QAPA: France sees a major bias when it comes to recruiting talent with disabilities

On the occasion of the European Employment Week for People with Disabilities held from 18 to 24 November 2019, QAPA, the 100% online temporary employment agency, interviewed more than 4.5 million candidates and 135,000 recruiters on hiring issues. 

These were the disappointing and sometimes alarming results on the development of recruiter mentalities in professional contexts and on the employability of people with disabilities. 

The survey was conducted between November 4 and 8, 2019 with 135,000 recruiters and 4.5 million candidates through QAPA. Among these respondents, 52% of them are non-managers and 48% are managers. The figures and statistics represent an inventory of employment in France. All the information put forward by the candidates is declarative.

Recruiters still deaf to the disabled

While the unemployment rate of the working population in France is around 9% in 2019, that of people with disabilities reaches more than 19%! Some recruiters clear themselves by claiming the lack of necessary accommodation, while 80% of the disabled do not require any transformation of their work station. It is urgent to combat these stereotypes and this disparity in order to change mentalities which are progressing only too slowly.

Stéphanie Delestre, Founder, President, QAPA

As a result of a lack of awareness and a certain lack of knowledge, more than 68% of recruiters interviewed admit that they have never hired a disabled person.

1 in 2 recruiters ignore invisible disabilities

However, disability is far from the stereotype of the person in a wheelchair. In fact, 80% of disabilities are what are now called "invisible" - undetectable and not obvious to the average individual at first glance. Only 52% of recruiters know that these invisible disabilities exist.

Poorly informed recruiters

Among all possible types of disability, 4 large families are mainly considered to be among those who may be invisible: disabling diseases (multiple sclerosis, HIV, diabetes, cancer, etc.), cognitive disorders (dyslexia, dysphrasia, etc.), mental handicap (psychoses, schizophrenia, bipolar, OCD, etc.) and sensory handicap (blindness, low vision, deafness, etc.) include the most people with invisible disabilities. In addition, some employers are miseducated and believe the physically handicapped (paralysis, infirmity, myopathy, etc.) and the intellectually or mentally impaired (autism, etc.) are included among the invisible cases.

There are a multitude of causes that can lead to a handicap and thus slow down employability. 97% of recruiters find it extremely difficult to hire someone with a disease linked to risky behavior such as alcoholism, drugs, tobacco or STDs. Diseases linked to aging come in second place at over 44%, ahead of accidents at work at 39%. Work accidents or musculoskeletal disorders only come in fourth place with 22%.

Less competent?

As surprising and frightening as it may seem, 52% of recruiters think that people with disabilities have worse skills than others. On the contrary, 44% rightly think that a disabled person has equal skills to other employees. Only 4% of recruiters surveyed feel that some people with disabilities may have higher skills.

Distrustful employees

If recruiters find it difficult to hire disabled people, on the employee side, opinions are also very divided. Thus, only 29% declare that it is not a problem for them to have a disabled employee. But 26% do not even dare to consider it and 45% admit that they would find it difficult to accept it.

Intellectual or mental impairment (autism, Down's syndrome, etc.) is 91% the type of disability that most scares the French. 75% of respondents would also find it difficult to work with people with mental disabilities (psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar, OCD, etc). Motor disabilities (paralysis, infirmity, myopathy, etc.) come in third place at 51%. The “best” types of disability accepted in the professional context therefore seem to be the sensory (blindness, visual impairment, deafness, etc.) at 44%, cognitive (dyslexia, dysphrasia, etc.) at 26% and disabling diseases at 24 % (multiple sclerosis, HIV, diabetes, cancer, etc).

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