Today I am forwarding something that was developed recently by the excellent organization Changing Faces. This is a group based in the UK, which focuses on any person who has any kind of facial or other physical difference (be it something they were born with or something they acquired), and tries to promote strategies and resources to help them, and emphasizes fighting against societal prejudice against facial difference.
Here CF focuses on the job interview process. And as so many of us know, what could be more stressful than that for someone who has a facial or general physical difference? I frequently hear from those who have Moebius how difficult the interview process can be. There are worries--will the interviewer assume I have an intellectual disability? Will they give me a fair chance? Will my difference keep me from getting the job? And then there are all the dilemmas that come up--with the biggest one being: should I tell my potential employer about my Moebius? Or not? And there could be worries for the employer as well. Your interviewer might be afraid to ask about your physical difference. So many problems! But Changing Faces is trying to help. They have come up with job interview guides for both applicants, with facial or other differences...AND for employers. Read on; and you can find links to the actual guides at the this link too:
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Employers
and jobseekers are being given a helping hand to handle the sensitive
issue of disfigurement, in new guidance published today.
Changing
Faces, the national charity that supports people living with a scar,
mark or condition that affects their appearance, has developed guides
for employers and jobseekers to overcome barriers that people with
disfigurements say hold them back from employment.
“With
almost one in every hundred people of working age having an unusual
facial appearance, many fear that reactions from employers will
jeopardise their chances. At the same time, many interviewers are
fearful of asking the wrong thing, using inappropriate words or being
accused of discrimination,” said Sally Mbewe, a business psychologist
who works as the charity’s Face Equality at Work Advisor and who also
delivers training to employers around the UK. “These fears mean that
many talented and capable individuals are left out of the job market,
and employers are losing out on potentially high quality candidates.”
The
charity’s guide for jobseekers explains how to deal constructively with
the application process, and the rise in popularity of the ‘visumé’, a
video application, increasingly common in the creative industries. It
also gives advice on how to confidently approach interviewers who are
distracted or confused by the jobseeker’s appearance. For recruiters and
interviewers, the guide provides advice on what they are allowed to
ask, how to avoid being distracted by a candidate’s appearance and focus
on what they are saying.
Both guides work through similar
concerns but from different perspectives, and are designed to complement
each other. The overall aim is to make everyone involved in the
interview feel confident and at ease, and secure in the knowledge that
the process will be fair.
The Equality Act 2010 includes ‘severe
disfigurement’ as a protected characteristic, making discrimination
illegal. But Lucy Wilson, 20, a journalism student at Sheffield Hallam
University, experienced rejection when she applied for a part-time job
in a high street food retailer.
“The interview went well, but I
saw them glancing at my hands a few times,” Lucy said. “Telling them
that I engage in sports, and other handiwork, I presumed that they knew
that I was well enabled. After a week of hearing nothing, my mum
actually went into the shop to see if they had chosen someone for the
job. They said they hadn't because they wanted to pick me, but weren't
sure whether to take me on due to the appearance of my hands.”
Lucy
says that guidance would have helped. “The new guides from Changing
Faces would have given me the confidence to talk about my hands and deal
with their concerns there and then."
Lucy’s experience is not
uncommon according to Changing Faces, which runs the ‘What Success Looks
Like’ campaign to raise awareness of good practice in the workplace,
and highlight career success stories of people with a facial difference.
More than half a million people in the UK have a facial disfigurement,
but research by the charity found that 43% of their clients said that
they had not applied for a job because they believed their face wouldn’t
fit, and 46% had experienced being treated differently by an
interviewer.
“By demonstrating what success can and does look
like in the workplace we can start to replace the fear of rejection, of
causing offence and of being accused of discrimination, with confident
dialogue, open-mindedness and fair decision-making,” said Ms Mbewe.
Caroline
Rawes, head of resourcing at law firm Taylor Wessing, where the
guidance is being launched at an event for leading recruiters this
morning, said: “The new guides for employers and jobseekers from
Changing Faces enable every employer to provide a fair and equal
recruitment process when an applicant or candidate has a scar, mark or
condition which affects their appearance. The detailed information in
each guide gives clarity, provides useful guidance and allows for open
and flexible communication, and I hope that Taylor Wessing will be the
first of many firms who’ll adopt the guidelines in the coming weeks.”
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And remember--there are links to the guides themselves at the Changing Faces link above.
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