Employees with disabilities: A valuable talent pool and steps companies can take towards inclusion

How many employees have disabilities? In a first-of-its-kind multinational study by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), uncovered that in the US 30 percent of employees have a disability, but on average only 3.2 percent of employees self-identify as having a disability to their employers. Furthermore, 62 percent of employees have invisible disabilities – people can’t tell they have a disability unless they decide to disclose it – with another 26 percent who have disabilities visible in certain circumstances.

Invisibility and companies’ lack of awareness of this large talent pool emphasizes the importance for a deeper understanding.

Bloomberg LP along with Accenture, Aetna, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Lime Connect, McKesson, Prudential, PwC, Unilever, USBLN and Wells Fargo sponsored the CTI authored report, Disabilities and Inclusion. It investigates further this disparity, the challenges experienced by employees with disabilities and the role employers can play in creating a more inclusive workplace.

The research analyzed data from global companies with market presence in the US, UK, Brazil, Germany, India and Japan. It revealed common themes across these countries, but also variations unique to each market’s cultural norms, government policies and quotas.

Among the commonalties, the findings indicated that 75 percent of employees with disabilities have had an idea that would drive value for their companies. However, nearly half of those employees did not win endorsement for their ideas. Coupled with facing negative bias and discrimination in the workplace, this attributes to explaining why 57 percent of employees with disabilities feel like their careers are stalled and cannot advance.

Though, employees with disabilities do in fact add unique perspectives and valuable contributions to businesses and society, as explained in these articles:

• Organizations reaping the benefits of neurodiverse employees
• Blind paralympic judoka fights to land jobs for Japan’s disabled
• Neurodiversity: The Benefits of Recruiting Employees with Cognitive Disabilities

The report proposes several approaches companies can take to foster a more inclusive workplace for people with disabilities including – inclusive leadership, disclosure training and strategies to demonstrate support such as:

• Employ universal design principles in office spaces and digital tools
• Make accommodations access easy and transparent
• Recruit people with disabilities
• Ask leaders with disabilities to serve as role models and tell their stories

Sometimes, the underlying cause could be rooted in unconscious bias and there are practices a company’s human resources department can implement towards creating an inclusive culture.

For more details and insights on how employers can better include people with disabilities, read the full Disabilities and Inclusion study here.

About the Center for Talent Innovation:
The Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) is a New York City–based think tank that focuses on global talent strategies and the retention and acceleration of well-qualified labor across the divides of demographic difference including gender, generation, geography, sexual orientation, and culture. CTI’s research partners now number more than 85 multinational corporations and organizations. Read more about CTI here.