2020, the year we made a giant leap

When we look back on this year, many will focus on the really negative aspects of bushfires, weeks of smoke pollution, storms (that caused nearly 70,000 insurance claims in ACT) and the Covid-19 pandemic that has caused widespread unemployment and business hardship. But one thing stands out to me as something profound and incredible. 2020 is the year we rapidly adapted our work lives and made “reasonable adjustments” so that we could keep trading, servicing our customers and keep our staff employed.

Friday the 13th of March 2020, was the day the world of work changed. In hindsight for many it changed for the better. We made these changes in how we do business, how we work and innovated on an unprecedented scale in a matter of days. As people queued to enter the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that from Monday 16 March, mass gatherings of more than 500 would be banned. He was still planning on going to the football on Saturday but as the realities set in on what the future looked like, within 24 hours he announced he would not be attending in person. We all as business leaders started to realise that Australia like the rest of the world was on the precipice of something big. I reflect that on the Saturday 14th of March, I was talking to a friend in New York about the lockdown they were in (and had been for weeks) and thinking how lucky we were that we did not have stay at home orders or anything resembling a complete shutdown of business and everyday life. Within a week (Sunday 22 March), the government announced the commencement of shut downs and business closures. The reality was, we had to change how we worked rapidly, just because we could not go to the office did not mean all businesses had to stop trading.

It was incredible how quickly we all embraced work from home -  Zoom, MS Teams, tele-conferences, changing face to face interactions to online. All of a sudden work from home became the norm and we all had increased hours in the day due to no commute. Managers had to rapidly learn how to manage a dispersed work force and trust their employees where being productive. We had to juggle flexible work with delivering for our clients as well as supervising the children attempting school online. Somehow, we made it work and most became more productive. Specialisterne a leading Autism recruitment and support provider, turned their 4-week face to face assessment centre program into an online program, in 3 days. The vast majority of candidates enjoyed it more than face to face and adapted quickly.

Those who lost their jobs received a higher rate of unemployment benefits in the form of “Jobkeeper”. Our governments across federal and state, worked collaboratively to fight the pandemic and support business and workers. It was an impressive time of bipartisanship at a government level and also between businesses and employees.  Any and all changes to support workers in getting the job done was considered.

Staff with disability and especially those with hidden disability like psychosocial disability including Autism, Depression and PTSD watched with surprise that the things they had been asking to be considered as reasonable adjustments (flexible work hours, work from home, online meetings over face to face) appeared for all staff within a few days of the lockdown. Workplaces had become more supportive and accepting of change to accommodate staff work/family needs due to the imperative that they had to do this or have no workers. The pandemic had made businesses take a giant leap in implementing reasonable adjustments as a standard for all staff, not just something the minority of people with disability needed, to be as productive as their peers. All staff truly became equal in terms of reasonable adjustment and support.

The challenge now as we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns is to not step backwards and remove the supportive practices we implemented when we had too. Those supportive practices or reasonable adjustments need to become part of business as usual so that staff with disability are not marginalised and seen as too difficult to support. All staff have experienced what many people with disability have experienced, that work needs to be flexible so that they can work to the same level and standard as their peers. 2021 needs to be the year of support and making the giant leap sustainable. We still have more to do in terms of supporting and hiring staff with disability. Hiring staff for the unique qualities they bring to an organisation and the competitive advantages they provide to inclusive employers needs to be more widely accepted. Those who embrace this competitive advantage will be the big winners from the 2020 giant leap.

David Smith is a neurodiversity employment specialist providing education, training and support to organisations and individuals.