HOW TO DO A WORKPLACE NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1 1 File 5 dyslexia IN EMPLOYMENT HOW TO DO A WORKPLACE NEEDS ASSESSMENT Dr Sylvia Moody Practitioner Psychologist A WORKPLACE NEEDS ASSESSMENT is a complex 'operation'. The assessor not only carries out the ASSESSMENT but is also responsible for (i) explaining dyslexia and associated syndromes to both employer and employee, (ii) organising skills training and IT support, and (iii) giving advice on reasonable adjustments and legal obligations.

2 Note: This sample report concerns the ASSESSMENT of a dyslexic employee but the same format would be appropriate for an employee who has dyspraxic difficulties and/or ADHD. Throughout the chapter masculine pronouns are used for the employee, feminine pronouns for the assessor. Preliminaries When a dyslexic employee decides to seek help and support for his work difficulties, he usually turns first to his line manager. The manager may then alert the Human Resources manager, who in turn may hand the case on to a Disabilities Officer or Occupational Health Advisor. One or all of these people may be in touch with the dyslexia consultant to discuss the referral and to request information and advice about ASSESSMENT .

3 It is useful at this early stage to send the employer brief written information about dyslexic difficulties, the effects of these in a WORKPLACE context, the scope and purpose of a WORKPLACE NEEDS ASSESSMENT , and the type of help and support that is available. WORKPLACE NEEDS assessments are not cheap, and employers appreciate knowing exactly what they are going to be paying for, and what they can expect from the ASSESSMENT process. If the employer decides to go ahead with the ASSESSMENT , then the consultant can begin a more formal process of gathering information. This can be done by sending questionnaires both to the employee and to the relevant manager (usually the line manager) to determine how each view the main presenting problems.

4 From the manager 2 the consultant will also request a job description, a person specification for the job, and information about the organisational structure within which the employee works. It may also be useful, if feasible, to have a preliminary meeting with the manager to discuss in advance the scope of the ASSESSMENT . One of the benefits of this preliminary exercise is that it allows the assessor to see if the employee and manager agree or disagree about the nature of the employee s difficulties. The assessor will also read through any relevant paperwork, , the employee s diagnostic report, work reviews, etc.

5 The ASSESSMENT During the ASSESSMENT the assessor will obtain more detailed information from the employee about: the nature and demands of his job; his ASSESSMENT of his difficulties and his strengths; his usual coping strategies; his relationship with colleagues and managers. If not already completed, questionnaires on WORKPLACE and everyday difficulties must also be administered. (Employment tribunals base their judgements about disability on the severity of day-to-day difficulties, not job-specific WORKPLACE problems.) The assessor will then identify the employee's NEEDS in respect of: WORKPLACE skills training; IT support; adjustments the employer could make in the WORKPLACE ; concessions in psychometric tests and professional examinations.

6 Before Writing the Report After the ASSESSMENT , and before the completion of the ASSESSMENT report, it is often helpful if the assessor telephones the relevant managers and briefly summarises her findings and recommendations. Employers greatly appreciate this preliminary discussion, and they may sometimes suggest reasonable adjustments that the assessor has not thought of. They may also raise concerns about their ability to finance some of the recommendations, and in this case the assessor must consider carefully whether all the recommendations made are in fact reasonable. For instance, if there were a 3 recommendation that extra office space be created so that a dyslexic employee could have an office of his own rather than work in a noisy area, this might be feasible for a large organisation, but prohibitively expensive for, say, a small family firm.

7 At this stage it may also be appropriate to give advice on sources of funding for the support programme. The employer NEEDS to be made aware, in particular, that the government's Access to Work (AtW) scheme will usually contribute to training and equipment costs, even if the NEEDS ASSESSMENT has been done privately. Writing the Report The assessor should bear in mind that a WORKPLACE NEEDS report will be read by a variety of people who have little or no knowledge of dyslexia . It therefore NEEDS to be written in plain language, and to be structured in a way that allows the reader to quickly identify the sections of the report which he/she NEEDS to focus on.

8 For example, employers are not interested in the details of test scores; they simply need a summary of these. So these details can be put in an appendix for the benefit of the employee and his potential trainer. Another appendix could include information sheets for the employer on dyslexia and related syndromes. So a possible report structure is as follows: 1. Referral 2. Background 3. Job description / person specification 4. Work performance (i) Information from manager(s) (ii) Information from employee 5. Recommendations ` a) WORKPLACE skills training b) IT support / technological aids c) Further ASSESSMENT d) Support from employer e) Concessions for training courses / tests f) Resources including websites, online forums, books and journals.

9 Appendix: Access to Work (i) General information 4 (ii) Quotations for equipment and training To illustrate what each of the above sections might contain, I shall use the notional case of Mrs Smith, a training officer in an organisation which helps disabled people to find employment. 1. Referral In this section you need to state what position the employee holds, who has made the referral, and for what purpose. Mrs Smith is a Training Manager in the Access to Employment section of a large charitable organisation.

10 She was referred for an ASSESSMENT by her line manager, Miss Beverley Johnson, because of concerns that she was inefficient in certain aspects of her work. Mrs Smith herself had suggested that this might be because she had dyslexic difficulties. 2. Background In this section you give an educational and occupational history, and also mention any previous assessments that may have been done. Note: It may be that an employee has previously had a diagnostic ASSESSMENT that is inadequate to inform your judgement about WORKPLACE NEEDS . For example, the ASSESSMENT may only have looked at single-word reading and spelling, and not at higher-level literacy skills such as reading comprehension, note-taking and structuring written work.