Reasonable Adjustments at Work
Making reasonable adjustments at work provided recently promoted Sales Manager the support he required to carry out his new role
‘D’ has recently been promoted to Sales Manager, leading the Sales team of a company in the East Midlands. In his previous position as a Sales Executive D excelled in his role, but is finding it difficult to live up to expectations in his new role.
Issues
He reads slowly, which causes problems with handouts in meetings: absorbed in the task of reading, he quite often misses important parts of a discussion, and opportunities to contribute to it. D also struggles with writing, making it difficult to take minutes in meetings, or to take notes on the telephone. Finally, despite his best efforts, D he often misses deadlines, generating additional stress for himself (and irritating others).
As a result of all this, D is feeling demoralised and unable to cope.
Progress
A dyslexia specialist visited D and, having assessed his particular needs and working environment, recommended a number of reasonable adjustments.
D received five personalised strategy sessions in which his work processes were reviewed, and suggestions about them made - like how to use Outlook tasks to better manage his workload, and where pre-structured templates could help him with report writing. These sessions were aimed at addressing D’s difficulties with organisation, to improve efficiency and reduce stress. D was given access to secretarial support for four hours a week, so he can concentrate on the content of his work rather than on rooting out errors. In addition, a private room has been made available to D, so he can escape distractions and interruptions and work at his best.
D was also given a digital recorder for recording meetings, a copy of Audio Notetaker (to manage and annotate these recordings); and a Retell RP Pro for recording telephone conversations, in case he missed any details; and text-to-speech software to support his reading.
Finally, D’s colleagues and managers have received dyslexia awareness training so as to better understand D’s difficulties, and how working together they may reduce them – for instance, by circulating meeting notes before meetings, so D (and others) can be briefed and ready to contribute.
User Benefits
D is now much more motivated and satisfied with his work. This is great for him and for his team, who now benefit from having a confident and productive team leader. D acknowledges the effect the assistive technology, the training, and reasonable adjustments to his role have had on him, and so do his employers. The company is now investing in dyslexia-friendly practices to boost productivity for all dyslexic employees.
