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Hi there!
Welcome to the June edition of Loud About Inclusion.
As we hit EOFY reflection and planning season, many workplaces are reviewing performance, budgets, and priorities for the year ahead. It’s also the perfect time to look at one of the clearest signals of whether inclusion is working in practice: how easy it is for people to access reasonable adjustments.
Because here’s the truth: adjustments rarely fail because they’re unreasonable. They fail because the process around them is slow, unclear, inconsistent, or unnecessarily difficult.
And when support takes too long, people learn something quickly. They learn that asking is risky. They learn that disclosure creates work. They learn that staying silent may feel easier than navigating the system.
This month, we’re looking at why delayed adjustments damage trust and retention, what good adjustment processes actually look like, and what leaders can put in place now to make support more timely, fair, and operational.
If you want to share what’s working in your workplace, hit reply. I read every response.
Melissa Ogden, Founder & Director of Inclusive Business Solutions
At a Glance
Big Idea: Delayed adjustments damage trust and retention
Lived experience: The emotional and practical toll of repeatedly having to ‘prove’ a need
Inclusive Practice: create an adjustment menu and fast-track pathway with clear turn-around times
Feature Article
Reasonable Adjustments Shouldn’t Feel Like a Negotiation
A reasonable adjustment is meant to remove barriers so someone can do their job effectively. But in many workplaces, the real barrier becomes the process of getting the adjustment in the first place.
Too many employees are left to figure out:
who to ask
what evidence is required
how long approval will take
whether the answer depends on which manager they get
That uncertainty creates friction before support has even begun.
And for employees with disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, or fluctuating conditions, that friction comes with a cost. Not just practical inconvenience, but emotional energy too. Every delay can reinforce the idea that support is something you need to justify, defend, or earn.
What leaders often miss
When adjustments are slow or inconsistent, it doesn’t just create frustration. It becomes:
a trust issue: people stop believing support will be available when they need it
a retention issue: good people leave environments that make basic support too hard
a performance issue: employees spend energy managing barriers instead of doing the work
an inclusion issue: access depends on persistence, confidence, or manager discretion rather than a fair system
In other words, poor adjustment processes don’t just delay support. They quietly teach people that inclusion is conditional.
What to do: make adjustments operational
There are three practical ways to improve adjustment outcomes quickly:
Create an adjustment menu.
Not every need is unique. Many adjustments are common, low-cost, and easy to provide. A simple menu gives managers and employees a starting point and reduces unnecessary uncertainty.Set a fast-track process.
Basic adjustments should not sit in a long approval queue. Define what can be approved quickly, who can approve it, and what turnaround time is expected.Give managers a playbook.
Managers don’t need to be experts in disability to respond well. They do need a consistent guide: how to respond, what questions to ask, what not to ask, and when to escalate.
Good adjustment systems are not built on goodwill alone. They are built on clarity, consistency, and speed.
My experience
Asking - And Not Asking - For Support
There have been times when I knew support would help, but I still hesitated.
Not because the need wasn’t real. Not because I wanted to “push through.” But because asking can come with its own kind of cost.
You start thinking:
Is this going to be seen as too hard?
Will I have to explain it all again?
Will I be believed?
Will this change how people see me?
Sometimes the hardest part isn’t the barrier itself. It’s the repeated process of having to make your case.
And when you’ve had experiences where support was delayed, questioned, or made more complicated than it needed to be, silence can start to feel like the safer option.
What changed outcomes for me wasn’t just having supportive people around me. It was having clearer systems, quicker responses, and less friction between identifying a need and getting practical support in place.
That’s the difference. Adjustments work best when they stop feeling exceptional and start feeling normal.
This month’s Inclusion Play
The Quick Play Build an Adjustment Menu (10 mins): List the most common adjustments your workplace could offer now, without lengthy escalation. Think: flexible hours, meeting captions, written instructions, quieter workspaces, modified communication methods, extra processing time, or equipment setup support.
The Team Play: Normalise Flexibility (30 mins): In your next team check-in, talk about flexibility as a normal part of good work design, not a special exception. The goal is to reduce stigma and make support feel easier to access before someone reaches crisis point.
The Leader Play: Fast-Track Approvals (set this month): Choose 3–5 low-risk adjustments that managers can approve quickly and set a standard response timeframe. If support is simple, common, and low-cost, the system should reflect that.
Inclusion Win: Shorter Approval Times, Better Outcomes
A workplace leader recently shared that their team reviewed its adjustment process and realised the biggest issue wasn’t unwillingness to support people - it was delay.
Requests were bouncing between managers, HR, and multiple approval points, even for simple changes.
So they streamlined it.
They introduced a clearer request pathway, removed unnecessary approvals for common adjustments, and set a target response window for initial decisions.
The result: faster support, less frustration, and better conversations between employees and managers.
That’s what progress often looks like: not a massive new policy, but a simpler process that people can actually use.
One Question
What’s the biggest blocker to adjustments in your workplace - budget, process, attitudes, or lack of options?
Coming Next Month
Next month: Inclusive Leadership.
We’re looking at the operational habits that make inclusion real - the small, consistent leadership actions that shape trust, access, and accountability every day.
Work with me
If your adjustment process relies too heavily on manager confidence or informal workarounds, it may be time to make it more consistent.
I run practical sessions to help organisations build a clearer adjustments framework, including manager guidance, response pathways, and faster approval processes that improve trust and retention.
Book a 90-minute session to build your adjustments framework.
About Melissa Ogden
Melissa Ogden provides leaders with practical insights into workplace inclusion. Combining lived experience as a profoundly deaf business professional with strategic planning and commercial management experience across multiple industries, she helps leaders through advisory, consulting and workshops tailored to meet the business exactly where it is in its journey.
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