A national employment campaign will be rolled out to engage more than 100,000 people with disabilities and some of Australia’s biggest businesses will hire job seekers with disability across their organisations as part of an additional initiative to provide greater career opportunities.
As part of our plan for a stronger future, Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said the Morrison Government would invest $6 million to fund a national advertising program for The Field, an online job platform that is being designed to directly connect people with disability with potential employers.
“People with disability are hardworking and dedicated employees and businesses should recognise their potential contribution to any workplace,” Minister Ruston said.
“The Field will provide jobseekers with disability an opportunity to showcase their strengths and abilities online to registered hiring managers across corporate, small and medium enterprises, and government sectors who are ready to tap into an underutilised talent pool.
“It is designed by people with disability and includes innovative features that will help make the focus of the recruitment process about a person’s skills, experience and qualifications, rather than their disability.”
The Field will be delivered by 2022 Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott AO’s organisation Get Skilled Access and is expected to launch later in the year through the national advertising program.
It will be targeted at mainstream employers and people with disability and run across various mediums such as TV, radio, print and social media, aiming to attract 100,000 job seekers and 45,000 businesses.
Mr Alcott welcomed the funding investment and said that people with disability deserved the same job opportunities as anybody else.
“It’s time for employers to take the lead in creating inclusive workplaces and recruitment process so people with disability have more choice and control over their careers,” he said.
Coles, Bendigo Bank, Tennis Australia, Hydro Tasmania, RACQ and Ranstad Australia will hire people with disability, review their recruitment processes and examine barriers to equip employers with the tools they need to hire people with disability.
Minister Ruston said the Morrison Government had committed $2.43 million for the RecruitAble pilot and that its goal was to challenge misconceptions and develop a best practice approach for employing people with disability.
The RecruitAble pilot will highlight the benefits of a highly talented but regularly overlooked workforce,” Minister Ruston said.
“It aims to provide organisations with insights into the accessibility of the current recruitment process and identify the key areas for increasing the hiring process.”
Randstad Australia, a national recruitment agency, and Get Skilled Access will work in partnership to deliver the pilot over the next 12 to 18 months, which includes a new website that is live today for people with disability to directly land a job with the participating employers.
Through the pilot Get Skilled Access will also be working closely with the employers to build their disability confidence and create workplaces that are more inclusive.
Mr Alcott said the pilot was a great step towards people with disability feeling confident about accessing job opportunities.
“People with disability deserve to use mainstream recruitment services to find jobs but we frequently hear the current system is not accessible or inclusive,” he said.
“RecruitAble will offer all Australians an equal opportunity to go after the job of their choice, fulfil their potential and live the life they deserve.”
Coles Group CEO Steven Cain said the pilot was a key way they plan to be a champion for accessibility and disability inclusion.
“We want to ensure that our management team take our learnings from this pilot to help our disability hiring acumen across Coles Group more broadly and ultimately seek to increase the number of people with disability that we hire,” Mr Cain said.
Randstad Australia General Manager of Diversity and Inclusion Madeline Hill said the initiative would support wider positive societal change.
“The RecruitAble will not only match excellent candidates with fulfilling roles, but will create more diverse, inclusive and productive workplaces,” Ms Hill said.
The pilot is the first initiative delivered under the Morrison Government’s Disability Employment Strategy, an associated plan of Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 and its $250 million commitment to breaking down barriers for people with disability.
