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NDIS Participants - Finding and Keeping a Job
This service is available to self-managed and plan-managed participants who have work experience. It is person-centred, and focuses on the participant's employment ambitions and goals that align with their qualifications and experience. The participant should consider the advantages of sharing aspects of their disability with a future employer in order to gain access to workplace adjustments.
Other Job Seekers with Disabilities
This service supports job seekers who
- may not be eligible for Centrelink support
- are not NDIS participants
- are applying for positions directly with employers
- prefer to use mainstream recruitment agencies that specialise in open employment opportunities in their field of expertise
Motivation, qualifications and experience aren't always enough to secure and maintain suitable employment when living with a disability. The keystone to maintaining employment is through a workplace adjustment agreement that is signed prior to starting a new job.
Currently Employed Job Seekers with Disabilities
John Badwater Consulting assists currently employed job seekers with the transfer of their current adjustments to the new employer. This service engages the employee, their current employer and new employer to establish ownership of current adjustments, evaluate suitability, and transfer them to the new employer. Where the employee owns the equipment or technology, requirements relating to workplace health and safety are addressed before the adjustments are transferred and installed or implemented.
Current Employees with Disabilities
For current employees, John Badwater Consulting works with the employer and the employee to create the workplace adjustment agreement using protocols that support the employee's privacy and provides the employer with the required information and validation to deliver appropriate adjustments. Employers may be eligible for funding provided by the Australian Government's Work Assist program.
Lived Experience and Storytelling
John shares his personal experience of non-visible disability in presentations that are delivered in lived experience and storytelling formats. While the source of information is basically the same, the format is targeted towards the audience to ensure that it is meaningful and has purpose.
Lived experience can be used as a tool to improve co-design of services or for identifying and measuring the impact of current services. Incorporating lived experience into evaluations increases the likelihood of identifying gaps in service delivery and improving outcomes. The information John delivers is through his own experiences and focuses on processes and real world situations that can be used to develop solutions.
Storytelling provides a more personal perspective of non-visible disability. John explains the impacts of acquiring a disability in his thirties and the challenges he has faced, particularly in the workplace, where policy and management styles have been both positive and detrimental to his wellbeing. He also shares examples of dealing with healthcare providers, government services and attitudes of the general public. It isn’t all doom and gloom. John’s move from salaried and contract employment to becoming a business owner is delivered in a way that may inspire persons living with disability to find their own pathways to self-employment and reach levels of independence that they hadn’t considered to be possible.
Employers
Assistance is available to employers to support employees with disabilities and develop an equitable workplace based on the principles of human rights, accessibility and satisfying the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. This tailored service is designed to establish a model that fits with the culture and size of the business. It includes a presentation of lived experience of employees with disabilities in the workplace and starts the discussion of how change can be achieved, through employee engagement, development of processes and policy, and presentations to the workforce. Built into the process are methods to measure the impacts on the workforce and reporting of outcomes and benefits.
Recruiters and Employment Agencies
Candidates with specialist skills prefer to seek assistance from a recruitment agency that has experience placing candidates within their profession. John Badwater Consulting's referral service delivers expertise to provide recruiters with an approach that encourages candidates to have the confidence to share aspects of their disability if they require access to workplace adjustments. The creation of a workplace adjustment agreement can be complicated and time consuming. This service removes the responsibility from the consultants, enabling them to focus on engaging with their clients and placing candidates into roles.
Where recruitment agencies are engaging contractors or temporary staff, this services regards them as an employer and facilitates their requirements to support staff under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
Business Consulting
Drawing on experience in healthcare, aged care and community care, a vast range of consultancy services are available. These include:
- Oral Health in Residential Aged Care Homes
- Supporting recruitees and employees with disabilities
- Improving health and quality of life of persons facing disadvantage
- Service improvement, development and review
- Social Impacts for small populations
- Benefits realisation and outcomes reporting