Workplace adjustments software and the evidence problem

The problem is rarely willingness. It is evidence

In our experience the failure mode is rarely outright refusal. It is quieter: the agreement lives in a one-line email, the action is done informally, nobody writes down why the alternative was chosen, and eighteen months later a tribunal claim arrives and the organisation cannot show its own reasoning.

Under the Equality Act 2010, the duty to make reasonable adjustments sits with the employer, and in a dispute the employer will want to show what it considered and why. The employer that made a good decision but kept no record has little to point to when its reasoning is questioned.

What evidencing means in practice

• The request as the employee made it, unedited and timestamped.
• Every decision with the decision-maker's name and the reason, including refusals and any alternatives offered.
• Proof of implementation: not just agreed, but done, and when.
• Review dates and what changed at each review.
• A history that cannot be quietly rewritten after a dispute begins.

Email and spreadsheets can hold fragments of this. What they cannot do is guarantee completeness. Software built for adjustments makes the record a by-product of doing the work, which is the only way records stay complete under real workload.

Why a structured taxonomy matters

The second failure mode is the blank page. A manager receives a request they have never handled, and the tools available offer no starting point. The result is delay, or an improvised response that misses standard options.

TryMosaic addresses this with a structured taxonomy of 177 adjustments across 18 categories, co-designed with occupational therapists. The point of a taxonomy is not to constrain what can be agreed. It is to give managers and employees a shared vocabulary, surface options they would not have thought of, and make reporting possible, because you can only see patterns in data that shares a structure.

• Employees can describe needs against recognisable options instead of starting from a blank box.
• Managers see what the adjustment typically involves before they respond.
• HR can report on categories and patterns without reading individual records.

What to check before you buy

• Ask to see the audit trail for one complete adjustment, including a refusal with recorded reasoning.
• Ask how the system handles a manager change. The record should follow the employee without a fresh disclosure.
• Ask whether the product carries any actual knowledge of adjustments, or whether it is a generic case tool with a renamed label.
• Ask where data is hosted and who at the vendor can see it. Adjustment records routinely contain health information, which is special category data under UK GDPR.

This guide is general guidance on evaluating software, not legal advice. For advice on your specific obligations, speak to an employment law specialist or ACAS.