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The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development and we're really
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proud as an organisation to be part of the disability confident campaign.
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It's important of course that we attract
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talented people and for them to want to work for us but on top of that we want
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people to be able to feel they can achieve their potential at work.
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We want them to be able to perform and really
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perform to their best.
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Our HR team regularly review our HR policies and our
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people approaches to make sure that they are inclusive and that we're
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encouraging a diverse range of talent to apply for us.
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We're very lucky in that this building here, our head office, is
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really built to be accessible.
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We've been doing a lot around mental health awareness in our business.
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We started rolling out mental health awareness training with our first aiders.
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We then rolled that out to managers and now we're rolling it out across the
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workforce as a whole because as a business we think it is very important
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that our people feel as comfortable talking about mental health as they do
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talking about physical health.
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So we're encouraging other employers to be getting involved in this campaign.
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I've worked here for about 12 years now and I've had four different roles at the
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CIPD in that time.
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I have a severe hearing loss in both ears and I
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lost my hearing when I was about two and a half years old.
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I wear hearing aids in both ears and I wouldn't be able to hear
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anything if I didn't have them.
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There are various challenges, for example large meeting with lots and lots of
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people in can be tricky sometimes.
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I rely a lot on lip-reading
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so the phone can be very hard work and I try to avoid using the phone where I can
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which is absolutely fine.
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All my colleagues understand that and that's
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fine but Skype and FaceTime, things like that really really help.
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I was diagnosed in February 2013.
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I just need to refer to my notes to get the actual sort
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of clinical name because I can never pronounce it correctly.
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Metastatic clear cell renal carcinoma.
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So that means in layman's terms that I have got kidney
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cancer that has spread to other parts, so I
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have got bone tumors in my spine and in my femur and I've got spots on my
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lungs and on my left hip.
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I went to HR straight away, my business partner, and
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advised them and really they sort of took over everything that needed to be done
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from an HR perspective and really sort of felt very supportive.
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At that point as well I wasn't really sure on immediately
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the diagnosis so when the diagnosis was confirmed they were very supportive in
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helping me apply for critical illness cover as well which can be given
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to staff at the time of diagnosis rather than, rather than at death so it
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was really really useful to to know about that right at the early stages.
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It's going back quite a long time ago now but I can remember mentioning my
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hearing loss in an interview and the reaction was absolutely chilled.
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There was no looks of surprise or worry on
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anyone's face.
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CIPD just asked me what adjustments do
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we need to make, how can we help you?
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CIPD purchased special headphones for me so I can hear better, it's not perfect,
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but I can hear better on things like webinars or online meetings.
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I think the flexibility side of things has been an
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enormous benefit and a real positive support for me because it's... in some
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cases my treatment has been...
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I started at the very top dose of medication
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that I could possibly be on which really did knock my quality of
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life a lot.
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You know I felt very fatigued and needed lots of sleep
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and rest and so... actually my husband redeveloped the bedroom and built me a
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home office so that I could work from home and work were really supportive in
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providing me the chair for home and things like that and I was
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able to get a laptop so that I could work from home.
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I have Royal Marsden clinic appointments every four weeks and
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they're on a Friday and I have other appointments.
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I have to have CT scans and nuclear bone scans throughout the year
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as well and other other medical appointments as well as that so
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everyone's very supportive of that but don't treat me any differently because
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of that so that's great.
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I don't want to I don't want to feel pitied or anything
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like that, I just want to crack on and and do a good job but just so that
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people appreciate the importance of these medical appointments and
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working around those so that's great.
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As an organisation that champions better work and working lives I think it's
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imperative that we're involved really.
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It's quite a significant proportion of the population has a disability of some
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kind or a health condition so it just makes sense for everybody that not only
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do we access that wide pool of talent but also that organisations are
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accessible.
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I think it's a really good thing.
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I think it's something that really all organisations should be doing and
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it's great to shine the light on on this and really highlight the
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fact that everybody, all organisations, really should be doing this and, you know,
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it shouldn't be... it shouldn't really need to have some sort of stamp of
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approval, it should just be something that everybody and all organisations do.
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So if this campaign shines a light on that and grows the awareness of
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that, then all the better really.