We hear a lot about organisations being disability confident at an organisational level. At PurpleSpace we also notice the need that individuals have to build inner confidence and resilience especially those people who are newly diagnosed with a health condition or disability or mental ill health.
In 2016 we put together a national project team of disabled employees and networks and together we are creating a national definition of ‘our disability confidence’ and building the world’s first maturity model mapping out a path towards inner disability confidence.
Individual confidence with different aspects of disability and impairment can vary but there are also many shared experiences. Our maturity model will highlight key milestones and signpost to useful advice for building disability confidence on the way. One of those key milestones is having the confidence to ask for a workplace adjustment and we are thrilled to announce that the sponsor of our disability confidence maturity model is our newest partner Microlink.
Microlink was founded in 1992 by Dr. Nasser Siabi OBE and Vee Ganjavian as a result of the experiences both Nasser and Vee had working with their disabilities at a time when accessible products and services were not readily available. 25 years later their workplace adjustment service, MiCase is embraced as best practice for some of the largest corporations in the country.
On collaborating with Microlink, PurpleSpace CEO Kate Nash said: "The funding that Microlink is providing will see PurpleSpace launch a groundbreaking project. We intend to unearth and describe the skills employees use to develop inner confidence while managing disability or ill health at work. Knowing what those skills are, being able to name them and define them, means we will make it easier for employees to navigate some of the most difficult life moments AND stay in work. If we get this right we will make an important strategic contribution to the economy in the U.K. and beyond. This is not always about managing impairment or other people's reactions to disability and difference but about managing our own thoughts and feelings in the face of anxiety and uncertainty. Microlink has been working with hundreds of thousands of disabled employees for many years - we are proud to be working in partnership with them".
Nasser Siabi said: “We at Microlink have simple mission, to make it possible for people to succeed in work and education despite their challenges with long-term health and disabilities. We do this by removing the barriers put in the path of disabled people and make it possible for employers to harness the vast talent the disabled employees bring to the organisation.
Throughout the years we have seen again and again how simple but timely interventions the employers can improve; productivity, employee/employer relationships, absenteeism, team moral and many more important factors which will directly impact the wellbeing of the workforce. We have also shown this not just the right thing to do but also, financially smart thing to do too!
We passionately believe that disabled employees can make a huge contribution to the future prosperity of the organisation they work for and should be considered as assets and not liability.
Making the work place adjustment should not just be for legal compliance or for improving the performance and reducing absenteeism or improve retention or improving the bottom line or better employee engagement or creating a more diverse workforce etc…it should be for ALL of the above.”
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