Australia Post commits to disability recruitment on International Day of People with Disability
Friday, 03 December 2010
In an effort to level the playing field for prospective employees with disability, Australia Post today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to roll out a national disability recruitment program which will improve accessibility to jobs through 'reasonable adjustment' and other such initiatives.
The MOU commits Australia Post to work with the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC), a federally-funded service provided through WorkFocus Australia, in a range of ways to increase representation of employees with disability.
A pilot program in New South Wales and Queensland found that through simple adjustments to everyday roles at Australia Post, people with disability could have access to roles such as delivery drivers, mail sorters and posties that might otherwise have been difficult for them to perform.
One such example is the adjustment made to a postie bike that enabled Queensland-based employee, Greg Ball, to perform his duties, despite being a paraplegic.
Greg, a Para Olympian, has since been promoted to a postie mentoring role where he is responsible for helping mentor new and existing posties.
"The program is not about giving preference to people with a disability, it's about levelling the playing field so people of all abilities have access to job opportunities at Australia Post," said Australia Post General Manager, Employee Engagement, Dorothy Hisgrove.
"Today's signing reinforces Australia Post's ongoing commitment to enhancing our recruitment processes and increasing our representation of people with disability within the workforce", said Ms Hisgrove.
NDRC works with large employers to increase their recruitment of people with disability; improve their disability recruitment practices; and train staff in working with people with disability.
CEO of the WorkFocus Group, Rob Gordon says, "To meet future requirements for economic competitiveness employers are increasingly under pressure to recruit from alternate talent pools. Australia Post understands this and we welcome the opportunity to work closely through our partnership on supporting its commitment to managing diversity proactively".
"We are delighted to be working closely with the NDRC to achieve our goal of increasing representation of people with disability within our workforce," said Ms Hisgrove.
There are currently 2,839 Australia Post employees who have indicated that they have some form of disability.
"As an employee of Australia Post of 22 years and a man with hearing impairment, my managers have been so accommodating in arranging the reasonable adjustments necessary for me to perform my role," said Sam Quinn, Mail Officer at the Dandenong Letters Centre, where the facility telephones have been modified to enable hearing-impaired employees to use them.
Like Sam, many employees with disability need only minor changes made to their work space to allow them to perform the role to the best of their abilities.