Measuring Impact: 7 Key Metrics for Assessing the Success of Disability Inclusion in Your Business
Posted by Dean Askin | Reading time 12:00 | Filed under Inclusive Hiring, Disability Awareness & Confidence

Background photo courtesy Hilary Gauld / One for the Wall Photography and the Canadian Down Syndrome Society. Foreground photo: Adobe Stock.
Making your business disability inclusive encompasses proactively, intentionally creating a work environment where all employees feel valued and are provided with equitable opportunities to contribute and thrive. It’s about fostering a culture of respect and opportunity.
Part one in this series looked at seven ways to do that and go far beyond merely ticking compliance check boxes.
Your goal should be to ultimately reach Level 4 in the Deloitte four-level model of DEI maturity. This is the point where disability inclusion is “business as usual” throughout your entire organization:
- It’s an integral part of staff behaviours; and of all policies, procedures, processes and systems
- Everyone has a shared sense of purpose
- Your workforce has that variety in ethnicities, religions, genders, orientations and abilities that defines diversity
- Your “external brand matches your internal one;” your business reflects the diverse community it serves
But being proactive on disability inclusion action to get to this “business as usual” stage isn’t enough.

Measuring progress on action and impact is essential
It’s essential to set measurable goals and mileposts so you can effectively and accurately track your progress on disability inclusion. There should be regular reporting on achievements and areas for improvement.
This is needed to hold everyone in the company accountable for making sure you reach Level 4 and disability inclusion permeates your entire organization.
Here are seven key metrics for assessing the success of disability inclusion in your organization or business.

Collecting hard data on the diversity of your workforce is central to knowing how quickly, how well or whether you’re moving beyond “ticking boxes” and merely fulfilling legal requirements.
There are software as a service (SaaS) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools available for you to create candidate questions and employee surveys so you can collect demographic data during the recruitment and hiring process, and through employee surveys.
But here’s the challenge: Surveying employees and candidates doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting an accurate picture of disability representation in your business. Many companies are likely recruiting and hiring some people who have a disability. And likely already have some employees, who have a disability. Except they don’t know it.
What research shows
In a 2022 Workplace Attitudes and Disability survey by the Return on Disability Group, 60% of Canadian managers said they don’t believe they have any employees who have a disability.
And here’s what a global study by the Boston Consulting Group published in May 2023 found: Companies surveyed said they believed 4% to 7% of their employees have a disability. In reality, the number is closer to 25%.
Here’s what’s happening: Most employees and candidates don’t disclose a disability if they’re not legally required to, and don’t feel safe doing so.
An Accenture study found, 76% of employees who have a disability, and 80% of executives, don’t fully disclose.
It means this: To collect hard demographic data and measure disability representation accurately and effectively, you need to have an inclusive culture to begin with.
Because as the Accenture and Boston Consulting Group research shows, the majority of employees and executives alike don’t disclose a disability. Unless they feel safe and welcome doing so.
Disability Alliance BC notes in Disclosing Your Disability: A Legal Guide for People with Disabilities in BC, “The most important factor in deciding whether or not to disclose to an employer is your ability to do the job. If your disability will not affect your ability to do the job, you are not required to disclose.”

If you want to retain employees, you must have a retention strategy. And as BambooHR makes clear in its The 2022 Essential Retention Guide, that “strategy should start with discovering what your employees actually want — asking for their feedback, listening to understand, responding in a way that ensures they feel heard and then acting on their feedback.”
The BambooHR survey of employers found that 27% of them anonymously survey employees multiple times a year. However, more than half of respondents (55%) only “sometimes” actually make changes based on employees’ feedback on said surveys.
Monitoring the retention rate of employees who have a disability is a good indicator of how well you’re doing on disability inclusion.
High retention rates indicate these employees feel valued and supported in the workplace.
Global research by the Boston Consulting Group showed that when companies make a strong investment in all their employees, those who have a disability are loyal. The May 2023 global study found, they’re 1.5 times more likely to stay with the organization than employees without disabilities.
Keep the basic requirement in mind
And a 2021 survey by the Angus Reid Institute and the Rick Hansen Foundation found this: 79% of of working Canadians who have a disability, feel respected and welcome in their workplaces.
Keep in mind, there’s that key basic requirement for collecting and calculating retention data on employees who have a disability effectively and with any degree of accuracy:
- They must feel comfortable disclosing a disability, especially if it’s invisible or doesn’t affect them doing their jobs. If employees aren’t disclosing, you can’t have accurate statistics about the number or percentage of employees who have a disability.
You can more easily track the number of employees who have a visible disability; and the number of employees who have requested an accommodation or adjustment.
However, having only partial data doesn’t enable you to accurately determine your progress on disability inclusion.

Tracking the percentage of new hires who self-identify a having a disability can help you assess the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy and your efforts to connect with the disability talent pool.
However, including a “Do you identify as having a disability?” check box on a job application form or employee survey, doesn’t necessarily mean you can accurately track the percentage.
The Disability:IN 2022 Disability Equality Index Report found that among companies surveyed, 91% encourage employees to self-identify.
However, only 3% of new hires do so, the report noted.
And only 4% of current staff self-identify. That was up slightly from the 2019 DEI Report (3.7%) but down from 2021 (5%).
And an Accenture study found that there’s a 20% discrepancy between what executives believe, and the reality. It noted, 84% of company executives believe their employees feel safe about being open about a physical disability. The reality? Only 65% of employees feel safe talking about it.
What needs to be happening for effective tracking
So again, the caveat here is this: You can’t know whether a new hire has a disability and meaningfully track the percentage unless at least some of these things are happening in your business:
- The person has a visible disability
- It’s visible or invisible, and they’ve requested an accommodation or adjustment
- They feel safe and comfortable disclosing a disability — especially an invisible one — when they’re not legally required to, because it doesn’t affect their ability to do their job
- You create an environment where they do feel safe, comfortable and welcome self-identifying
Making sure new employees have a mentor can help you more accurately know how many new hires self-identify. The global 2023 Boston Consulting Group study found that 79% of employees who have a mentor disclose their disability compared to 68% who don’t have a mentor.
And it can also help to make sure managers are disability aware and confident. The study found that U.S. employees who have a disability are 60% more likely to be open about it with their direct manager, than they are with Human Resources.

