A nationwide survey has been launched by Lancaster University exploring disabled workers' experiences of remote and hybrid working.

The survey is part of a £266,000 research award into ‘Designing inclusive remote and hybrid working to support disabled workers’.

The two year project funded by The Nuffield Foundation is led by Dr Paula Holland from the Faculty of Health and Medicine with Rebecca Florisson of the Work Foundation, Dr Alison Collins from Manchester Metropolitan University and Jacqueline Winstanley of Universal Inclusion.

Dr Calum Carson is a Senior Research Associate for the project, based in the Centre for Health Inequalities Research at Lancaster University.

He said: “The rationale for this research stems from ongoing discussions among employers, policymakers and researchers (among others) as to what the future shape of work might be for disabled workers. In a post-pandemic world in which new forms of remote and hybrid working are increasingly available to workers, there is an opportunity to design a future employment landscape that is inclusive of disabled workers’ needs. Disabled people have significantly lower employment rates than non-disabled people, and remote working can support disabled workers’ job retention by enabling them to manage work around their health conditions/impairments.”

The grant builds on an earlier study on the same topic funded by the City Bridge Trust, which found that access to remote working was important for disabled workers’ health, wellbeing and productivity.

Dr Carson said:” This study of the experiences of 400 disabled workers found that 70% of disabled workers said that if their employer did not allow them to work remotely, it would negatively impact their physical or mental health. Survey respondents and interviewees highlighted clear benefits to working from home, including having more autonomy and control over when and how they work, which in turn allowed them to better manage their health and wellbeing. This brought wider benefits for their organisations too; 85% of disabled workers surveyed felt more productive working from home.”

The larger-scale study funded by the Nuffield Foundation will explore in greater depth disabled workers’ experiences of hybrid and remote working and whether employers’ hybrid working policies address the needs of disabled workers.

Planned outputs from the current project include a Good Practice Guide for disabled workers and employers to ensure working arrangements are inclusive.

“We strongly encourage disabled people across the UK to complete the survey and have your voice heard in these debates, and/or to share it with your own networks too: by participating and helping spread word of the research, you are helping to identify how employers can make remote and hybrid working more inclusive of disabled workers’ needs. This is important to promote disabled workers’ recruitment, job retention and progression, and ensure that they are not left behind as the world of work continues to evolve and employers continue to make decisions now about future ways of working.”

Complete the survey here: https://lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_28ZzbrwyANSef0W…

And find out more about the project here:

https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/inclusive-working/