Why hire people with a disability?
Embracing diversity and working actively with unconscious bias can improve your business results, this is a well substantiated fact.
In a recent survey performed by Aalborg university it unfortunately shows that only
22 % of the companies questioned would hire a well-educated, positive and efficient person with a disability, while 70 % would hire the same person if they did not have a disability. Another survey conducted by the Danish Disability Board in 2019 indicates that 46 % of co-workers are concerned about having a colleague with a disability. This trend has been increasing in recent years indicating increased diversity bias and prejudice in our society.
Utilising the talent pool of people with disabilities is both from a social responsibility point of view, but also from a financial perspective sustainable.
Financial models in Denmark indicate that if just 1 % more people with disabilities are employed, the financial gain to society would be 10 billion DKK over a 10-year period.
By engaging neurodiversity talent, we tap into an unused pool of talent that is not currently available in the labour market. Most other companies don’t know how to address and engage them. This gives us the unique opportunity to onboard more colleges that are: 1) highly skilled, 2)totally devoted to the task at hand, 3)loyal to the company that gave them the opportunity to contribute to society
We are proud in Novo Nordisk to re-define talent with project opportunity. A project that in a sustainable model integrates people on the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) into the workforce.
Many other companies such as Microsoft, SAP, EY and DXC have advanced their autism at work programs even more, and some have even engaged in global programmes onboarding neurodiversity talent.
The model for hiring neuro diverse people I believe can be extended even further and include more educated people who are restricted by a disability in their attempt to get closer to the labour market.
People with autism bring special talents to the table in the form of focus, detail oriented and seeing patterns.
Many people with disabilities generally do not take things for granted and often must struggle for solutions. They therefore can bring a very innovative mindset and a mindset of seeing opportunities and not restrictions to the table which is very valuable for a team.
Social responsibility
The society has in recent years increased focus on getting more people with special needs integrated in the workforce. The UN Disability Convention, which Denmark is a part of, states, that the conditions for people with disabilities should be equal to all others, also in employment.
The future society will expect companies to be more engaged in sustainability development goals (SDG) and CSR.
From an SDG perspective hiring people with a disability tap right into SDG no 8 “Decent jobs and economic growth”, SDG no 1 “Mobilize resources to reduce poverty” as many people with a disability can and have a desire to work but are unemployed and SDG no 10 “Reduce inequality”.
It is a sad fact that ~80 percent of neuro diverse people globally are unemployed for no good reason.
I can highly recommend to expand your horizon and engage in hiring people with disabilities.
Curious to learn more – here is a link to . Playbook Autism
Fact References (in danish only):
o: https://finance-commerce.com/2018/03/workforce-diversity-can-improve-companys-bottom-line/
1: https://www.a4medier.dk/artikel/chefer-sorterer-kvalificerede-handicappede-fra
2: https://dch.dk/sites/dch.dk/files/media/document/Fordomme