Disability, diversity, and corporate social responsibility: Learning from recognized leaders in inclusion

1Introduction

National Disability Employment Awareness Month is celebrated every October to support the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce. What started as a weeklong campaign to acknowledge public interest for supporting soldiers with disabilities returning from World War II has grown into an annual event to support a burgeoning workforce of people with disabilities (Office of Disability Employment Policy, 2015). Federal support for inclusion in the workforce is also reflected in U.S. policies such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These policies not only reflect federal incentives to increase the labor force of workers with disabilities; they are the bastions of grassroots support for the rights of people with disabilities to access the open labor market (Gould et al., 2015). Moore, McDonald, and Bartlett (2017) find that while policies and federal platforms encouraging employment for people with disabilities influence hiring practices, rising social expectations of inclusion are more likely impacting hiring decisions and recruitment strategies.

Support for disability employment now transcends public policy and awareness campaigns. There is increasing pressure to better support people with disabilities in the competitive labor market, where disability inclusion is widely seen as a social imperative. In a national survey, 87% of customers reported their preference to patron companies that routinely employ people with disabilities (Siperstein, Romano, Mohler, & Parker, 2006). Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence about the organizational value of hiring workers with disabilities (C. A. Hernandez, 2018; Kalargyrou, 2014). People with disabilities are a vast and growing segment of the US population, and employees with disabilities may offer specific insight into consumer needs. It is estimated that there are more than 20 million working-age adults with disabilities in the US representing about $490 billion in disposable after-tax income (Yin, Shaewitz, Overton, and Smith, 2018). Despite these trends, many people with disabilities remain un or under-employed with only 30.2% of people with disabilities employed compared to 73.8% of non-disabled people (Brennan-Curry, 2018). The low employment rate, public policy and social demands, all suggest the need for more innovative strategies to recruit, hire, and retain workers with disabilities.

Theory on how to advance the employment of people with disabilities is not meeting these ongoing social pressures. While disability inclusion is increasingly viewed publicly as a matter of social responsibility, disability is atypically considered in the social responsibility planning of most organizations (Ball, Monaco, Schmeling, Schartz, & Blanck, 2005). Organizational strategies to foster diversity and inclusion amongst the workforce rarely consider how to support workers with disabilities. Disability is not “high on the diversity radar” of most human resource (HR) professionals or business/management researchers (Chan et al., 2010, p. 116). Given the exclusion of disability from management theory and practice, it is critical to understand how organizations can meet mounting expectations to support workers with disabilities.

This article explores paradigmatic shifts in disability and workplace research to inform discussion and debate about emerging practices used by recognized industry leaders in disability inclusion. The aim is to inform future theoretical and practical inquiry into strategies to foster the workplace inclusion of workers with disabilities by exploring how disability is, and can be, integrated into organizations’ social responsibility planning and reporting. We focus on trends related to the integration of disability into social responsibility planning, as trends in research, policy, and practice are positioning disability as an element of diversity in related initiatives. It adds to a small, but growing body of scholarship on organizational strategies and practices that foster disability inclusion (e.g., Beatty, Baldridge, Boehm, Kulkarni, & Colella, 2018). It includes a review and appraisal of recent research trends impacting disability inclusion in the workplace, and an original synthesis of the rhetorical strategies used by recognized leaders in disability inclusion. The synthesis draws from a multi-staged research project, which includes a content analysis of corporate social responsibility reports from businesses that have received national accolades for their disability inclusion strategies. The intent of reviewing the reports is not to recognize the businesses’ initiatives as indicators of best practice, but rather to generate a descriptive and theoretical mapping of the different ways that entities market their disability inclusion efforts. The larger purpose is to better understand how organizations present disability inclusion as part of their commitment to social responsibility. To frame our analysis, we next consider emerging issues related to social responsibility, disability, and human resource practices.

2Social responsibility, diversity, and disability

Social responsibility, also known as corporate social responsibility (CSR), is multifaceted with several different definitions (Fenwick & Bierema, 2008). It is most often described as the ways that businesses position their organizational policies and conduct activities to positively impact the community (Fenwick & Bierema, 2008). There is general consensus that CSR initiatives are efforts to align businesses strategies with practices to promote the common good and value of humanity. In practice, notions such as common good and value are imprecise concepts that are tailored to align with company goals and branding.

