Expanding Horizons: Overcoming Barriers for Employment
Monash Council and Holmesglen Institute are partnering on Expanding Horizons: Overcoming Barriers for Employment, an exciting new initiative to help the business community in Monash build their confidence in employing and retaining people living with disability.
With 1 in 6 people in Australia estimated to have a disability, Expanding Horizons is a unique opportunity for businesses in Monash to become diversity leaders in the workplace and to successfully recruit candidates from a wider talent pool to address their labour shortages.
How we will support you and your business
- Offer your organisation opportunities to build your confidence around employing candidates with disability.
- Smooth pathways for job seekers who live with disability and may face barriers, including people who have anxiety or who are neurodiverse.
- Provide guidance to available financial support where applicable.
Benefits to your business
Some of the recognised benefits to business when employing a candidate with disability are:
- Widening the talent pool to draw from
- Reducing worker turnover (minimising re-recruitment costs)
- Lowering rates of absenteeism
- Improving productivity levels
- Building workplace cohesion
- Enriching workplace culture.
Research shows that employing candidates with disability makes for good business, social and economic sense. Everyone benefits from an inclusive and diverse workforce – fellow workers, the business, customers and the community as a whole.
Find out more
If you're a business interested in learning more about the benefits of hiring from this large, talented pool of candidates, we want to hear from you.
Contact michelle.bloch@monash.vic.gov.au
Information and resources
1 in 6 people in Australia are estimated to have a disability. 48% of working age people with disability are employed, compared with 80% without disability. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, People with disability in Australia 2022)
Australian Government support
Australian Government Employment Service Providers offer wage subsidies (subject to eligibility criteria and funding caps). Wage subsidies provide financial incentives to employers to recruit and retain eligible jobseekers in ongoing employment.
Employers can also find information, advice services and resources regarding the employment of candidates with disability on the Australian Government’s information hub, JobAccess. Job Access offers a range of resources to support businesses including an Employment Assistance Fund which supports the costs of making workplace changes if required, as well as disability awareness training for employers and their employees if required.
Research and resources