There are many benefits to employing someone with a disfigurement; it reflects a diverse society and organisations benefit from:

1. Including people with disfigurements as potential employees gives the opportunity to recruit from a wider talent pool.

2. Demonstrating a true commitment to Face Equality and diversity will enhance your organisation’s corporate image and reputation.

3. Employing people with disfigurements will enhance the organisation as they potentially have great skills and experience to offer.

4. Developing positive attitudes and behaviours towards disfigurement will enable existing staff to better manage other diversity and inclusion issues. Morale will be higher as difference is shown to be valued and respected.

5. Providing staff with more knowledge about disfigurement and how to avert discrimination against people who are different, will make selection processes more fair and effective.

6. Staff with disfigurements may have a good understanding of how different needs can be addressed. Hopefully this will lead to enhanced customer service.

FAQ’s

Is disfigurement a disability covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995?

Yes it is. The Act states that someone with a ‘severe disfigurement’ has the same rights and protection as a person with a disability. However the DDA does not give a definition of the word ‘severe’ and this will vary according to an individual’s knowledge and experience of disfigurement. For example, one person may consider a cleft lip and palate to be a severe disfigurement, whilst another may not.

What reasonable adjustments would we need to make for someone with a disfigurement?

Usually the only real barrier faced in the workplace by people with disfigurements (unless there are other associated disabilities) is an attitudinal one, so creating a positive attitude towards people with disfigurements could be considered a reasonable adjustment.

Can someone with a disfigurement be successful in a customer-facing role?

Absolutely. Contrary to popular belief, and demonstrated by studies and research, the majority of people are quite happy to be served by someone with a disfigurement, as they feel that it is the quality of service that is important. Many people with disfigurements have had to develop excellent and proactive social skills, as well as self confidnece in order for people to see them as individuals; these obviously make for great customer service.

Case study

A Changing Faces advisor was asked by a building society to review their recruitment and customer service policies and practices to ensure they were inclusive of people with disfigurements. He met with their retail and Human Resources (HR) departments and found that while they had made efforts to be inclusive of disabled people, they had not considered disfigurement.

The Advisor gave out booklets about recruiting and serving people with disfigurements and the information in these booklets was incorporated into their policies and practices. Six months later he received a phone call from the HR department informaing him that they had successfully recruited someone with a facial birthmark onto their front desk operation.

This is a direct example of how Face Equality at Work can successfully work in recruiting people with disfigurements.

For further information please contact the Changing Faces employment team on 0845 4500 275 or employment@changingfaces.org.uk