CEO Today Magazine May 2019 Edition

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 32 SPECIAL FEATURES For organisations to thrive, they need to attract and retain talented staff and create a positive experience for them. An essential part of this is ensuring they are disability confident. At the end of last year, the Government announced it is rolling out a new £40 million voluntary scheme in England and Wales to help disabled people who are long-term unemployed get back into work. The Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme aims to provide “highly personalised packages of employment support for people who are at least a year away from moving into work”, with the target of supporting 10,000 disabled people over four years. It’s all about giving people the skills and confidence to get back into the workplace. However, employers must also play a part in creating a welcoming environment for disabled people and must not discriminate. Six key business reasons from XpertHR’s Good Practice Guide on Disability for creating a disability-confident workplace in 2019: Organisations that are open to change and receptive to new ideas prosper To develop new ideas, organisations need a workforce that can innovate, one that can draw on a range of perspectives Why CEOs Should Create a Disability-Confident Workplace This Year By Jo Stubbs, Head of Product Content Strategy at XpertHR