Employer disability confidence: moving towards a theory-based change logic

Employer disability confidence is a concept being used increasingly in employment interventions and policies targeting the demand side of the labour market to support the employment of people with disability. However, the concept is not well-defined and lacks a theoretical basis, inhibiting its application to best effect. 

This study aims to develop a conceptual model of employer disability confidence to fill in the definitional and theoretical gap in the current practice and literature. In the proposed framework, disability confidence is theorised to be the sum of the attitudes towards hiring people with disability, the perceived social expectations, and the perception of the employer and workplace of control over factors enabling and hindering employment of people with disability. 

Development of a theory-based and action-oriented framework for employer disability confidence could contribute to designing initiatives and interventions aimed at employers and workplaces to remove barriers to employment for people with disability, as well as understanding and assessing the effectiveness of implementation of such interventions.

To successfully build employer confidence and capacity to hire and support a workforce with disability, employers, employment service providers and policymakers need a better understanding of what disability employment confidence entails and the factors that contribute to shaping and affecting it. This insight is required to develop and provide policy, interventions at the organisational level and resources to support employers.