Founder and Managing Director of EmployAbility, Tab Ahmad, has dedicated her time to helping disabled students move from education to employment, and it is her pioneering work in the field of disability and employment, that won her this years’ Asian Woman of Achievement Award in Public Service. As well as changing the lives of hundreds of disabled students, EmployAbility also works offering support, advice and guidance to employers throughout the recruitment process and in the workplace.
Jobs & Careers: Tab congratulations on winning the Asian Woman of Achievement Award!
Tab Ahmad: Thank you, I was so honoured and completely taken aback! It came as such a surprise and I really wasn’t prepared, but it was great for us, and an excellent way to raise EmployAbility’s profile as there were many high profile names there such as Cherie Blaire, Duchess of York and HRH Princess Badiya bint El Hassan. Hopefully it will help bring our company to the attention of other employers.
J&C: You set up EmployAbility back in 2006 – what prompted you to set up the company?
TA: For the five previous years I had been working with a charity providing specialist disability and employment consultancy services to employers. We worked on getting the attention of high profile employers, so it was a lot of banging on doors at the time. I found that firms focussed heavily on ethnicity and gender, and the charity I worked with was primarily focussed on getting people off benefits and into the work place. I set up their business arm, working with disabled university students, in that sense I was disconnected from the rest of the charity. But, I had identified a huge gap in the market as there was a real lack of support offered to this group, so decided to set up EmployAbility.
J&C: How do you help with the transition from university to the workplace for disabled graduates?
TA: EmployAbility works with many university students in the UK and Europe. We provide graduates with free personalised support service, offering advice and guidance throughout the recruitment process, which includes CV preparation, helping them on career choices, motivating them, as well as advising them regarding disability disclosure and adjustments.
There are many more graduates around now, chasing fewer jobs, so the market for disabled students is even tougher compared to that for their peers, and often very daunting for them. Many of them don’t want to ask for help or disability related adjustments as they are worried about discrimination, so this transition is especially stressful for disabled students/ graduates.
J&C: How has EmployAbility worked with other employers to promote opportunities for disabled job seekers?
TA: We aim to get as many employers involved as possible and offer them a range of tailored consultancy and training services, aimed at creating a more diverse and inclusive working environment. EmployAbility works with employers to help them attract, recruit, integrate and retain talented disabled students and graduates. We provide the employers with Disability Awareness and Equality Training, which enables them to view a candidate’s application more holistically, and see why, despite any disability or learning difficulty they have, they still match the requirements and are the most suitable person for the job. By getting employers to look at the applications in this way, we stop disabled applicants getting rejected. We also work on tailoring the interview process to fit in with the applicant’s disability. For example, many company’s now carry out on line timed tests/ assessments as part of the process. However, candidates on the Autistic spectrum or those with dyslexia may need extra time or an exemption from these tests altogether, as these tests are often based upon processing information in the short term memory repeatedly, which can prove very difficult for candidates with these and other disabilities. We’ve also found that many students with dyslexia may have been diagnosed late, during their final year of university or maybe even after, so their grades say nothing about their capability, although they may well possess the appropriate skills.
J&C: Do you feel as though there are many graduate schemes and placements available for disabled students?
TA: The employers that we work with offer various internship programs and we also run talent pipeline events with many of the companies. For example, our most recent was an event with Google, called TechAbility. It is a programme designed to source, develop and recruit disabled computer scientists. The selected students were given the opportunity to spend the day at Google HQ offices in London. Throughout the day they took part in a Google innovation workshop, lots of different coding activities, as well as a number of technical challenges, and had the opportunity to “grill a Googler” on what it’s like to work at the organisation. We then selected the best students from this event to be mentored by Google. It’s a great opportunity for the students and many have gone on to internships at Google. We also work closely with employers such as Goldman Sachs, Slaughter and May and The FCA.
J&C: Where do you hope to take EmployAbility?
TA: When I first set up EmployAbility there were only two of us, now there are six, and we are very well known as specialists in our field. We are very prudent in terms of growth as we don’t want to steer focus away from the quality of service we provide to our clients.
We’ve been surprised to find that a lot of the people we’ve helped into employment come back to us, wanting support when shifting roles within a company or moving elsewhere. We are in the process of launching ‘Employ Experienced Ability’, as more and more employers are looking to us to help them attract and recruit experienced disabled professionals.
And, on the other side, more and more employers are keen to engage with younger students, such as those finishing A-Levels in years 12 and 13.
Over the coming year we will also be holding large scale events for employers to provide them with practical know-how and knowledge for becoming more disability and diversity inclusive.
For more information on the work Tab and her team do for disabled job seekers and inclusive employers, please visit http://www.employ-ability.org.uk
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