BW achieves Disability Confident Level 2 accreditation

In our drive to do our best by all of our employees, Barnett Waddingham has recently been awarded with a “Disability Confident Level 2” accreditation.

Disability Confident is a government scheme designed to help employers to recruit and retain talented people, regardless of their accessibility needs. It aims to increase understanding of disability and long-term health conditions, widen recruiting pools, and improve inclusion and diversity within the workplace.

As part of our People and Culture Strategy, we launched an internal project to increase our level of accreditation at the start of 2022, spearheaded by our People Team. Working closely with key stakeholders across the business, we completed the Disability Confident self-assessment to identify actions that ensure disabled people have equal opportunity to join our business and fulfil their potential, and this has successfully led to our new accreditation.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we have committed to undertake several core actions which include, but are not limited to:

• Attracting and retaining disabled people
• Providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process
• Proactively offering and making reasonable adjustments as required
• Promoting a culture of being disability confident
• Supporting our people to manage their disabilities or health conditions
• Encouraging our suppliers and partner firms to be Disability Confident
• Ensuring managers are aware of how they can support our people
• Valuing and listening to feedback.

We recognise the valuable role disabled people play in our success. By using the Disability Confident logo we hope to make it clear that we are an inclusive employer and welcome disabled applicants. We are working hard to ensure our online or offline processes are fully accessible and we provide opportunities throughout our recruitment process for all applicants to ask questions and specify any requirements, enabling us to arrange any reasonable adjustments ahead of interviews.

Internally, we work with individuals to understand their needs and engage external providers such as Occupational Health to advise on any necessary adjustments. Our Engagement Champions and DE&I Networks also play a vital role in supporting our People Team with the sharing of articles and resources which raise awareness and encourage our people to share any disability or long-term impairment.

This year, we have several activities planned to further support our people and provide valuable resources and training surrounding disability, neurodiversity, mental health, and general wellbeing, including information on reasonable adjustments, inclusive recruitment, inclusive communication, and much more. Read more about our Diversity and Inclusion activities at Barnett Waddingham.

We welcome disabled people to our organisation and support them to progress in their careers. See what career opportunities at BW are open to you, and find out more about the Disability Confident scheme, and how you can get involved.