Diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI for short – has become an important movement within workplaces throughout the United States and the world.
One piece of the DEI puzzle includes disability, a fact that we are particularly motived to shine a light on here at New Journey, a Genesis10 company. That’s because we are a disability-owned business enterprise (DOBE). We received this distinction and certification from the national organization Disability:IN as a result of our owner, Harley Lippman, identifying as neurodivergent.
Neurodiversity is a term that describes the variation in brain function amongst people. Some common forms of neurodiversity are ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and autism.
Our goal at New Journey and Genesis10 is to build a workplace that is inclusive to all people, including people with disabilities. We are striving towards this goal and know we have more to do. As we do this work on inclusion, we wanted to share the following steps any company can take to evaluate their disability inclusion efforts and identify areas for improvement.
Taking a Hard Look
- Dedicate the time and resources necessary to perform an open and transparent evaluation of your organization.
- Create a task force and include relevant stakeholders to identify opportunities, make improvement recommendations, and executive action items.
- Create accountability, follow up, and follow through.
Provide Accommodations
- Provide technology, systems, programs, and physical workspaces for employees with disabilities.
- Implement flexible schedules and remote work options.
- Ensure offsite events are inclusive and accommodate employees with physical disabilities, such as accessible transportation or sign language interpreters.
- Increase diversity awareness and inclusion best practices throughout your organization.
Finding, Hiring, and Promoting Talent
- A critical first step is to hire people with disabilities, therefore effective outreach and recruitment strategies are important.
- Work with agencies and specific job sites that are focused on and represent candidates with disabilities. Be intentional in your talent searches.
- People with disabilities help diversify and strengthen organizations through hard work, the ability to problem solve, overcome challenges, and offer unique and different perspectives.
- Studies have shown that employees with disabilities stay at jobs longer, and reduce the cost of turnover and retraining.
Create Programs, Goals, and Milestones
- Create disability employee resource groups.
- Continually review accessibility guidelines and regulations, make timely updates, and enforce decisions affecting accessibility.
- Nurture a disability-friendly environment that includes everyone and make this an ongoing process, setting scalable goals and milestones.
- Measure your progress and consistently communicate it throughout your organization.
