The case for getting adjustments right
Most organisations want to do the right thing. Here's why so many still get it wrong, and what it costs them.
Five figures every HR leader should know
- 24% of UK working-age adults report a disability or long-term condition (DWP Family Resources Survey 2022/23).
- ~50% of workplace adjustments cost nothing at all to put in place (Job Accommodation Network).
- £45k is the average award in disability discrimination tribunal cases (MoJ Employment Tribunal statistics).
- £30k+ is the average cost of replacing an employee who leaves (Oxford Economics).
- 48% of disabled people who fell out of work had problems with reasonable adjustments (Scope, disabled employee retention research).
Getting adjustments right isn't just the right thing to do; it's one of the cheapest retention levers you have.
The problem
Most organisations want to do the right thing by their people. That includes making reasonable adjustments.
In reality, adjustments are handled without a clear way to identify needs, agree actions, or track what happens next. Requests end up scattered across emails, spreadsheets, Word documents, chat threads, and half-remembered manager notes. Nothing stays joined up. Decisions get lost. Follow-through slips. Audit trails quietly erode. HR is left chasing updates and trying to reconstruct a record that would actually stand up if challenged.
The gap between intention and implementation
Most organisations believe they support adjustments well. Most employees experience something different.
What organisations experience
A policy exists (somewhere), and HR believes requests are being handled. Managers say they support their teams and deal with things case by case. But there is no central picture of what has been requested, agreed, or delivered. Only around 1 in 4 employers measure whether the adjustments they make actually work (Business Disability Forum, Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2023).
What employees experience
Not knowing who to ask, what to say, or whether asking will count against them. Explaining the same needs again every time a manager changes. Long waits, chased over email, with agreed adjustments quietly forgotten. Only around 1 in 10 disabled employees say getting adjustments was easy; most wait months, and some never get them (Business Disability Forum, Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2023). 82% of disabled workers wait between four months and over a year for agreed adjustments to actually be put in place (TUC, Disabled Workers' Access to Reasonable Adjustments, 2025).
More than a workplace adjustment passport template
A downloadable adjustment passport template is a good start, but a static document can't chase actions, keep records current, or show you what's working.
Capturing needs
A template is a blank Word doc employees fill in alone, if they know it exists. TryMosaic provides guided templates that help employees describe needs and propose adjustments.
Agreeing actions
A template depends on the manager reading it and remembering to act. In TryMosaic, managers respond in-platform: agree, suggest alternatives, and log what will be actioned.
Keeping it current
A template goes stale in a shared drive and is re-explained with every manager change. TryMosaic is a living record that moves with the employee, with no re-explaining after a team change.
Follow-through
Nothing tracks whether a template's agreed adjustments actually happen. TryMosaic tracks actions to completion with reminders and status visibility.
Audit trail
Templates leave scattered emails and versions, hard to evidence if challenged. TryMosaic keeps a complete, timestamped record of requests, decisions, and delivery.
Organisation insight
Each document is an island. TryMosaic provides anonymised analytics: adjustment rates, denial reasons, and trends for HR.
If you're searching for a workplace adjustment passport template, TryMosaic gives you the template, plus the workflow, tracking, and audit trail a document can't.
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