Having a diverse workforce is a key business objective for Disability Confident employer Nexer Digital, which has 75 employees in the UK. Hilary Stephenson, managing director of Nexer Digital, says: “We’re a human-centred research, design and development agency, making the internet work for people. We look at making products and services accessible to everyone, so it makes sense to employ people with disabilities.”
As well as having disabled and neurodivergent employees in roles at all levels across the organisation, it is also looking at bringing young people into the sector. To do this, it has a partnership with the Digital Independent Specialist College in Manchester, which supports young people with special educational needs and disabilities. “We offer paid sponsored internships,” explains Stephenson. “It’s about showing them digital as a career opportunity.”
Whether an intern or an employee, flexibility is a key part of working at Nexer Digital. Everyone completes a Manual of Me, an industry-wide initiative that allows employees to set out what they need to enable them to work at their best.
This could include details of any technology requirements, for instance the organisation has rolled out Microsoft’s Copilot to some of its deaf/deaf and neurodivergent employees, as well as any requirements around when and how they would like to work. “This insight is invaluable,” says Stephenson. “It can help us to pair people up so their skills and work styles complement each other; adjust working times and locations; or give employees access to a role model within the organisation.”
Nexer Digital is a Disability Confident employer and uses the government’s Access to Work programme to support its employees with disabilities. For example, to enable one of its interns to benefit from a placement there, funding was obtained through the programme to reduce the stress caused by the daily commute by providing a taxi to and from the office.
Focusing on removing the barriers to work is paying off for Nexer Digital. “It’s hugely beneficial to us as a business. It makes us mindful of how we do things and it’s also influencing our clients, many of whom are keen to make changes too,” adds Stephenson.