CSR planning allows businesses to define how they view and respond to social problems, such as the underrepresentation of people with disabilities in the workforce. Businesses share their CSR strategies through reports, web materials, and other public-facing messages that are reflective of organizational culture and priorities. CSR reports provide insight into workplace norms, hiring practices, and overarching aspects of organizational culture (De Stefano, Bagdadli, & Camuffo, 2018). CSR plans highlight publicly favorable organizational practices, and are used for marketing and recruiting talent (Fenwick & Bierema, 2008). Diversity initiatives in particular are often crucial aspects of CSR marketing and recruitment as businesses seek to diversify their workforce due to social pressure, increased diversity amongst customer bases, as well as public policies (Moore et al., 2017).

Research on diversity management and CSR can be used to identify organizational practices to attract and support employees from different backgrounds in the workplace. Though there is emergent HR management theory about how diversity strategies impact organizational practices, such discourse rarely includes disability (Gould et al., 2015). Past studies have shown limited attention to disability within CSR and diversity planning. Ball et al. (2005) found that only 42% of Fortune 100 companies had a diversity policy that expressly included people with disabilities. Diversity plans often shape CSR and organizational culture, and play important roles in decisions to hire, accommodate, and retain workers with disabilities. Schur, Kruse, and Blanck (2005) explore the relationships between corporate culture and the acceptance of people with disabilities by coworkers and management in the workplace. The authors refer to Schein’s (2010) conceptions of espoused values, meaning what a company shares publicly as its core beliefs, to argue that companies that are most willing to support workers with disabilities often go out of their way to publicly announce their intention.

3Espoused values and disability employment

Espoused values often reflect a company’s priorities in CSR initiatives and internal organizational practices. An espoused commitment to diversity may signify specific goals for hiring and recruitment, formal and informal supports, business strategies, and a number of other factors to support inclusion in the workplace. Despite the growth of diversity management as a best practice, the understanding of disability as a diversity dimension continues to evolve. Some scholars emphasize the importance of including disability in diversity and inclusion management research, but disability is rarely understood as a diverse group in a similar way to other diversity categories (Chan et al., 2010; Theodorakopoulos, & Budhwar, 2015).

The exclusion of disability from CSR and diversity management theory is indicative of a number of organizational and cultural factors impacting the treatment of workers with disabilities. Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, and Kulkarni, (2008) interviewed employers regarding hiring practices for people with disabilities and found that many employers did not actively seek out employees with disabilities partially due to negative stereotypes. Chan, et al. (2010) found that employers, including HR professionals, commonly hold stigmatizing beliefs about hiring people with disabilities that influence organizational practices. Erickson, von Schrader, Bruyère, and Van Looy (2014) compared survey results from HR professionals regarding barriers to employment for people with disabilities, and found that generally negative attitudes were shown to have decreased over the 13-year timeframe of the study. However, more latent discriminatory beliefs that may discourage disability employment were reported across the study duration. For example, even though equal opportunity laws and policies protect the right to reasonable accommodations, accommodation is commonly misunderstood as special treatment in some workplace settings (Schur et al., 2014). The treatment of workers with disability is shaped by organizational norms and practices; disability is seldom recognized as an employee issue except as a problem to be accommodated when it disrupts standardized processes and procedures.

4Advancing disability employment

The limited attention to disability in theory and practice is particularly concerning because evidence shows that people with disabilities may benefit from better recognition within diversity management initiatives. Research in the field of disability and rehabilitation has primarily focused on individual readiness-commonly referred to as ‘supply side’ strategies - and overlooked the role of market factors in disability employment (Chan et al., 2010). Karpur, VanLooy, and Bruyère (2014) similarly find that disability employment researchers have primarily focused on workplace accommodation processes or general attitudes toward hiring people with disabilities. The main focus of disability and employment research is on opportunities for people with disabilities to become qualified job candidates, or to support rehabilitation professionals in helping people with disabilities obtain and maintain work placements (Chan et al., 2010). Other research has identified factors that influence employers’ perceptions of hiring people with disabilities, such as attitudinal barriers and concerns about associated costs of providing accommodations (Chan et al., 2010; Karpur et al., 2014). Research on strategies to advance disability inclusion in the workforce, however, has been limited. There is a growing interest in ‘demand side’ research, meaning studying business needs and processes, to identify strategies to better support workers with disabilities (Baldridge & Swift, 2013).

The demand-side focus in disability employment research reflects a growing body of evidence about organizational benefits for hiring workers with disabilities. Commonly reported direct benefits of hiring and accommodating workers with disabilities include lower turnover and productivity (Hernandez & McDonald, 2010; Kalargyrou, 2014). Additionally, disability can be framed as part of the business case for diversity, which suggests that a more diverse workforce opens up new sources for revenue (Robinson & Dechant, 1997). Greater gender and racial diversity have been linked to direct monetary benefits for businesses due to expanding customer bases and increasing sales (Herring, 2009). Furthermore, another study found that having LGBT-supportive corporate policies increased firm value, profitability, and productivity (Pichler, Blazovich, Cook, Huston, & Strawser, 2018) The added value of recruiting employees with disabilities is understudied, but recent evidence suggests a correlation between firm value and hiring employees with disabilities. Hernandez (2018) found that external investors value disability inclusion by studying the market prices of organizations following the day of announcements related to disability discrimination and hiring. Overall, discrimination seems to dissuade investments while disability hiring is positively correlated with firm values.

