Graduate Recruiter’s Disability Café 11 (GR’11)
Hosted by Mayer Brown

Employer branding has undeniable importance in attracting high calibre applicants to an organisation. Information on corporate and recruitment websites aim to draw potential candidates to an organisation, primarily by helping candidates identify with the roles available and the organisation itself. However, some of these messages may not meet the expectations of talented disabled candidates and instead may, unintentionally, drive potential applicants away. This Disability Café helped recruiters identify how their organisations can better stand out as being ‘great with disability’.

On 11 September 2013 recruiters from a range of companies, along with university representatives and a number of disabled students and recent graduates met at the offices of Mayer Brown. The purpose was to learn how to improve their online image to better attract talented disabled candidates.

Helen Cooke, Director of My Plus Consulting, opened the event by highlighted the role that the pioneering new websitewww.greatwithdisability.com can potentially play in bringing employers and disabled students together. As well as providing students with all the information they need to prepare for school leaver and graduate job applications and the recruitment process, www.greatwithdisability.com it also provides organisations with the platform to market themselves as an employer of choice for disabled students. It particularly enables employers to provide disabled candidates with information otherwise unavailable on their corporate or recruitment websites.

Helen moved on speak about the 6 key pieces of information that disabled candidates want from organisations, including information about disclosure, the recruitment process, adjustments and support, and profiles of successful disabled employees within organisations. The delegates then participated in rounds of small group discussions, where they shared ways to improve the information displayed on their websites, and on the Great With Disability website, to ensure that their organisations stood out as being ‘great with disability’. Common ideas included showcasing success stories of disabled employees, providing a personal point of contact, ensuring information about events includes relevant disability information, and talking about disability across the whole website and not just on the careers pages.

After the break, delegates heard from three talented disabled students with experience of researching and applying to organisations. Robin, David, and Christina shared their perceptions of what makes an organisation ‘great with disability’. The speakers identified specific aspects of websites that make a positive impression, such as having a clearly detailed recruitment process, information about disability-related networks, and a variety of profiles of successful disabled workers. Katrina, Graduate Marketing Manager, Barclays, also shared how they had approached putting their profile together in a such a way as to ensure that Barclays stood out as an employer of choice for disabled students.

The delegates again participated in rounds of small group discussions concerning what they needed to do to really stand out as being ‘great with disability’. During these discussions they gained valuable insights into how to improve their own online image to ensure that they stood out as employers of choice for talented disabled candidates.

Our thanks go to Mayer Brown for hosting this event.