How to Be Inclusive in the Workplace with the Help of Functional Assessments
In today’s hectic business world, building an inclusive workplace is a must-do instead of a nice-to-do initiative1. Genuine inclusion is much more than cultural celebrations or diversity metrics.
It’s about creating a space where every single employee is valued for his or her specific abilities and provided the support he or she requires to succeed. It’s about understanding that every individual brings specific strengths and weaknesses to the job.
To HR leaders attempting to determine how to be inclusive in the workplace, the process begins with a simple yet powerful idea: learning about each individual as a person and building systems that allow them to excel.
Why Inclusion Is More Than a Policy
Let’s be realistic here, an inclusive workplace isn’t being nice to everyone, but it’s a darn sure key to business success. When employees feel they belong and are well cared for, they become highly engaged and loyal. This all translates into tangible outcomes that every HR leader wants: higher retention rates, lower absenteeism, and more productive creative teamwork2.
Inclusive environments build psychological safety, such that participants feel comfortable to present their ideas without fear of being criticized. It positively impacts productivity and problem-solving.
Not by coincidence are the most successful organizations the most inclusive. As research by McKinsey so clearly shows, those firms with greater diversity and inclusion are most likely to outperform less diverse rivals. It’s simple: when you create conditions in which everybody gets to bring their best, the entire organization prospers.
Key Challenges HR Teams Face in Building Inclusive Workplaces
While vision might be evident, the path to creating an authentically inclusive workplace is most commonly littered with impediments whose identification is not easy.
Hidden Barriers and Unconscious Bias
Hidden prejudice can infiltrate selection, measurement of performance, and advancement opportunities.Without quantifiable standards, we risk excluding able individuals or imposing unjust barriers to disabled or differently able people.
We need to build equitable assessment systems that are grounded in capacity and potential, not presumption. This will provide a level playing field for everyone to perform on what they can do.
Accessibility Gaps in Work Practices
Most company policies are written on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model, and this has the inadvertent consequence of excluding individuals. It could seem like inflexible work arrangements that put assumptions on caregivers, IT that is inaccessible to screen readers, or office design that is difficult to navigate.
By failing to take these differences into account, high-quality employees can be prevented from being their best and being completely enabled at work.
Understanding Functional Capacity Assessments and Their Role in Inclusion
So how do HR teams eliminate guesswork and make people-serving decisions? That’s where functional assessments come in.
Functional capacity evaluation is an unbiased test that is done by a professional in allied health, like an occupational therapist, to determine if an individual can successfully and safely execute certain work-related activities.
It is not impairment diagnosis but rather a function of determining what the individual can perform. Physical functions such as lifting and mobility, and intellectual functions such as concentration and problem-solving, are the functions the evaluation examines.
It is a very helpful tool to employ in inclusion because it provides brief, practical feedback. It is beneficial to employ in establishing a worker’s strengths, pinpointing possible restrictions, and providing feasible changes.
As a starting point in utilizing to establish an environment of genuine support in coming back to work healthily with injury, or adapting an employee’s unique ability, these tests are the place to begin.
Embedding Inclusion into HR and Workplace Practices
With objective insights in hand, you can start weaving inclusion into the entire employee lifecycle.
Inclusive Hiring and Onboarding
Inclusion begins at the start. That is, composing job postings in terms of required competencies, rather than strict requirements, and ensuring your online hiring process is accessible to everyone. During interviews, provide accommodations and emphasize objective standards that measure skills for the position.9 Once an employee has been hired, utilize results of any tests in order to implement accommodations necessary day one.
Workplace Adjustments and Ongoing Support
A completely inclusive workplace is also responsive to its workers. What the data from the functional assessment can tell you to do is enact grand changes, such as finding someone an ergonomic chair, changing someone’s workload, or permitting flexible start and finish times.
Most critically is honest and open communication between employees and managers. When you know someone’s potential, you can put them in jobs where they can excel
and do something that will last and give them a fulfilling career.
Inclusive Culture Through Continuous Learning
Processes and tools are the tip of the iceberg. An inclusion culture is built on a building block of ongoing learning and commitment. This is achieved through the training of leaders and teams in disability awareness, unconscious bias, and psychological safety3.
Respectful behaviors and language demonstrated by leaders unmistakably communicate that each and every individual matters. It fosters a workplace culture where empathy and compassion become the norm.
How Functional Assessments Strengthen Inclusive Work Strategies
Functional capacity assessment shifts inclusion from an abstract idea to a series of concrete steps. They give HR personnel objective results, removing the guesswork which typically follows staff requirements.
Think about when an employee is returning from a long-term illness. Instead of having to make an educated estimate about their capacity, an assessment provides you with a clear route to safe and functional return to work. Or think about a job that needs to be adapted to an employee who has a chronic illness. An assessment enables you to adapt the tasks to their capacity, so they can still be productive.
This is a partnership of the employee, occupational therapist, and HR. You can create tailored solutions together that meet the individual’s wellbeing and business needs. It makes inclusion practical and proactive and not aspirational.
The Future of Inclusive Workplaces in Australia
The focus on inclusion becomes all the more compelling. In the wake of increased Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) expectations, Australian companies face increased pressure to demonstrate their commitment to people.
Functional ratings are starting to become a core element of more comprehensive workplace wellbeing initiatives, helping organisations take a proactive approach to their people. We can expect continued embedding of such evidence-led solutions, which allow organisations to build meaningful, healthier, more resilient, and indeed inclusive teams for the future.
Building Workplaces Where Everyone Can Thrive
Finally, building a workplace for all is an imperative for business and a human need. It’s creating an organisation in which each person is heard, understood, and empowered to thrive. That vision is made possible through an extraordinary combination of empathy and data.
By bringing a passion for what your people need together with rigorously disciplined tools such as functional assessments, you can create a workplace in which everyone, without limitation, can thrive.