Ensuring business-led inclusivity of disabled consumers and employees alike is no longer an invitation. In addition to being a moral imperative, failing to account for the disabled population is a strategic business risk. Aside from the extraordinary consumer power of the 16% of the global population with a disability plus their family and friends, there is the enormous insight and innovation that employees with a disability to bring to bear. New legislation, such as the European Accessibility Act and the Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act in the U.S., increases the risk of businesses incurring reputational and financial damage if they fail to treat disabled employees fairly.
In recent years, we have seen some exceptional examples of leadership and commitment to disability inclusion, including the October launch by the German retailer Zalando of its first adaptive fashion collection, Telefonica’s recent commitment to double the number of employees with disabilities in its workforce by 2024, and Channel 4’s launch of an extensive examination of access and inclusion for disabled talent in the British TV industry.
In April, Lloyds Banking Group announced a goal to double the representation of colleagues with disabilities at senior management levels. Taking them to 12% representation by 2025.They believe that to be the best bank for customers, their workforce must represent the diversity of their communities.
Charlie Nunn, Lloyds Banking Group chief executive, said: “To double the representation of colleagues with disabilities in senior management roles demonstrates our commitment to become more inclusive, and we will continue to challenge ourselves to be a more accessible, supportive and inclusive place to work.”
Fiona Cannon, Lloyds’s Group sustainable business director, said the diversity targets are a way to help reduce some of the “myths and stigma” surrounding disability.
The momentum of this business accountability continues as building society; Nationwide publicly set its own disability target for all employees of 12% by March 2028.
Despite this progress, there is still huge variability in these efforts. Without standardized, publicly disclosed data, it is nearly impossible to create meaningful change, as there is no benchmark to measure against. Business leaders have the power to rectify this glaring inequality themselves and must take on the responsibility with urgency.
This is why the Valuable 500 launched its white paper entitled ‘ESG and Disability Data: A call for inclusive reporting’ co-funded and developed with Allianz and London Stock Exchange Group.
Only 22% of Valuable 500 companies publicly disclosed workforce representation of disability (self-ID) percentages in FY 2020-21 Annual Reports and Accounts (ARAs), ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and Sustainability Reports.
Low levels of disability disclosure and a lack of standardised reporting criteria make comparisons between organisations incredibly challenging. The Valuable 500 identified three key levers of change to address these barriers: ARAs & sustainability reports, investor dialogue, and materiality assessments.
Disability inclusion is strikingly absent from standardised key performance indicators, metrics or targets through which organisations measure their impact, performance, and the value they bring to society. The exclusion of disability and related topics, such as accessibility from investor-grade environmental, social and governance (ESG) data has far-reaching implications across the landscape of global business because of the sheer size and scale of the population with disabilities.
David Schwimmer, Chief Executive Officer, London Stock Exchange Group, commented,“With more than 22 million employees represented in 41 countries across 64 sectors, the reach of the Valuable 500 companies is substantial. By adopting and disclosing against the five KPIs proposed in the white paper, companies can provide leadership on disability disclosure, acting as a catalyst for the corporate change we need.”
Disability inclusion can only become a priority for companies and their stakeholders when there is more public knowledge. The report encourages the leaders of the Valuable 500 companies to adopt and disclose against five KPIs, creating a consistent and comparable baseline from which to measure progress on disability inclusion. The Valuable 500 Disability Inclusion KPIs are centred on the following topics, Workforce Representation; Goals; Training; Employee Resource Groups (ERGs); Digital Accessibility.
Oliver Bate, Chief Executive Officer of Allianz states, “Traditionally, financial KPIs have dominated corporate reports. More recently, we observe rising interest from customers and investors in a more holistic view of companies’ health, including customer satisfaction, stakeholder trust and workforce-metrics. Increased disclosure of non-financial indicators – drives important corporate change and translates reliably into competitive and financial advantage.”
At a recent event in London hosted by Tortoise Media and attended by many FSTE 100 business leaders, an abundance of insight was shared. In summary, the agreed outcome was to drive change and close the gap with the data. Setting targets and disclosing data matters, if we can measure it, we can start highlighting progress, identifying gaps, and encouraging more confidence in a business to speak up and support employees with their accessibility needs.
Put simply, reporting this data in a harmonised way will enable a better understanding of the current corporate landscape, vis-a-vis disability, as well as help track progress year on year.
Businesses are feeling the pressure. In particular, Gen Z is demanding more from their employers regarding delivering what they say. However, increasingly, the same goes for consumers too. Delaying action on disability is a real business risk. Not only does ambition need to be communicated, but it must also be supported and followed through with campaigns that help to educate and support employees.
Employees with a disability, and those without, want to know that their employer cares. The engagement gap within an organization is the key to change. If the staff are not understanding or aware, they will not change. And so much of this comes down to leadership and setting the culture from the top. Surely there need to be clear measurement targets and accountability in order to drive integration across all elements of business.
By holding ourselves to account we can align with the disability community’s call for, “Nothing about us without us” whereby everyone should be included equally.
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