Why Hiring People with Disabilities is Good for Business Now:
The “New Normal” and New Opportunities
Diverse and inclusive workplaces have better business outcomes
- 2x more likely to meet or exceed financial targets
- 6x more likely to be innovative
- 6x more likely to effectively anticipate change
People with disabilities are great employees
- 72% higher staff retention
- 86% had equivalent or better attendance than their peers
- 90% performed equal or better than their coworkers without disabilities
Employees with disabilities can help your business adjust to COVID-19
- They are innovative and adaptable to overcome barriers in their own lives and at work
- Many are primed for the remote work COVID-19 requires
- Many prefer the temporary, flexible, or casual opportunities businesses need to fill gaps via as we adjust our operations
Besides, it’s easier than you think
If anything, COVID-19 has shown that accommodations aren’t difficult and benefit employers…
- Work from home is one of the most common accommodation requests and now we know it is practical for many jobs
- 58% cost nothing at all and 37% require a one-time expense of $500
- Businesses saw an economic benefit of 2 to 7x the cost of accommodations for employees with various mental health disabilities
Sources:
- PR Newswire. (2017) New Deloitte Research Identifies Keys to Creating Fair and Inclusive Organizations
- Deloitte. (2017) The road to inclusion: Integrating people with disabilities into the workplace.
- Conference Board of Canada. (2018) The Business Case to Build Physically Accessible Environments.
- Job Accommodation Network (JAN). (n.d.) Benefits and Costs of Accommodations.
- Lindsay, S., Cagliostro, E., Albarico, M., Mortaji, N., and Karon, L. (2018) A Systemic Review of the Benefits of Hiring People with Disabilities.