A survey on Disability in the Workplace as part of diversity in corporate social responsibility.

Who were the three good eggs?

Three companies nominated as ‘good business eggs’ for top ratings in their policy-making on disability in the workplace, openness to change and innovation, and showing a greater awareness of what could be achieved by improving diversity.

Twenty companies were surveyed by The Stanley East Company in 2013 to gain knowledge on how NZ business directs their approaches to recruiting and retaining staff with disabilities. Businesses included SME’s through to large global corporates to provide a useful snapshot of differing approaches across varied industries, types of companies, and locations.

There are proactive practices whereby international businesses employing disabled people see positive returns.

In the USA a report called “A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities” focused on the financial benefits. The drugstore chain Walgreens claim they do it not out of charity but for the competitive advantage in employing disabled workers as they are more efficient and loyal than their non-disabled colleagues. Absenteeism is down, staff turnover has reduced, and workplace accidents are fewer.

Melbourne’s Deakin University research found that: Disabled people are absent from work 85% less than other people and are cheaper to maintain in employment (recruitment, safety and insurance costs).

UK hardware chain B&Q has taken a very proactive approach to creating a diverse workplace: as well as opening two stores staffed entirely by people over the age of 50, it has also actively recruited disabled staff, which has resulted in increased sales to customers with a disability.

Finally, as the workforce ages and workers retire at older ages, it is likely that many existing employees may find themselves with an age – related disability, so preparing to be able to retain the services of employees with many years of service and knowledge means businesses can future proof themselves for this.

The results from the survey demonstrate a range of practices and approaches from businesses in New Zealand.

Many of the results fell in to the majority of not-so-good, with a lack of awareness or a blanket policy on recruitment. However some good examples of changing practise was noted as well as some inspirational work in progressive companies who embraced diversity.

68% did not have a policy on disability in the workplace with only one who had a specific policy covering disability. Most had incorporated disability into wider polices, for example, policies on diversity in the workplace or anti-discrimination policies.  And companies wanted to keep their disability related policies for internal use only.

The great majority complied with accessible features, for example accessible toilets and wheelchair access etc. Only one company made note of any other features available for people with disabilities aside from wheelchair users, perhaps indicating that for many companies disability is often seen as being connected only to wheelchairs. “We have wheelchair access in all our main office buildings including electric doors, self raising/lowering desks and accessible toilets and bathrooms with some flat showers.  Indented numbers in lifts and some lifts in Auckland with voice descriptions of the floor the lift is stopping at.”

Evacuation processes were well represented, as 80% described how they managed these, worryingly one business had no procedure at all. Two companies made mention of quite detailed and impressive evacuation processes: “Yes, we have an evacuation process for people of all abilities. For wheelchair impaired we have evac- chairs which can go down the stairs and for all people identifying themselves with a disability we have at least two buddies in addition to fire wardens assigned to make sure they can evacuate safely.”

How proactive are companies recruiting people who experience disability? 

90% are not. The most common response was they did not wish to discriminate, or favour any groups of people, although on many company web sites there were tempting incentives to encourage the take up of graduates…as a special group.

There were a small number who had proactive approaches to recruiting people with disabilities although the majority noted that they had EEO recruiting policies, with representative comments such as: “Our recruitment approach is not currently as proactive for people of all abilities as we would like, our group is working hard to change this at all levels of recruitment within our company as we want our workforce to be a true reflection of the community we serve. We do have fantastic people of all abilities within the organisation.’

One company actively works with a supported employment organisation to recruit people with disabilities:  “Yes, we work closely with Emerge to offer work experience and then look into offering these people contracts with the business. “

Unsurprisingly when asked what a company considered ‘disability’, this provided the biggest diversity in answers.

Three declined to answer, whilst one company was “unsure”. Three referred to disability being purely physical, without any reference to any other possible “hidden” disabilities.  One company explained their company’s inspirational point of view, ‘Disability can be both physical and mental i.e. many staff here may have a disability you would never know about. We try to avoid using the word ‘disability’ where possible as we want to make it really clear that disability is just a form of difference and can as often as not be a point of strength not a weakness. This includes both physical differences and mental health differences.’

Are those experiencing disability welcomed in the employment application process?

100% said not.  ‘We don’t currently have any official welcome to those with disability in our employment process. We do have a Reasonable Adjustment checklist for recruiters and Managers to help make this a more seamless experience for both the employee and the Manager. This is from Australia and we are in the process of tailoring this to NZ.

Have staff recently been asked what they might need in the workplace (in regards to disability)?

85% said they had not asked staff other than as part of the recruitment process.  And only one company included questions around staff requirements within annual risk management reviews. The worst response was ‘there is no need to survey our staff as none of them has a disability.’

Clearly the privacy act protects employees from having to declare too much information however one responder declared “We have done a survey of a small group of staff we know have disabilities, the results showed their managers are doing a good job supporting them, but this raises a really good point too about how little we have in the way of accurate statistics of employees with disabilities due to the privacy act i.e. a lot of staff who have impairments remain unknown.

Some companies acknowledged that their knowledge in regards to disability could be improved.

“This is certainly an area that is not well addressed in our NZ operations.” And “We’re very open to learning more about how to welcome applicants with disabilities.”

Finally, one company, who has policies and procedures in place, and may be seen as more advanced than some other companies, acknowledged that even they had more to do: “While we are doing a lot of work to encourage the best people of all abilities to apply for roles here we still have a long way to go to truly be the accessible organisation we aspire to be.”

Recommendations:

• Ask what your staff needs, don’t assume. Understand that disability can be not always seen nor needs to be announced.
• Find out what progressive companies are doing and what are the business benefits of employing people with disabililty.
• Get advice for example from Emerge Supported Employment Trust, a free, socially conscious recruitment alternative who build successful relationships with employers by helping them and their staff to support their colleagues with disability.
• Get information from WINZ or Workbridge.

The Inspirational:  The Three Good Business Eggs

From the twenty companies, three stood out as Good Business Eggs, we applaud Westpac, CQHotels Wellington and HealthPost for their top ratings in their policy making on disability in the workplace, openness to change and innovation and showing a greater awareness of what could be achieved by improved diversity.

Contact:

The Stanley East Company: info@stanley-east.co.nz

Emerge Supported Employment Trust: enquiries@emergetrust.org.nz

WINZ: www.workandincome.govt.nz

Workbridge: www.workbridge.co.nz