Little research exists about how organizations actively work to achieve disability inclusion and create workplace opportunities for people with disabilities (Gould et al. 2015; Karpur et al. 2014). One recent systematic review analyzed 88 studies focused on the treatment of people with disabilities in the workplace (Beatty, Baldridge, Boehm, Kulkarni, & Colella, 2018). Of these studies, 32 were more narrowly focused on organizational aspects as they relate to the workplace treatment of people with disabilities- but primarily look at constructs such as managerial and coworker attitudes, and willingness to hire workers with disabilities. Understanding the added value of hiring workers with disabilities is useful to make the business case for disability inclusion. However, many of the identified workplace benefits associated with disability inclusion are intangible and difficult to assign monetary value (Schur et al., 2014). Specific policies and practices to accommodate workers additionally have numerous benefits such as increased productivity of workers with and without disabilities (Solovieva, Dowler, & Walls, 2011); increased employee morale (Houtenville & Kalargyrou, 2015); and decreased stress levels, (Schur et al., 2014). In practice, these benefits are difficult to convey and many companies are unaware of the benefits (Houtenville & Kalargyrou, 2015). The issue is exacerbated by limited knowledge of best practices for supporting and retaining workers with disabilities (Phillips et al. 2016a).

5Methods, sampling, and analysis

To address the aforementioned research gaps, we conducted a content analysis of CSR reports from organizations that have received national recognition for their disability inclusion efforts. The method entails conducting an iterative thematic coding of key reporting narratives (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998), and deductively framing key concepts within emerging debates around disability employment and diversity. The research questions that guided coding efforts are: (1) What strategies do organizations use to promote diversity and inclusion within their corporate social responsibility reports? (2) And, how do organizations integrate disability into the descriptions of these strategies?

The review process entailed developing a database of the key concepts, quotations, and rhetorical strategies contained within the reports. The three reviewers each conducted a preliminary review of the reports and identified the common strategies used across the report to promote diversity and inclusion (detailed below). The review team convened to reach consensus on the overarching categories, and then extracted key quotations from the reports into the database related to each strategy. For example, as the primary strategy of the reports was including a vision or overarching statement of diversity- diversity statements were copied and pasted directly into the database. The research team then convened to systematically categorize the findings, and to conduct a higher order synthesis (i.e., finding meaning across reports) to inform the discussion and limitation sections of this paper.

We analyzed the most recent 2015 and/or 2016 corporate social responsibility reports or equivalent (reflective of the multiple definitions of CSR, some organizations instead titled their reports “sustainability report”, “diversity and inclusion report”, “impact report”, etc.) of the companies that received full points on 2016 US Business Leadership Network (USBLN) Disability Equality Index (DEI) survey. While CSR reporting is not mandatory, it is increasingly done in organizations, often every two to three years. The timeframe was also selected to align with the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which was signed by President Obama in July 2014 and began taking effect in July, 2015. WIOA is an important piece of legislation that impacts workforce supports and encourages greater employment for people with disabilities. It is a pinnacle policy that reflects and shapes the social pressures to integrate disability into diversity planning. While this study does not specifically evaluate WIOA, this law provides important context to discuss the impact of public policy on CSR and other business strategies.

USBLN, (rebranded Disability: IN during July 2018) is a widely recognized organizational leader in building employer networks to facilitate disability inclusion in the workplace. The DEI is a benchmarking tool for partnering organizations to assess their disability inclusion policies and practices, and organizations with high scores often market their successes. Companies that receive a score of 80 or above on the DEI are listed as the USBLN’s Best Places to Work. We chose to only look at reports that score 100% to limit the sample of the most highly recognized entities in achieving disability inclusion benchmarks. The 2016 DEI scores reflect the initiatives and reporting of industries from the previous fiscal year, which aligns with our selection of reports.

