Vodafone uses the Disability Confident Scheme to become an employer of choice

Vodafone UK wanted to understand and highlight the contribution and talent that people with disabilities bring to their workplace in order to:

• Attract, recruit and promote people with disabilities.
• Ensure that accessibility is at the forefront of decision making across the business.
• Allow all disabled employees to feel supported by their colleagues, encouraging open conversations around accessibility and flexibility and providing support where needed.

Vodafone UK used the Disability Confident Scheme to support and attract disabled colleagues

Vodafone UK are always looking for ways to make their workplace inclusive for  everyone, including valuable talent with disabilities. By progressing to Disability Confident level 2, they were able to build on this work and implement a gold standard framework to drive inclusivity in their workplace.

It took 18 months to undertake an in-depth gap analysis to identify areas of growth. Following this, they rolled out a Reasonable Adjustments Process and submitted a self-assessment for Disability Confident Level 2.

To do this collaboratively across the business, a team of Special Points of Contact (SPOCs) from key teams was assembled to support in building the crucial process, which spanned across attraction, recruitment, hiring and the internal employee lifecycle. It facilitated the necessary adjustments needed to existing processes needed and introduced new ways of working to support applicants, candidates and employees in fostering a culture of inclusion and helping those with disabilities thrive in their careers.

Committing the time and resource, to see the results

Teams at Vodafone UK invested a significant amount of time and resource to ensure the project was a success, and that they had tangible and ambitious steps to take to unlock the benefits of having a diverse and inclusive work force. In doing so, Vodafone UK identified three key areas that were critical to its success:

1. Understanding a large organisation and its existing processes. Conducting a detailed gap analysis allowed teams to understand h