Welcome to our April 2010 issue.
A decade ago, I wrote
a short article on seven factors that can influence a
company’s motivation to be proactive about diversifying
their workforces -
Workforce Diversity: Changing the Way You Do Business.
Happily, the article was very well-received and has since
been widely-referenced in publications on and off line.
In the hope of
strengthening the solidarity between the disability and
diversity communities, I am going to devote the next few
issues of inclusionRX to revisiting that article and adding
some additional commentary on how each factor relates to the
talent pool represented by people with disabilities. The
seven factors include:
1. As a Social
Responsibility
2. As an Economic Payback
3. As a Resource Imperative
4. As a Legal Requirement
5. As a Marketing Strategy
6. As a Business Communications Strategy
7. As a Capacity-building Strategy
In this issue I’ll
comment on the first factor: Workforce Diversity as a Social
Responsibility. I'll address the other factors in upcoming
issues.
Diversity and Disability: Kindred Souls on the Road to
Inclusion
"As we enter
the 21st century, workforce diversity has become an
essential business concern. In the so-called information
age, the greatest assets of most companies are now on
two feet (or a set of wheels). Undeniably, there is a
talent war raging. No company can afford to
unnecessarily restrict its ability to attract and retain
the very best employees available.
Generally
speaking, the term “Workforce Diversity” refers to
policies and practices that seek to include people
within a workforce who are considered to be, in some
way, different from those in the prevailing
constituency."
Those of us engaged
in the struggle to have people with disabilities more
equitably represented in North America’s workforces know
only too well how reluctantly disability issues are embraced
by the broader diversity “establishment”. (When received,
that embrace feels strangely like an awkward and perfunctory
hug from a hostess to a guest she wishes had never shown up
for her party.) It is sad that people who fight so hard for
inclusive workplaces can often be so blind to the
exclusionary behavior within their own ranks. Nevertheless,
warmly-welcomed or not, disability has a rightful place at
the diversity table.
The opening quote was
taken from an article I wrote entitled Workforce
Diversity: Changing the Way You Do Business. In that
paper, I outlined seven key factors that motivate companies
to be proactive about diversifying their workforces. In this
article, I will revisit each of those factors, examine them
in the context of the workforce represented by people with
disabilities, and demonstrate how, like a square peg in a
square hole, that workforce fits ever so smoothly into the
agenda of workforce diversity.
As a Social
Responsibility
"Because many
of the beneficiaries of good diversity practices are
from groups of people that are 'disadvantaged' in our
communities, there is certainly good reason to consider
workforce diversity as an exercise in good corporate
responsibility. By diversifying our workforces, we can
give individuals the “break” they need to earn a living
and achieve their dreams."
There can be little
room for legitimate disagreement in the assertion that, as a
group, people with disabilities are disadvantaged in our
society. Although they are well-represented in every social,
ethnic and economic grouping, as a whole, people with
disabilities are still at an extreme disadvantage in today’s
society. They do not enjoy equitable participation in our
workplaces. For job seekers with disabilities, similar forms
of the discrimination, biases and misinformation that once
prevented women, people of color, folks from various ethnic
and/or religious background, and other minority groups from
enjoying equitable participation in our workforces are still
widespread and go largely unchecked.
Based
on influence of social folklore and historical media
portrayals, many individual hiring managers still experience
fear, pity, discomfort and/or anxiety when encountering or
even considering hiring someone with a disability. In a
2000 Gallup & Robinson Poll, 15% of non-disabled people
reported discomfort at the prospect of working for, or
nearby, a person with a disability. In the 2003 Rutgers
University “Restricted Access” study, 10% of the employers
who were interviewed reported “employer discomfort” as a
major barrier to the employment of people with disabilities.
In a 2009 survey by SHRM (Society for Human Resource
Management), 22% of the 1400 members surveyed cited
supervisor or co-worker attitudes and stereotypes as a major
barrier to employment for people with disabilities.
The notion that
disability equates with inability runs rampant in
our workplaces. The fact that people with disabilities have
demonstrated their competencies in every job imaginable is
being overlooked and ignored. It doesn’t matter that people
with disabilities have distinguished themselves as
musicians, writers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers,
CEOs – 32% of the employers interviewed in the Rutgers
University study asserted that the specific nature of the
work at their company precluded people with disabilities
from performing it. Sorry FDR, you were quite capable of
serving as the President of the United States for twelve
years, but even today, one-third of its companies don’t
believe you would be able to hold down any of their jobs!
As a group, people
with disabilities are emerging from a long history of
devaluation, rejection and segregation in North America –
emerging from a belief system that assumed they were
incapable of being productive in the workplace and afforded
them “special” education – which was predominantly separate,
second-rate and based on very low expectations.
There are some
companies and many individual hiring managers who have a
healthy dose of altruism (Wikipedia definition: “a selfless
concern for the welfare of others”). These are enlightened
people and companies who believe that doing good is not at
enmity with doing business. At one point in my career, I was
hired by IBM to develop a Business Leadership Network – an
alliance of companies intent on encouraging and supporting
one another to be better at hiring and employing people with
disabilities. Early on, I asked my boss, a large African
American man with a ready smile and an infectious laugh, why
he was devoting his departmental resources to this project.
He replied; “In my younger days I was extremely active in
the Civil Rights Movement. For me, this is the same issue.
People with disabilities are facing the same kind of
discrimination. This is a civil rights issue.”
Randy Lewis is the
Senior Vice President of Distribution and Logistics at
Walgreens. I am a fan of his. He has transformed the way his
division does business and, where there were none before, he
has very aggressively opened up hundreds of jobs to people
with disabilities. Here is Randy’s take on business and
social responsibility; “At the end of the day, what do you
have? When you look back at your career, what did you do?
It’s not going to be the money you made. I’ve attended many
retirement speeches and they are always the same. When
people reflect on their careers, their comments are never
'Boy, we sure made a lot of money.' Rather, they are always
about making a difference in the lives of people – something
in the service of other people.”
For individual
employers who want to make a difference while making a
living and for companies who are motivated by the idea that
they can have more value than only what is reflected by
their bottom line, choosing to proactively increase the
number of people with disabilities in their workplaces is a
great investment in important social change.
To be
continued...
~ Rob McInnes
©
Rob McInnes, Diversity World, April 2010 (If not used for
commercial purposes, this article may be reproduced, all or
in part, providing it is credited to "Rob McInnes, Diversity
World - www.diversityworld.com". If included in a newsletter
or other publication, we would appreciate receiving a copy.)
Comment? Do you have a comment on anything in this issue?
Please send us your thoughts by email. We enjoy hearing from
our readers.
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on this issue...
inclusionrx@diversityworld.com
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