6Results: Integrating disability into CSR reporting

We identified ten organizational strategies related to disability in the CSR reports. In this section, we analyze the most prominent features of these strategies to provide a descriptive overview of how organizations promote disability inclusion within these publications. We focus on four strategies to promote disability inclusion that are commonly discussed in relation to disability: diversity and inclusion statements (n = 28), employee working groups (n = 23), supplier outreach (n = 14), and recruitment and hiring (n = 10). The majority of the commentary specific to disability within these reports pertains to these concepts, and thus is the primary focus of our analysis. Other strategies were commonly discussed across the reports, such as: highlighting awards received related to disability inclusion and philanthropic giving, and community partnerships with disability related organizations. See Table 2 below for a full list of the strategies identified in the reports.

7Discussion

While the organizations do not provide the detail necessary to suggest a relationship between reporting strategies and ensuing practices, the descriptive differences can be explored more deeply in relation to current research and theory through a synthesis of the findings.

The first key challenge to disability inclusion can be described as the struggle for recognition. Recognition involves the steps that organizations take to acknowledge specific needs or supports for a group of workers. In research on disability inclusion in the workplace, the recognition of employees with disabilities is often seen as a vital part of spearheading a larger organizational commitment to disability inclusion (Schur, Kruse, & Blanck, 2013). Debates about group recognition in the workplace delineate strategies that focus on creating specialized or tailored support for a group of workers with shared experience versus integrating supports into existing groups and infrastructure (Bickenbach, 2014; Zola, 2005). In disability theory, this debate is often categorized as the difference between specialization and mainstreaming (Bickenbach, 2014). One example of the difference in practice would be to strategize ways to better provide accommodations to workers with disabilities versus universally designing workplaces to mitigate the need for accommodation.

The differing narratives of CSR in relation to recognition are perhaps most clearly illuminated in the diversity and inclusion statements of the reports. Reports that theorized advances to diversity regardless of specific facets of identity evoke a mainstreaming approach by emphasizing meritocratic treatment, a culture of inclusion, and universal employee benefits. Interestingly, the organizations that framed diversity in this way tended to discuss disability in relation to philanthropic activities, but did not describe specific employee inclusion strategies. Disability specific statements, instead, more readily included specific supports and working groups for employees with disabilities. For example, TD Bank (2016) describes their disability inclusion plans, which entails: “moving beyond just accommodation to apply a number of inclusion best practices that help us build a deeper emotional connection with people with disabilities,” (p. 4). While some organizations frame their CSR initiatives as a benefit to all employees, others highlight the specific benefits for certain groups.

Across the reports, organizations mostly highlight their specialization efforts rather than mainstreaming practices. Opportunities for recognition are often built into organizational practice, such as the creation of employee affinity groups and peer-to-peer networks. Employee resource groups are increasingly thought to be important components of building inclusive workplace that are welcoming and attractive to people with disabilities (Erickson et al., 2014). The specialization approach frames issues such as antidiscrimination protections as shared and collective, thus justifying the creation of specific groups for employees with disabilities and even targeted hiring and recruitment initiatives. These groups can be tailored to address employee-specific needs, but also can provide value in organizations that promote ‘identity-free’ HR practices such as the numerous organizations that frame their diversity initiatives in terms of diverse thoughts rather than group identity.

A push for recognition that focuses on mainstreaming would suggest better integration of disability into existing groups and resources, rather than creating additional or separate supports or groups. Interestingly, mainstreaming strategies, such as highlighting the general accessibility or universal supports for workers are not commonly discussed in these reports. Many organizations make aspirational statements such as building a culture of inclusion, but stop short of naming practices that support the mainstreaming of employees with disabilities.

Research on best practice suggests integrating, or mainstreaming, disability inclusion into existing workforce policies and practice that can benefit all workers as much as possible. Gilbride, Stensrud, Vandergoot, and Golden (2003) found a number of general workforce policies that favor disability inclusion, and benefit all employees as well. For example, flexible scheduling and accommodation practices are thought to advance disability acceptance as they are then less seen as special treatment to people with disabilities. The mainstreaming of disability supports across existing resources and groups is an attractive pathway to advance disability inclusion due to the plurality of experiences amongst workers with disabilities as a group.

The advantage of the mainstreaming approach is that the needs to provide accommodations may be diminished if organizational practices are designed to support all workers. Universalizing certain employee practices that are more typically used to accommodate individuals with disabilities, such as flexible work schedules, may reduce disability stigma where accommodations are often seen as ‘special’ treatment (Baldridge & Veiga, 2001; Gilbride et al., 2003). Organization processes that universally benefit employees with and without disabilities are not well documented in these reports or the broader literature on disability inclusion. Future research may consider how disability inclusion is mainstreamed across other organizational practices, and not just through disability-specific groups or resources.

