Q&A Excerpt: A Conversation With the Leaders of The Valuable 500
Posted by Dean Askin | Reading time: 5:00 | Filed under Inclusive Hiring
In every company, the CEO (or the business owner, if it’s a small business) must be the primary champion of disability-inclusive hiring. They need to be intentional about it. And they need a high level of disability awareness and confidence as well as the right attitude. That’s because disability in an organization is driven from the top down. The CEO sets the business’s culture.
And business leaders can no longer make excuses for not fostering disability inclusion, the leaders of The Valuable 500 declared, in this 2022 (Season 3) episode of our You Can’t Spell Inclusion Without a D podcast.
Caroline Casey, founder and creator of The Valuable 500, affirmed that they must “be curious and intentional about making change,” and urged leaders to “Go into your people, ask your people in business who are connected to disability, how you can do it better. Ask, admit you don’t know.”
“But don’t think you can walk away from this issue anymore, because it’s your issue. It’s the most important thing a business leader can do,” she said.
Casey, and Paul Polman, then-Chair of The Valuable 500, provided unique, candid insights on progress that’s been made, and on what still needs to be done when, people with disabilities are changing the future of work and business more than ever before.
Here’s an edited excerpt from this dynamic conversation with co-hosts Jeannette Campbell and Dean Askin.
JEANNETTE CAMPBELL: For listeners who may not be familiar with it, can you tell us a bit about this initiative and why it was so important to you to found The Valuable 500?
Caroline Casey: Disability has been the poor cousin of the inclusion agenda has sat on the outskirts of business, it’s been that outlier, and we’ve never seen accelerated change. And that’s just not okay. Inclusion is either all for everyone or not at all…So The Valuable 500 was formed to create a coalition or a collective community of business who were accountable and committed to working together. And this is the thing of working together to end disability exclusion by its practices…So what The Valuable 500 was saying, you CEOs, you leaders, have a role to play. And what that was making them do is promising us and delivering on board level or leadership commitment on disability inclusion in their business, putting their signature to it, leading with their voice.
Paul Polman: Well, it was no doubt in my mind when Caroline was looking for someone not only to chair it, but to get the business community and these numbers together, that I could help her and had a responsibility to say yes, I mean, this is probably the biggest initiative, that collective initiative that you find in the private sector 500 of the biggest companies, trillions of dollars in turnover and market cap millions of people in employment. That’s how you drive change at scale…and it’s starting to take hold…we’re starting to see the changes coming through. And that’s obviously ultimately what counts. It’s the impact that we’re after.
DEAN ASKIN: How would you describe the state of disability inclusion in business, in 2022? How much progress have we made compared to just five, or 10 years ago?
Caroline Casey: The issue of disability at the highest levels of power is still seen as something less than so in some ways, there’s still uncomfortable and fear that existed for me 20 years ago is still there. Okay. But what’s different and what’s exciting, is the younger generation talking about disability pride, we’re starting to see inclusive design be more mainstream, we’re hearing about accessibility and captioning…And I do think we can actually move forward. And let’s celebrate the moments and the wins, they might be small, but they add up to something more than ever was before.
Paul Polman: There’s definitely more awareness, I think it has become a silent discussion in the boardrooms. But still too many companies that read or not published about it, not talk about it, as Caroline says, and frankly, not take the more courageous actions that are needed to really deal with these issues once and for all in a decisive way.
DEAN ASKIN: How much do you think disability inclusion is driving the future of work now? Or does it kind of depend on what part of the world we’re talking about?
Caroline Casey: From my perspective, I think [disability inclusion] is changing the future of work…when Elon Musk came out about his disability, his Aspergers, he’s kind of running. He’s kind of one of the most successful people in business, when Richard Branson talks about his Dyslexia has been something that has really fuelled a different way of thinking. When we see some of our greatest tech talent, often, really owning their neurodiversity. Do I think there’s an opportunity here? Yeah, I do…I can definitely tell you lived experience of disability is contributing hugely to our global economy, but we don’t see it.
JEANNETTE CAMPBELL: Caroline, do you think disability inclusion is kind of driving the future of work more now, because of the way things have shifted over the last two years as a result of COVID?
Caroline Casey: What we discovered in 17 days, most of our companies were able to adapt to virtual working…And everybody needed adjustments, accommodations, modifications, right? Okay, so like, why before a COVID, it was a big deal. People [with] disabilities have expensive accommodations, everybody needed them in COVID…So it is about intentionality, it’s about and quit, you know, deciding that we’re going to do it, not for them. But for all of us, for all of us…Disability is all of our business, all of our business for the importance for all of our lives, to future proof our society for ourselves and for others.
Episode 7 is one of our most popular episodes — number five in downloads. Listen to or download the full, compelling conversation with Caroline Casey and Paul Polman.
Dean Askin is the Communications Strategist for the Ontario Disability Employment Network, and the Co-Host and Associate Producer of ODEN’s You Can’t Spell Inclusion Without a D podcast.