Employer attitudes to employing people with disability

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Employer attitudes
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Having career opportunities and finding and keeping a job are significant issues for people with disability (see also the Employment and financial security outcome area). Many of the perceived obstacles to employing people with disability stem from negative attitudes and misconceptions (Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031).

Employer attitudes

Perpetuating negative attitudes is a lack of visibility of people with disability in the workplace, limiting knowledge and understanding around how people with disability can positively contribute to the workplace (Kantar Public 2017).

The Outcomes Framework was set to track the percentage of employers who value the contribution and benefits of employing people with disability. Measure wording has been revised to clarify its intent (see Appendix B: List of measures).

Data for this measure are drawn from Australia’s Disability Strategy Survey – Share with us. Employers are defined as employed people aged 18 and over who had been involved in hiring employees in the past 12 months. Hiring employees included completing tasks such as writing job descriptions, reviewing applications, interviewing people, and having a say in who was hired.

Employers were asked 6 questions about employing people with disability. The questions were:

  • Employing people with disability improves a company's image
  • People with disability do not want to work, they do not look for a job
  • People with disability work less efficiently than people without any disability
  • It is easier for people with disability to do their job if they have the right support and equipment at work
  • Hiring people with disability benefits your workplace
  • People with disability would make a valuable contribution to your workplace

The revised measure reports the average rate of positive attitudes to employing people with disability, recognising that for each person the attitude is varied.

The desired key community attitude outcome for this measure is that the capabilities of people with disability are recognised, leading to increased employment.

Community attitude measure: Proportion of employers who value the contribution and benefits of employing people with disability

Desired outcome: Increase in the proportion

Data source: Australia’s Disability Strategy Survey – Share with us 2022

Latest results: 2022 (Baseline)

  • In 2022, 77% of employer responses were positive on valuing the contribution and benefits of employing people with disability.
  • A higher proportion of responses from female than male employers (80% and 75% respectively) were positive about the value of contribution and benefits of employing people with disability (Figure 8.1).

Things to consider when interpreting results:

Figure 8.1: Proportion of employers who value the contribution and benefits of employing people with disability, by gender, 2022

The data in the graph and the table below show the proportion of responses from employers (aged 18 and over) that were positive on valuing the contribution and benefits of employing people with disability, grouped by gender. In 2022, 75% of responses from male employers were positive about the value and benefits of employing people with disability, as were 80% of responses from female employers, and 81% of responses from employers whose gender was recorded as 'Non-binary/Other' (please note that the proportion for 'Non-binary/Other' gender category has a high margin of error and should be used with caution).

Source: Australia’s Disability Strategy Survey – Share with us | Data source overview

For figure notes, see Appendix C: Figure notes and sources.

For the latest data and breakdowns of the data, see Australia’s Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework | Employer attitudes.

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