Disabled People Work and Small-Medium-Size Enterprises

英国政府的目标是到2027年再让100万残疾人从事有偿工作。中小型企业(SME)在英国商业人口中占主导地位，与大公司相比，它们一直是失业人员的强劲雇主。因此，了解中小企业雇主如何招聘和留住残疾人是至关重要的，但残疾就业研究在很大程度上缺少中小企业雇主的声音。了解残疾人在中小企业中的就业情况也很重要。政府已经就加强要求弹性工作的权利进行了磋商，以努力解决工作-生活-平衡问题，但这并没有将残疾人作为受益者优先考虑，尽管灵活性是使许多人能够工作的关键调整。我的博士研究发现，残疾人在中小企业工作场所往往感到受欢迎，他们认为规模较小的雇主更能满足他们的需求，因为他们有密切的人际工作关系。正是这种亲密无间的关系减少了人们对‘公开’他们的损害的恐惧，从而减少了尤其是对有隐性障碍的人的困境。残疾人也对接受工作场所住宿的非正式方法以及围绕损害影响安排工作时间、地点和任务的灵活性持积极态度。总体而言，人们倾向于积极看待中小企业的工作场所文化，这表明规模较大的雇主可以从中学习。此外，很明显，中小企业的雇主经历是有细微差别的，并由它们所在的部门、它们对其提供合理调整的法律义务的了解程度、它们对残疾是社会造成的还是作为个人问题的理解。雇主的态度和价值观是由于较早地接近残疾人(通过有残疾亲属或以前雇用残疾人的经历)而形成的，而这些先前的关系是纳入的重要代表。研究发现，雇主也更倾向于考虑招聘同一损伤类别的人。研究还发现，有证据表明，小雇主经常不必要地担心成本对他们的业务和适应能力的影响。推动像获得工作机会(ATW)这样的计划，为企业和残疾工人提供实用的建议或财政支持，可能会鼓励更多的小雇主招聘残疾人。我的奖学金有三个主要目标，这将使我能够建立一个与残疾就业政策和实践接触并为其提供信息的学术生涯。首先，我希望为理解普惠就业实践做出重大贡献。我将重点介绍在高级期刊上提交的两篇文章。其次，我将与能够影响中小企业雇主行为的政策制定者和非学术受众建立联系。作为传播过程的一部分，我将与政策制定者、中小企业、残疾人和利益相关者组织一个在线研讨会，包括小企业联合会、CIPD和ACAS。第三，该奖学金将提供职业发展机会，包括培训、建立国际关系，以及偶尔与我的研究相关的研究教学机会。各项活动将配合发展一项为期三年的早期就业奖学金计划，就残疾人士就业政策进行国际比较研究，以中小企业为重点。总的来说，该奖学金将使我能够发展我的学术事业，同时有助于制定一个亟需的政策重点，即中小企业在招聘和留住残疾人士方面所扮演的角色。

The UK Government aims to get one million more disabled people into paid work by 2027. Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) dominate the UK business population and have been a more robust employer of the unemployed compared to larger firms. Consequently, it is critical to understand how SME employers experience the recruitment and retention of disabled people but the SME employer voice is largely missing from disability employment studies. It is also important to know how disabled people experience employment in SMEs. The government has consulted on strengthening the right to request flexible working, in efforts to address work-life-balance, but this does not prioritise disabled people as beneficiaries despite flexibility being the key adjustment that enables many to work. My PhD research found that disabled people often feel welcome in SME workplaces and consider smaller employers to be more accommodating of their needs because of close interpersonal working relationships. It was this closeness that reduced a fear to 'disclose' their impairment, thus reducing a dilemma for people with hidden impairments in particular. Disabled people were also positive about informal approaches to receiving workplace accommodations, and flexibility to arrange their working hours, location and tasks around impairment effects. On the whole, SME workplace cultures tended to be viewed positively, suggesting that larger employers could learn from this. It was also evident that SME employer experiences are nuanced and informed by the sector in which they operate, the level of knowledge they have about their legal obligations to provide reasonable adjustments, their understanding of disability as either socially created or as an individual problem. Employer attitudes and values are shaped by earlier proximity to disabled people (either through having a disabled relative or previous experience of hiring disabled people) and these prior relationships are an important proxy for inclusion. The research found that employers were also more inclined to consider recruiting people from the same impairment category. The study also found evidence that small employers often worry unnecessarily about the cost implications for their business and making adaptations. Promoting schemes like Access to Work (AtW), which offers practical advice or financial support to businesses and disabled workers may encourage more small employers to recruit disabled people. My fellowship has three main aims, which will allow me to build an academic career that engages with and informs disability employment policy and practice. First, I hope to make a significant contribution to understandings of inclusive employment practice. I will focus on submission of two articles in high-ranking journals. Second, I will build connections with policymakers and non-academic audiences who can influence SME employer behaviour. As part of the dissemination process, I will organise an online workshop with policymakers, SMEs, disabled people, and stakeholder organisations including the Federation of Small Business, CIPD and ACAS. Third, the fellowship will provide professional development opportunities, including training, building international relationships, and occasional research-related teaching opportunities relevant to my research. The various activities will feed into the development of a three-year Early Career Fellowship proposal to conduct international comparative research on disability employment policy focussed on the SME business population.Overall, the fellowship will enable me to develop my academic career whilst contributing to a much needed policy focus on the role of SMEs in the recruitment and retention of disabled people.