It’s important to analyze the promotion and advancement rates of employees who have a disability. You need to ensure that career-development opportunities are equitable and accessible for all staff. It can affect retention of employees who have a disability, which can in turn affect the overall success of your business.
And research shows this equitable promotion and advancement isn’t happening the way it should be.
In 2021, Global Disability Inclusion and Mercer published a ground-breaking global study. The State of Disability Employee Engagement was the first report of its kind. And it revealed that employees who have a disability feel they aren’t treated equitably when it comes to promotion and advancement.
“It is clear employees with disabilities believe they do not have the same opportunities for growth and or advancement within their company as other diverse groups,” the authors affirmed in the report.
Statistics show lower levels of satisfaction
The study found that globally, 7% fewer employees who have a disability say their career goals are being met, than their peers without disabilities.
That’s in line with the findings of the comprehensive 2021 Angus Reid Institute/Rick Hansen Foundation survey.
It found that in Canada, 60% of employees who have a disability are satisfied with their career opportunities for advancement. But that’s less than employees without disabilities (79%).
At the same time, more employees who have a disability are dissatisfied with their career advancement opportunities (40%) than those without disabilities (32%).
Set measurable goals for the advancement and training of staff who have a disability, and you’ll be setting an example for other businesses to follow: A Westat report for the U.S. Office of Disability Employment Policy, found that only 28.6% of U.S. employers do so.

Doing regular employee engagement surveys to gather feedback from employees is important, regardless of whether they have a disability. As noted earlier in this post, employees who have a disability are 1.5 times more likely to stay with an organization that seriously invests in its people.
You need to know satisfaction levels, the sense of belonging among employees who have a disability and their perception of your disability inclusion efforts.
According to Culture Amp, there are 22 essential questions you should be asking — of all employees. However, there are five core ones that help you determine what Culture Amp calls the “engagement index” in your business. These are:
- How proud are employees to work at your company? (Culture Amp calls this question the “barbecue test.” If they were asked at a barbecue, would employees, including those who have a disability, tell somebody they’re proud of where they work?)
- Would employees recommend your company as a place to work?
- Do employees think about working anywhere else?
- Do they see themselves working for your company in two or five years’ time?
- Do they feel motivated to go above and beyond in their role?
Feeling less engaged
Here’s what The 2021 Global Disability Inclusion/Mercer employee engagement study found: Overall, employees who have a disability feel significantly less engaged than their peers without disabilities.
Compared to their peers, fewer employees who have a disability feel:
- Their managers support their professional development
- Their concerns and suggestions are listened to by immediate managers
- Satisfied overall
- They’d recommend the company as an employer
- They’re recognized for job performance
- They’re able to use their own judgement to get a job done

It’s vital to track participation rates in disability awareness training programs among all employees and managers. In fact, if you’re being intentional about creative a disability-inclusive culture, this training should be mandatory for all staff.
That’s because it’s a big part of going above and beyond with disability inclusion. Everyone at all levels of your business must have the right attitude, awareness and confidence about disability. It’s essential for experiencing all the positive business benefits. And for the reshaping of the company culture that’s needed.

A disability-inclusive business reflects the community it serves. And disability is increasing in the community. Now in Canada, 27% of the population aged 15 and older, or eight million people, have at least one disability.
And within this group, 29% of people have one disability type; 37% have two or three; and 34% have four or more “co-occurring” disabilities.
That’s why it’s vital to get feedback from customers, clients and other external stakeholders. Their perception of your commitment to disability inclusion can be invaluable in helping you determine what’s working, and where there’s still room for improvement.
External positive perception of disability inclusion within your business is good for both your business and your brand.
The Angus Reid Institute and Rick Hansen Survey noted that 62% of Canadians are more likely to want to do business with a company if they know it has specific policies supporting employees who have a disability.
And a Job Accommodation Network study found, 22% of employers surveyed said providing workplace accommodations for employees who have a disability, improved interactions with customers.

Gaining new disability-consumer business
When customers have a good experience, they’re more likely to recommend your business. And that can open up vast new markets for you: The disability market, and the disability-adjacent market.
These two combined markets are 53% of the world’s population affected by disability, or over five billion people with an annual spending power of US$13 trillion.
With the technology that’s available today, it’s easy to get that feedback from customers and clients. For an example, it can be done at the end of a customer service chat online, or with a more formal survey.
There’s AI that can help you create surveys. But it may also be worth engaging an external business-to-business and/or business-to-consumer market research firm if you don’t have inhouse expertise or experience creating customer/client surveys.
Because you need to ask the right questions to get the best answers that will help you track your disability inclusion progress.
Looking for other measurement tools and ideas? The U.K.-based Business Disability Forum offers a suite of Disability Smart Management tools to help companies measuring their state of disability inclusion.

Dean Askin is the Communications Strategist for the Ontario Disability Employment Network.