Employee recognition is an important part of building a more diverse workforce. Socially responsible strategies used to support employees with disabilities are described in similar ways to that of other diverse groups. However, simply acknowledging disability as a category within diversity does little to ameliorate the additional barriers to inclusion that many employees with disabilities and their family members face. A second key challenge to advancing disability inclusion is ensuring that opportunities for inclusion are meaningful and sustainable. Perfunctory or ‘tokenistic’ practices that highlight the success of few specific individuals without addressing larger barriers to inclusion, can be detrimental to creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace (Robert, 2003), and may dis-incentivize recruitment from underrepresented groups. To move beyond such practices, organizations could recognize that many employees benefit from accommodation processes, flexibility for medical leave, and other forms of peer support.

Even though a number of disability benefits such as employee accommodation programs and peer-peer networks are described in the reports, these organizations are far from typical in terms of CSR and employer practices. Disability continues to be seen as an example of charity, and is seldom recognized as an asset for diversity in the employee base (Shore et al., 2009). Conversely, these organizations frequently make the business case for disability inclusion across different sections of the reports, framing workers with disabilities as important resources to serve an emerging market base (Hernandez, 2018).

To appeal to recruitment efforts of people with disabilities, future descriptions of disability inclusion may benefit from better incorporating emerging best practices for disability inclusion into their CSR reports. For example, describing a specific commitment to workplace accommodations or inclusive practices may attract employee with disabilities. Erickson, von Schrader, Bruyère and VonLooy (2014) compared survey results from HR professionals regarding barriers to employment for people with disabilities, and found that one of the most effective employer practices for retaining workers with disabilities is to create a centralized accommodation fund specifically designated for ongoing support needs. Similarly, Markel and Barclay (2009) identified a number of strategies that companies use to attract and support people with disabilities, including: managerial training opportunities for management, inclusive and/or targeted recruiting practices, and investing in universal design for the physical space of the workplace. Highlighting these practices are important ways for companies to leverage their espoused values to build inclusive cultures.

8Limitations

As previously noted, evidence of the difference between organizational practices and reporting efforts is largely discursive, although the accounts may be indicative of variations in how companies actualize their diversity goals. Social desirability bias likely impacts organizational rhetoric where businesses may frame their initiatives to match cultural expectation and to suggest adherence with civil rights laws (Kaye et al., 2011). There is a pronounced difficulty in documenting organizational factors related to disability inclusion, as entities often overstate their efforts, and others may be reluctant to admit noncompliance (Gould et al., 2015).

Another limitation of this study is the inability to disaggregate findings according to disability types, as disability is often considered as a relatively homogenous group in much of the existing scholarship and organization reporting efforts. A similar limitation was noted in the recent systematic review conducted by Beatty, et al. (2018) where existing data prevents the analysis of nuances and variability within disability identities. The limited data available from CSR reports largely considers disability as an overarching and homogenous group, and does not reflect on the numerous differences of experiences related to impairment, cultural background, race, class, and other facets of identity. HR researchers and practitioners have barely breached the surface in considering the complexity of disability as an intersectional facet of identity, which suggests the needs for future inquiry into this area.

The critical synthesis of organizational reporting should thus not be understood as an analysis into the efficacy of the organizations’ practices, but rather as a descriptive and theoretical interpretation of how disability inclusion is framed within CSR reports. The limited reporting or detailed description such as successful hiring outcomes, however, may be indicative of a larger implementation problem in disability inclusion efforts. Karpur et al. (2014) highlighted the larger “knowing-doing gap” of HR professionals, which means that while the organizations may receive information about desirable practices, they “lack the tools and capacity to implement new practices” (p. 235). Although these organizations are widely recognized for their leadership in disability inclusion, the public reporting efforts provide limited evidence of actualizing commitments to disability inclusion beyond the rhetoric. Future research may delve deeper into the implementation process and effective practices.

9Conclusions

There are numerous complexities in creating policies and practices to best support employees with disabilities. A strength of these organizational reports is how they broadcast their culture of inclusion and ultimately value employers with disabilities for their ability to work with an emerging customer base. Even if these practices are mainstreamed into an organization’s culture, people with disabilities often experience material disadvantage that require additional organizational strategizing. While reasonable accommodations are protected workplace processes for employees with disabilities, the costs of assistive technology, device, and supports, often falls on the individual. Organizations may strive to advance disability inclusion as part of broader diversity initiatives, but also may need to create policies to better accommodate and support workers with disabilities. Disability is not yet a priority issue for diversity and inclusion reporting and CSR initiatives. More recent interest in disability inclusion is being driven by political demand, as well as an increased recognition of the importance of serving diverse markets. As demand for disability inclusion increases, better understanding of inclusive practices, organizational culture, workplace policies and processes will help businesses with their diversity efforts and support meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities.

Conflict of interest

None to report.