What is ‘reasonable’?
Learn more about what a reasonable adjustment is, and how you can implement them.
Workplace adjustments enable disabled staff to perform their roles by removing barriers they face.
What is reasonable will vary from person to person, depending on their role, Division, and School. It will also depend on various factors to determine what is reasonable to implement.
As a manager, you will agree on workplace adjustments through collaborative discussions, considering the employee's requirements. Disabled staff often understand the adjustments needed and can advise managers directly.
When guidance is required, support from Occupational Health, GPs, or consultants can provide recommendations for appropriate equipment or workplace adjustments.
You should aim for an inclusive approach: implementing reasonable accommodations that will empower disabled employees.
Redeployment as a reasonable adjustment
Where a member of staff is medically unfit to continue in their current role and all reasonable adjustments to the current role have been exhausted, managers, with the support of HR, can follow the Redeployment Procedure [PDF 200KB].
When deciding if an adjustment is reasonable, you must consider each of the following:
- Effectiveness
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An adjustment is only reasonable if it is effective in removing the barrier that the disabled person is facing. It is important that any discussion about workplace adjustments is collaborative, between the staff member and the manager, to ensure that both agree that the adjustment is likely to be effective.
You should consider:
- how the adjustments address the specific need
- trialling an adjustment for a set period of time to understand how effective it will be.
- Practicality
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For an adjustment to be reasonable, it must also be practical to implement. It is important to distinguish the outputs you require from your team from the way in which they deliver those outputs.
You may have to make adjustments to how the work is done to ensure the quality you require is achieved. For example, providing speech to text software so that a disabled person can produce high quality written work, or providing additional DSE equipment.
An adjustment may not be practical if it could:
- significantly disadvantage other members of the workforce or your customers
- introduce a health and safety risk for the individual or for others
- fundamentally change the nature of the job.
- Cost
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Affordability of the division/school is not a reason to refuse a workplace adjustment when the University can provide budget through escalation routes.
Where there is a cost involved in making an adjustment, consider:
- how much will it cost to implement/purchase additional items or hardware
- identify any ongoing costs
- whether there are other sources of funding.
Any workplace adjustment that incurs a cost will be paid for by the staff member's Division or School and procured by the manager.
Where the costs are more significant, or relate to shared infrastructure, you should escalate this to Head of School or Director of Division. They may contact their Finance Business Partner to discuss how this will be funded. They may also consider discussing the request with Strategic Procurement if necessary.
At this stage, ensure that the following is in place before you make any purchase [PDF 184KB] to not cause impact on the member of staff by avoidable delay:
- Confirm the budget and authorisation (where required for additional spend)
- Identify supplier
- Confirm the payment method – there are three ways to purchase in the University
- Consider University requirements and achieving value for money [PDF 115KB].
- Disruption
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The amount of disruption that an adjustment will cause to the University will affect whether the adjustment is reasonable.
The vast majority of adjustments cause no disruption at all as they affect only the way in which the individual works and will have little effect on anyone else.
An adjustment may not be reasonable if it could result in significant, prolonged disruption to business to implement.
- Health and safety
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Very few adjustments will impose health and safety risks. Where an adjustment may raise a potential health and safety risk, the manager should conduct a risk assessment.
Where the need for risk assessment has been identified, expert advice may be required from:
- Occupational Health
- your assistant HRBP or your own manager if you need their authority to implement the adjustment
- Health and Safety team (in relation to risk assessments). View Risk assessment template and guidance.
- other experts as appropriate, such as IT or facilities managers and workplace assessors.
There must be clear evidence that there is a valid health and safety risk that cannot be mitigated to rule out a reasonable adjustment on this basis.