Domain 1: Economic Participation and Employment
31 Corporate Inclusion and the Road to Scaled Innovation
“More than relying on esoteric investment concepts like ESG, achieving competitive, integrated employment requires us to act with empathy and put our needs as human beings in the center of our actions. Yes, ESG has emerged as a useful framework that allows conversations to occur and strategy to be defined. But that is all it is – a framework. For meaningful change to occur, all of us must appreciate the simple fact that this is about real people trying to live their best lives.”
– Robert Ludke, The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement[1]
The potential for corporate social innovation with respect to accessibility is enormous. As Ted Kennedy, Board Chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities, notes “persons with disabilities present business and industry with unique opportunities in labor-force diversity and corporate culture, and they’re a large consumer market eager to know which businesses authentically support their goals and dreams. Leading companies are accelerating disability inclusion as the next frontier of corporate social responsibility and mission-driven investing.”[2] The global professional services firm Accenture adds that “companies that embrace best practices for employing and supporting more persons with disabilities in their workforce have outperformed their peers… leading companies were, on average, twice as likely to have higher total shareholder returns than those of their peer group.”[3]
But there is a big gap between these insights and widespread practice, as recent incidents involving Canada’s two major airlines underscore. One of the strong points of agreement among interviewees is the lack of accessibility leadership among companies. When pressed, the vast majority could not recommend a single corporate exemplar, or wanted to avoid the tendency to benchmark against others and not go above the average in accessible organizations.[4] The data appears to affirm this: According to Caroline Casey, Ashoka Fellow and founder of The Valuable 500, a movement to get 500 CEOs and brands to put disability inclusion on their leadership agendas, while 90% of global companies prioritize inclusion, only 4% consider disability.[5] Some estimates are closer to 3%.[6] Casey has also brought this message to the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019, where she was the first disability leader to speak on inclusion. Casey opines that “we don’t need to fix disabled people – we need to fix the business system.”[7] Currently, CIBC, Canada Post, Spotify, and TD are the only Canadian companies signed on to the Valuable 500.[8] That said, a number of global companies have Canada-specific commitments and practices. For example, Inployable is a new collaboration between the Canadian Down Syndrome Society and LinkedIn to connect employers with people with Down syndrome.[9]
SPOTLIGHT: Walgreens
US-based pharmaceutical chain Walgreens implemented a disability inclusion policy beginning in 2007. Forty percent of Walgreen’s workforce now lives with a disability. The policy has had demonstrable positive effects on corporate reputation, and is an interesting example of a strategic approach to an element of equity, diversity, and inclusion that yields a competitive advantage for the company. Elements of the strategy include investments in training (including training of regional and store managers), partnering directly with local nonprofits and grassroots disability groups, and leadership on the issue at the C-Suite level.[10]
SPOTLIGHT: Project Search
Project SEARCH is a national program that helps adult students with intellectual and developmental disabilities transition into the workplace.[11] The one-year program provides classroom instruction, career exploration and job skills training through three 10-week internship rotations. Its partnership with TD is one of the main reasons TD is continually ranked among the most disability-inclusive corporate employers.
- Robert Ludke. (2022). Competitive, Integrated Employment: A Driver of Long-Term Value Creation. Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement, Drake University. Page 8. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2022/07/the-competitive-advantage-of-disability-inclusion ↵
- As quoted in Accenture, Getting to Equal, 2018, page 2. ↵
- Accenture, Getting to Equal, 2018, page 3. ↵
- As noted by Conversation Participants, rather than aspiring to continuously improve access in their own contexts, organizations and governments tend to compare progress and try to replicate rather than pursuing ongoing improvement. ↵
- Martin Klavuu. (2020, July 24). Interview With Founder of The Valuable 500: Caroline Casey. Tasque [blog]. https://blog.taskque.com/interview-caroline-casey/ ↵
- The Disability Employment Tracker’s 2017 aggregate report of US companies, for example, notes that the average employment rate of persons with disability is 3.2%, and only 7% of companies had reached the US Department of Labor’s 7% inclusion target. US figures. National Organization on Disability, 2018. ↵
- National Organization on Disability, 2018. ↵
- As of February 2023, on the Valuable 500 there are 24 energy companies, 11 construction companies, 2 firms each in engineering and industrial services as part of the Valuable 500, none of which are Canadian. The Valuable 500. Companies [website]. https://www.thevaluable500.com/members ↵
- inployable. Home [website]. https://inployable.com/ ↵
- This resource is originally a journal article, but readers can also access a case study by Deloitte if they do not have access to academic databases. Journal Article: Kalargyrou, V. (2014). Gaining a competitive advantage with disability inclusion initiatives. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality and Tourism, 13. pp. 120-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2014.847300; Case Study: Kristy Delaney. (2014). Gaining a competitive advantage with disability inclusion initiatives. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/human-capital/articles/gaining-competitive-advantage-disability-inclusion.html ↵
- Project SEARCH. Home [website]. https://projectsearch.us/ ↵
