BIS Demonstrates Best Practice in Disability Management

System Concepts provided BIS with a disability managment service for the assessment of the workplace needs of BIS employees with disabilities and health conditions.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS - formerly know as BERR) has the lead responsibility in Whitehall for setting standards for employment legislation and aims to demonstrate best practice in the management of its staff. 

BIS is committed to diversity and equality, and to creating a fair, inclusive environment in which all staff members can reach their full potential.   System Concepts has provided BIS with a Disability Management Service since 2005 following a successful six-month pilot project.  Their consultants work in partnership with the Human Resources department, and occupational health advisers to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the assessment of the workplace needs of BIS employees with disabilities and health conditions.

What are the benefits?  

Sonja Drew, Deputy Head of Casework, Coaching and Diversity for BIS, explains the benefits she has seen:

By providing a single point of contact, focused management and access to a range of resources, System Concepts provides specialist knowledge, and assessments and recommendations more quickly and efficiently than we could do ourselves, leaving us to concentrate on supporting line managers in implementing the agreed recommended changes effectively.

A quick and effective assessment and reasonable adjustments to the workplace helps an employee with a long term health condition or disability to carry on working productively and maintains high staff morale and a supportive environment for all employees.

How does it work? 

When the BIS team identify that an employee might benefit from an assessment of their workplace needs they contact System Concepts who:

• Assess the individual in their workplace, looking at their role, workstation and equipment, and taking further advice if necessary
• Recommend adjustments to their work, equipment or tasks in a short, written report
• Follow up the recommendations with the employee to check whether changes are working satisfactorily, and revisit or re-assess as necessary.

The assessments are:

• Individually managed, carried out and followed up by the same person, giving a single point of contact with all the information who can get issues resolved quickly.
• Independent, not influenced by equipment manufacturers or internal politics.
• Holistic in their approach, considering a wide range of issues rather than using condition specific assessors.
• Practical in their recommendations which often involve a range of stakeholders – the individual employee, occupational health specialists, line management, human resources and occasionally external not-for-profit support services.
• Timely, reports are issued a maximum of 32 days from the initial referral, usually much sooner, in a couple of cases the report has been delivered on the same day as the referral.

Over the last three years System Concepts has conducted assessments for people with a wide range of conditions such as musculoskeletal disorders, heart conditions, mobility restrictions, agoraphobia, total and partial hearing loss, cancer, visual problems and mental health conditions including stress, anxiety and depression.

One satisfied employee emailed shortly after her assessment, saying,

I have been provided with the equipment you recommended and I must say I feel much better. I still have the odd pain in my right arm but not as bad as before. Thank you for the assessment it really did make a difference.

What does the client say?

Sonja Drew has been pleased with the services provided by System Concepts concluding,

The consultants are flexible and have spent time getting to know us and work in partnership with all parts of our organisation.  They have consistently met the Department’s service criteria for the timeliness of contacts, visits, reports and implementation and have received some first-rate feedback from line managers, the Department’s Medical Adviser and the employees they have assessed.