Supporting employers to recruit disabled people and people with health conditions

What works to support employers to recruit disabled people and people with health conditions?

Scope

This report presents findings from a rapid evidence review on what works to support employers to recruit disabled people and people with health conditions.

The review covered evaluations of employer recruitment practices and active labour market policy (ALMP) interventions in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or other high-income Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The evaluations:

• had a focus on inclusive recruitment practices that aim to increase recruitment of disabled people and/or people with health conditions, enablers of inclusive recruitment practice, and actions to support employers to adopt inclusive recruitment approaches;
• explored the attainment of individual outcomes, employer outcomes or effective practice;
• were impact studies, process studies and studies highlighting ‘what works’ elements of a programme or intervention; and
• were published between January 1997 and April 2026.

Audience

This report provides insights for employer engagement and other staff delivering ALMP programmes such as Connect to Work and WorkWell. It includes a series of practical recommendations for ALMP delivery staff and employers, alongside two case studies of interventions seeking to improve the inclusivity of recruitment for disabled people and people with health conditions. Learning from this review can inform local delivery of employment support programmes and employer engagement approaches.

Findings

The review includes case studies, practical examples and key insights into:

• Enablers of inclusive recruitment practices such as specific tools, access to external support, senior leadership commitment, employer knowledge and communication with potential employees.
• Inclusive recruitment practices including training recruitment managers and staff to increase their knowledge, build skills and change behaviours (see Case study 1: Interactive Training Video), suppressing or removing identifying information during recruitment, standardised behavioural interviews for all candidates, using objective criteria for recruitment, using AI to mitigate negative disability bias among recruiting managers and improve transparency in decision-making and candidate selection (see Case study 2: Using Generative AI).
• The role of ALMP practitioners to support employers to recruit disabled people and people with health conditions by combining practical information, recruitment process support and job brokerage.

Evidence base

The evidence base for this review was limited in both coverage of the research questions and strength. There were only 15 moderate or high-quality studies identified by this review and limited UK-specific evidence.