Two-thirds of Australian businesses don’t employ people with disability. Here’s how we can change that.

A landmark new Australian report has revealed a significant gap between our workforce needs and one of Australia’s largest untapped talent pools. For employers who want to improve disability inclusion but aren’t sure where to begin, practical models such as Civic Crew and Inclusive Employment Australia can turn good intentions into real, sustainable jobs.

A new national report has delivered a confronting finding: only one in three Australian businesses employs a person with disability.

At the same time, the State of the Nation Report on Disability Employment identifies around 890,000 unemployed Australians with disability who are able to work but who struggle to access employment opportunities – more than half of the people with disability surveyed said they had difficulty finding employers who wanted to hire them.

That’s significant talent sitting on the sidelines.

And at a time when organisations across Australia are looking for reliable employees, addressing workforce shortages and working to improve diversity and inclusion, it’s an opportunity businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

The disability employment gap isn’t just about job readiness

The report points to something Civic sees regularly. Many people with disability want to work. Many employers want to become more inclusive. The missing piece is often knowing how to make it work.

Employers can be uncertain about recruitment, workplace adjustments, supervision or how to support somebody with intellectual disability or autism once they start work. For people with intellectual disability in particular, those barriers can have a profound effect on employment opportunities.

Civic’s own employment work has been built around addressing exactly this problem: creating practical pathways into mainstream workplaces while giving employers the support and confidence required to make those placements sustainable.

Civic Crew: a supported pathway into mainstream workplaces

Established in 2019, Civic Crew was designed specifically to help people with intellectual disability access work in mainstream employment settings while simultaneously helping employers develop the skills and experience needed to support an inclusive workforce. Rather than asking an employer to navigate inclusive employment alone, Civic works alongside the organisation.

A Civic Crew brings together employees with intellectual disability and experienced support, enabling teams to undertake genuine work within mainstream workplaces while Civic provides the structure that helps both the workers and the employer succeed.

Depending on the workforce solution, this can include recruitment and onboarding, training, HR, compliance and administration, alongside on-site supervision and ongoing support.

The result is a practical way for an organisation to start employing people with disability without needing to become an expert in disability employment first. The business supplies the opportunity. Civic helps make the opportunity work.

Since its establishment, Civic Crew has supported more than 150 people to experience open employment opportunities. The employer partnerships Civic has established demonstrate that the model can translate across very different workplaces. Work with BGIS, for example, supported 16 people with intellectual disability into logistics and housekeeping roles, with Civic providing training and support to help make those placements sustainable, while partnerships with local councils and colleges provide ongoing opportunities for individuals to learn new skills and earn a wage working across administration, cleaning, maintenance and other key skills.

That’s the difference between simply creating a vacancy and building a pathway to sustainable employment.

Another option: employ someone directly, with Civic beside you

Not every employer needs a managed Crew, and not every person with disability needs that level of support. For businesses ready to employ someone directly, Civic also delivers specialist Inclusive Employment Australia (IEA) services.

This creates another route into open employment. Through this government funded employment service, job coaches take the time to understand an individual’s strengths and goals, identify suitable jobs and work with employers to create supportive environments. Crucially, Civic’s involvement doesn’t finish on someone’s first day at work. Ongoing support can continue for both the employee and employer.

For an employer, that can mean Civic helping to:

• understand the role and what the business genuinely needs
• identify and prepare suitable candidates
• customise or “carve” a role around work that needs to be done
• arrange work trials
• support inclusive onboarding
• identify reasonable workplace adjustments
• provide job coaching and ongoing support
• work with the employer and employee when circumstances change.

It is particularly valuable for people who may need a more individualised employment pathway rather than being expected to fit neatly into a conventional recruitment process.

For people with intellectual disability and autism, getting the fit right matters

Traditional recruitment can unintentionally exclude talented people. Lengthy written applications, conventional interviews, rigid position descriptions or assumptions about what makes a “good candidate” don’t necessarily reveal what someone can contribute once they’re actually doing a job.

Civic takes a different approach. Our employment model focuses on strengths and job fit, including techniques such as job customisation and job carving. Instead of starting with the question, “Can this person perform every task in this position description?”, employers can look at the work that actually needs to be done and where an individual’s skills can add value.

Civic’s approach is deliberately focused on relationships over transactions and a “place then train” mentality, rather than expecting every candidate to arrive completely work-ready before being given an opportunity.

That distinction matters for people with intellectual disability and autism who have historically faced particularly significant barriers to entering open employment.

Inclusion doesn’t have to start with a perfect plan

Perhaps the most important message from the new national report is that Australia does not have a shortage of people who could contribute. We have a shortage of opportunities.

The Australian workforce includes an enormous pool of people whose skills and potential remain underused. If employment rates for people experiencing barriers could be brought into line with those of people without disability, the report estimates 637,000 additional Australians could participate in the workforce.

Changing that doesn’t require every business to transform its entire workforce overnight. It could start with one function, one project, one role or one Crew.

What employers don’t need to do is work it all out themselves. Civic has spent decades creating employment opportunities for people with disability and now offers different pathways depending on an organisation’s workforce needs and level of disability-employment experience.

Want to employ people with disability but don’t know where to start?

Talk to Civic about your workforce needs.

If you have a project, recurring work or workforce requirement that could suit a supported team, explore how Civic Crew could provide a managed inclusive workforce solution.

If you’re ready to employ someone directly, talk to our Inclusive Employment Australia team about suitable candidates, inclusive recruitment, job design and the ongoing support available to both your organisation and your new employee.

You provide the opportunity. We’ll help you make it sustainable.

Call: 1300 692 484
Email: enquiries@civic.org.au