This free employer toolkit includes plenty of resources, practical advice and short videos to help employers feel empowered to hire people with disability and understand the process.

Five easy-to-follow sections

There are five sections of the toolkit, divided into the following topics:

• Disability employment basics
• Fundamentals for organisations
• Recruiting people with disability
• Getting your workplace ready
• Managing your team

The sections are comprehensive and cover all the things employers need to know about disability employment, from inclusive policies and recruitment, to workplace changes and managing staff.

Why hire a diverse workforce?

2.2 million Australians are of working-age living with a disability yet are significantly unrepresented in the workforce. That’s one in five. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate for people with disability is increasing and is almost double compared to those without disability.

There are so many benefits of hiring someone with disability, including:

• Increase your talent pool
• Higher staff retention
• Benefits to your bottom line
• Enhanced brand reputation

You can read more about the benefits here.

What employers say

Every day, CoAct and our Service Partners work with employers to help them to build an inclusive and diverse workforce through tailored support and solutions.

Priya, a Coffs Harbour franchisee of two Pizza Huts, has been working with her local CoAct Service Partner, CHESS Connect for eight years. Priya has provided employment opportunities to 18 people with disability in the last five years alone, with the vast majority of placements maintaining long-term employment, and some even progressing to management positions.

When asked about her thoughts on hiring people with disability, Priya said:
“Prior to CHESS approaching us, I wouldn’t have considered working with people with disability because it felt like it was too hard. But having had the first few candidates come through and being such successful employees, I have really changed my mind. I will be making any workplace I am in in the future an inclusive one for people with disability.”

For more on Priya’s journey with disability employment, you can watch our recent Change The Story video here.

Accessing the toolkit

You can access the Employer Toolkit through JobAccess on the Australian Government’s national hub for information.

Looking to find the right staff sooner? You’ve come to the right place

As a leading national partnership of for-purpose Service Partners, CoAct specialises in helping employers to build an inclusive and diverse workforce through tailored support and solutions.

We help employers across Australia find, recruit, train, mentor and support people with disability who are looking to find work. In conjunction with the new employer toolkit, we can continue to help shift the thinking of employers around hiring people with disability.

Talk to our team of experts today to discover how we can help increase your workplace diversity.