Disability-confident
Throughout this week, our Disability steering group has been bringing you inspiring personal stories from and about people with disabilities.
In our final story as part of this week’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) coverage, we hear from an old friend…
Some people might remember Mason from the Diversity and Inclusion celebration event we held virtually in October. Some might remember Mason from the story we covered in May when we published a letter from his mum, Beverley, praising the attitude shown to her 18-year-old autistic son when he applied to Royal Mail for work experience.
Mason has both Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but thanks to the ‘great experience’ Mason had while working as a Christmas casual at Warrington Mail Centre last year, he came home each day, in his mum’s words, a ‘happy young man.’
Today, Mason’s mum has kindly agreed to share this video of her talking about Mason and the positive experience he had working at Royal Mail.
Suzanna Bailey, contract performance manager and chair of the Disability steering group, said: ‘Royal Mail is a ‘disability-confident’ employer. Along with more than 18,000 other employers, we look at every colleague in terms of what they can do, not what they can’t do. This means that we look at each one of our people as the individual they are and we listen to their requirements, rather than making an assumption about somebody’s unique situation.
‘When Mason applied to Royal Mail in 2019, he had already applied for many other roles. But as he had made clear on his application, that he had a disability, we simply asked him what he needed from us in order to proceed.
‘The answer was that his mother Beverley be able to accompany him during the recruitment process and that we make a few small adjustments that allowed Mason to work in a way that was best for him. As a result, Mason successfully joined Royal Mail on work experience and thoroughly enjoyed his time working with us.
‘We’re pleased to report that Mason has chosen to re-join Royal Mail over what is going to be our busiest Christmas period ever. Mason is very diligent and hardworking and brings a different perspective that will benefit not just himself, but Royal Mail too. We know he’ll be a real asset to the team.’
Supporting our people
As one of the UK’s biggest employers, we are committed to putting equality and diversity at the heart of our business. Call our internal disability helpline on 0800 028 6142 for advice if you are a disabled colleague or manager looking for support with organising reasonable adjustments.
If you have any questions you would like to raise directly with the network, or you would like information on how to obtain support or advice on managing someone with a disability, please email Disabilitysteeringgroup@royalmail.com.
Don’t forget, if you’re interested in joining the Disability conversation, the group has a Facebook page. Please email Disabilitysteeringgroup@royalmail.com and let them know the email address you normally use to sign into Facebook and your payroll number. You’ll then be sent an invitation to join.
