develop an inclusive management style that supports not only disabled employees and candidates. It should also support line managers and people managers.

Focusing on building confidence in talking about support with employees in a way that feels practical and sustainable. Managers develop the confidence to start conversations without waiting for a trigger. They also learn to take these conversations forward in a way that leads to clear outcomes.

Disability conversations at work don’t just support disability inclusion in the workplace every day; they also support hiring disabled people. This ensures that recruitment strategies are inclusive.

Having conversations about disability positively informs the support that is on offer when hiring disabled people. These ensure that inclusive recruitment strategies are considered and implemented.

As this becomes embedded, conversations about support in the workplace happen more consistently across teams. Talking about support becomes part of how work is managed rather than a separate or formal process. Creating a more open and predictable experience for employees.

Session content will be centred around your specific organisation priorities and needs as well as local disability related legislation. Enabling line managers to leave with tangible outcomes and actionable next steps that can be implemented immediately in their work.

measuring the impact of your training

Measuring the impact of your training is key to understanding if you have achieved your goal. Your training sessions will have impact measures embedded into the content. This helps to understand what worked, what needs improvement, what the next steps are, and where the barriers to awareness, knowledge, and confidence remain.