HOBAN is just the 11th organisation in Australia to achieve the Australian Network on Disability's coveted status.
Being empowered to identify and remove unintended barriers to recruitment, the team at HOBAN is confident that it is well equipped to provide its 700+ clients around Australia with an inclusive recruitment approach.
Video transcript: HOBAN Recruitment achieves Disability Confident Recruiter Status (Word, KB)
Australian employers have an increasing demand to reflect the diversity of our community. Many need to rely on their recruitment providers to help them achieve greater workforce diversity. So being equipped with Disability Confident Recruiter skills is essential.
As one of Australia's leading recruiters, HOBAN Recruitment is trusted to provide advice or to educate clients in high-profile organisations regarding inclusive recruitment practices and to value each person for their unique abilities.
CEO Alison Watts says, "When we became aware of the DCR program 12 months ago, we quickly realised there was a lot we could do to ensure our approach was inclusive for everyone. It was an easy decision to sign up, and a number of development areas were quickly highlighted. We put together a DCR team who reviewed our existing initiatives, and drove the changes we needed to make for a truly best-practice approach.
Going through the Disability Confident Recruiter process encouraged us to consider everything we do, and how we do it. For example, our website was updated to the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard, we made some changes to the way we write job advertisements, and we made our reference check process more accessible when delivered online.
The DCR process made us look at pretty much every aspect of our business end to end and to re-evaluate it from every candidate's perspective. It really motivated us to make changes."
Image (left to right): Australian Network on Disability Relationship Manager Amber Tratter presents a DCR certificate to HOBAN Recruitment CEO Alison Watts.
Becoming recognised DCR recruiters has increased the team's confidence to recruit people with disability. Consultants learned a lot more about the different types of disabilities and awareness of the types of adjustments that might be required – as well as how straightforward that was for HOBAN to facilitate.
HOBAN is seeing a positive impact already, with Watts reporting, "Thousands of candidates apply to us each week. If anyone requires an adjustment, they are easily able to arrange this through HOBAN. Recent successes include placement of two candidates on the Autism spectrum into customer service roles with a major transport organisation. Due to the strengths they demonstrated on the job, they are now also reviewing communications material for errors. Both personnel love what they are doing and take delight in finding mistakes in complex public transport schedules. And our client is thrilled by their attention to detail!"
Benefits are also being realised internally, with consultants reporting "satisfaction, pride and a brilliant sense of community, as well as feeling empowered to see someone's ability, not their disability."
HOBAN Recruitment has been a premier provider of recruitment and managed services to Australian businesses and job seekers for over 50 years.
This story was reproduced with permission from the HOBAN Recruitment website.
HOBAN's tips for becoming a Disability Confident Recruiter
- Have a dedicated project team assigned to complete the program. They'll help to engage the whole organisation in why the program is so important to your people and your business.
- Incorporate what you learn throughout the program into your business-as-usual processes across all areas of your business.
- Consider that your people might be a bit afraid about how to approach accessibility and inclusion of people with disability. Use the training component of the program to alleviate those fears.
