Five Companies Leading the Way - Disability Inclusion

However, for businesses that are genuinely serious about fighting bias in their organisations, DEI goes beyond race, religion, or sexual orientation. They exceed this by taking on older employees and those with different points of view and moreover aggressively sourcing candidates with disabilities. Meanwhile, organisations appreciate various kinds of impairments whether physical or developmental require careful thinking to make the individual feel valued and considered as well as catered for.

Conversely, getting disabled people jobs increases the potential of a business. According to a study conducted by Accenture, institutions emphasising accessibility had 28% higher incomes while third largest market segment is composed by persons with disabilities within the United States. This is an ideal time to increase your pool of candidates especially given that hiring remains difficult for most companies right now and also think about means you can allure and retain disabled individuals. BCT Partners has identified five companies which have been announced as best employers whose commitment to social equity has made them leaders in disability inclusion.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg’s goal is an open workplace where anyone can participate fully regardless of disability status. To help improve their cause they have partnered with EmployAbility and Lime Connect among other organisations so that their recruitment strategies are more accessible in order to realise their objectives better than before. Employee resource groups were created at Bloomberg to assist persons with disability feel welcomed at work too. Employees at Bloomberg went through the Beyond Our Sight program which was aimed at making them aware of some challenges faced by blind workers thereby encouraging empathy towards their handicapped colleagues.

Boeing

Boeing has consistently scored top marks on the Disability Equality Index over half a decade now. It works closely together with Disability:In – an NGO striving for worldwide business disability inclusiveness – alongside approximately four hundred other corporations aiming at increasing such opportunities globally (Disability: In). Every year Boeing sends representatives to attend Disability:In Conference held in Chicago where they meet potential candidates who could fill various posts available in the company. The company is also a participant of TheValuable 500, a global community comprising 500 CEOs and their corporations that are dedicated to realising disability inclusion.

Caterpillar

Caterpillar has an employee resource group known as Abled & Disabled Employees Partnering Together (ADEPT) which promotes inclusivity in the workplace. It seeks to enhance diversity and inclusion by hiring individuals with disabilities, forming partnerships for professional development and involving in corporate social responsibility programs aimed at enlightening people on the benefits of diversity. ADEPT’s partnership with National Foundation for Autism Research helped them achieve one of their objectives too (NFAR). NFAR runs a technology program that trains software testing skills to high functioning autistic young adults so that they can be employed by high-tech industries. As part of collaboration between NFAR and Caterpillar, a programme was developed that could capitalise on students’ strengths to improve Caterpillar products. Due to its success, students have been awarded Diversity and Inclusion Excellence for enhancing programming capabilities and work procedures within the organisation.

Fidelity

The Enable (Access, Ability, Achievement) employee resource group of Fidelity began in 2016 with just six people and has expanded to over 80 members. It aims at fostering positive and inclusive work environments that enable all employees irrespective of their abilities to develop themselves by raising awareness and understanding. As a result, they intend to improve the experiences of their disabled customers as well as becoming a destination employer for disabled job seekers. Among its initiatives were increasing accessibility of toilets, desks and computers, providing flexibility in terms of time and location worked at and sending occupational therapists to help those with disabilities among them. Fidelity has also hired young persons from the Ready to Work program ran by Holland Bloorview Rehabilitation Hospital who are also physically challenged.

Delta Air Lines Inc.

They set up a Disability Advisory Board that would make sure that they remained the carrier of choice for customers through considerate dependable innovative service for the disability community. The board is composed of Delta’s frequent flyers living with disabilities who make recommendations about compliance issues, training needs, policies etc which have an impact on how people with disabilities travel. A major outcome from this group is a new sign-language tag for employees so that customers can see instantly that there is an opportunity for signing. Furthermore ABLE; their employee resource group partners with the advisory board to introduce company-wide ideas based on customer feedback. Thus this has resulted in better recruitment and staff retention rates besides more straightforward customer service procedures.

To sum up, each of our featured companies has taken a different approach towards recruiting retaining staffs as well as meeting the demands of their disabled clientele respectively. Nonetheless, these firms have understood that such undertakings only succeed if they foster empathy amongst their employees within the organisation’s walls. An effective way to achieve this objective is by helping them appreciate what challenges disabled colleagues undergo daily at work or otherwise Bloomberg achieved just that through its partnership with Beyond Our Sight. Eventually, it’s such innovative ideas that will reduce both conscious and unconscious prejudice hence making disabled workers to feel part of the organisation.