Disability Action Yorkshire Steps Up Disability Employment Support
Harrogate-based charity, Disability Action Yorkshire has appointed a highly experienced recruitment consultant to the newly created post of Disability Employment and Resourcing Specialist. The role is designed to help the organisation intensify its activity on a key policy of encouraging businesses to employ disabled people in permanent work.
Tom Battersby joins the charity after a career that includes 20 years in the often pressured environment of commercial recruitment and, before that, senior roles in investment banking in the City of London.
Tom says he believes his major task will be helping employers to continue to broaden their perceptions and look beyond the normal stereotypical job candidate. Nearly twice as many disabled people are unemployed as non-disabled people - and with the government drive to get more disabled people back into work there will be even more fantastic candidates wanting to gain paid employment.
He says: “A major part of my role will be explaining what Disability Action Yorkshire does, why we do it and why recruitment of disabled people is valuable and useful. I understand businesses have time and cost considerations, so it must be viable for them. But what we are showing them is that there is another resource out there that can add a lot of value.”
Among the attributes Tom firmly believes disabled people can bring is a commitment to the responsibilities of their job, resulting in a culture of longevity and stability rather than having a role where people come and go, which he thinks can be disruptive for businesses.
And he brings his personal experience to his new post, having suffered a stroke late last year. Tom says: “Having had my stroke and having to end my recruitment role, I can relate a little bit more to people who, perhaps, get overlooked in the employment market. He points out that he is a “working example” of what Disability Action Yorkshire’s policy is all about as the charity took him on after his stroke.
As well as going out to businesses in the region to talk about the benefits of employing disabled people, Tom will also be helping to set up programmes to provide teaching, learning and the theoretical practice to, as he says, “get somebody ready to turn up at an employer’s building, ready for an interview and knowing how to behave and pick up a new role”.
He is delighted with his new role and with working at Disability Action Yorkshire where is says everybody is “so lovely, authentic and supportive”.
Chief executive Jackie Snape is equally pleased to have Tom on board. Jackie says: “Tom has the perfect experience to help us really focus on our mission to make employment as accessible to disabled people as everyone else. We are delighted to welcome him to the team.”
Disability Action Yorkshire was established in 1937 to provide services that create opportunities for disabled people to live the lifestyle of their choosing and achieve their life aspirations.
The charity is committed to the development of new services where there is a need, and where it believes that it has the ability and resources to meet that need. For more information about the charity and the services it can provide, please visit the website at www.disabilityactionyorkshire.org.uk
