How an inclusive workplace is an unsurpassed workplace that succeeds
October 28, 2021
October 28, 2021
October marks National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) in the United States. Held annually, NDEAM is intended to highlight disability employment issues and importantly, to celebrate the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities. To me, this annual celebration aligns perfectly with our Finance organization’s focus on disability inclusion and mental health.
Julie Spillane shared this focus and our recommitment to Diversity and Inclusion with the Accenture Finance community as a core tenet of our culture. In her post, she spoke of the business case for why this is critically important to our shared success and importantly our success as individuals. She articulated that disability inclusion and mental health is one of Finance’s four Diversity and Inclusion areas of focus with the goal to “Be the industry role model for disability inclusion.”
As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), disability inclusion means understanding the relationship between the way people function and how they participate in society and making sure everybody has the same opportunities to participate in every aspect of life to the best of their abilities and desires.
A disability is any condition that makes it more difficult (or different) for a person to do certain activities or interact with the world around them. Disabling conditions, or impairments, may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or a combination of multiple factors.
An inclusive workplace values all employees for their strengths. It offers employees with disabilities—whether visible or invisible—an equal opportunity to succeed, to learn, to be compensated fairly, and to advance. A study of 45 US companies by Accenture found companies that recruit and support employees with disabilities have twice the net income and 28 percent higher revenue than those that do not. The Accenture study also found that disability inclusion efforts are a boon to employers regarding increased innovation, improved shareholder value, improved productivity, and enhanced reputation.
Disability inclusion provides two obvious benefits:
Teams with strong disability inclusion programs have the tools they need to help their employees thrive.
NDEAM offers an opportunity to refresh our awareness of what each one of us can do to support disability inclusion. Actions include:
While October marks an annual focus on disability employment awareness, our Finance community must recognize every day that we already do and will continue to work with many colleagues with visible and invisible disabilities. Our culture also requires us to embrace this aspect of diversity to build stronger teams, increase engagement, and drive strong business results.