Australian Employers Network on Disability

More and more disability networks are being set up in organisations across all sectors.  This is partly because organisations are becoming more disability confident, but also because people with disability are becoming more comfortable about expressing their needs at work and feel more able to come together in networks of support.  People with disability are also increasingly aware of their economic influence.

To attract and retain employees with disability, the challenge for employers is to foster new thinking and practice. Disability networks are a way in which employers can get first hand information about the barriers people with disability face within their organisation.

The reasons for establishing a disability network can vary.  It can be a mechanism for enabling employees with disability to share experiences, information, support and learning - some organisations call them affinity groups.  It can also be a mechanism for enabling the employer to get a better understanding of the causes of discrimination and improve its strategies to promote diversity.  These two functions - and others - can sit comfortably within the same disability network, but they have different purposes and a balance needs to be struck [see box 1].  A key issue is ensuring its structure is consistent with its objectives, and this demands a systematic approach.

Our premise is that concentrating on process if the only real way to achieve a successful disability network.  To demonstrate this, we have harnessed the experience of 50 organisations to produce ‘Disabled Employee Networks – a practical guide’.  Endorsed by the Employers’ Forum on Disability in the UK, it includes a detailed action plan for establishing a disability network as well as case studies.

Living with ill-health, injury or disability is often challenging and sometimes upsetting.  And yet if you talk to people with disability they stress how important it is for them to stay in work and how much they want to deliver in their job and for their organisations. Often the most important aspect of a disability network is the interaction – the sharing of personal stories, and anecdotes, about how to keep positive during a very difficult period.

Box 1 - What is a Disability Network?

There are three types of disability networks:

1. Peer group or alumni networks: set up primarily by people with disability themselves in response to growing need for peer support.
2. Leadership or champion groups: usually set up by the organisation itself to help it become more disability confident and raise awareness of disability across the business [sometimes called steering or advisory groups]
3. Consultation forums: set up primarily to act as a consultation group for the organisation to rest out policies, practices and procedures.

Box 2 – Activities of Disability Networks

There are a number of activities that a network can undertake to ensure that its members are being supported including:

• Advice on disclosing impairment to a line manager;
• Advice on where to seek external support or help with managing a new impairment;
• Personal development training;
• Advice on access or adjustment issues;
• Help on preparing for a promotion and overcoming potential objections;
• Advice on how to deal with difficult line-managers.

CASE STUDIES

Lloyds TSB

Lloyds TSB network, Access, introduced a Yahoo email group simply as a useful way for members to get in contact.  But it has become one of their most valuable tools for people with disability to influence the working environment.

Members are able to contact Access when and where it is convenient for them.  They are far more likely to tell someone about problems when they are current rather than waiting for a survey and some members also find it easier to talk to other staff with disability about issues.

Access put a strong focus on career development, and one of the key ways it has done this is through their website and newsletters, where it features testimonials and signposts members to the wealth of training and development support available through the bank’s corporate university.

In particular, it promotes the personal development programme for staff with disability which helps members “get out of a rut, kick-start their careers and switch on to development issues”.

Motability Operations

One of Motability Operation’s strategic objectives is to embrace its disability expertise.  The Disability Working Group, was set up with the main aim of bringing together employees to share the company’s plans to deliver its strategic objectives as well as to delivery disability champions across the business.

It was vital that the group worked with the business to complement existing efforts and avoid duplication.  For example, the group has proved to be an invaluable way to resource various conventions and exhibitions around the country.  Mobility roadshows, for example, are a great opportunity for members to share information about the Motability scheme with prospective customers.

BBC

The BBC Disabled Staff Forum’s mission statement is ‘removing limitations on people with disability’ – all six of its objectives relate, in one way or another, to the BBC’s broader role to ensure honest and proportionate portrayal of people with disability in all its output:

• To encourage the career aspirations of workers with disability at the BBC;
• To encourage the BBC to include people with disability amongst its workforce to an extent that reflects the levels of disability amongst the population of the UK;
• To encourage acceptance, inclusion and celebration of individual identities and cultures;
• To encourage inclusion, positive and constructive attitudes, behaviours and policies towards people with disability both within and beyond the BBC;
• To encourage honest, fair and multi-dimensional portrayal of disability by actors who are actually disabled;
• To encourage contact, support and friendship among workers with disability at the BBC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers

When first planning to establish a PwC disability network, it was decided to try and adopt as structured an approach to the project as possible, even if that meant there could be a long period between the first meeting and the launch of the network across the firm.

The firm set up a small focus group initially, to look at lessons learned from its other established people networks and from other major employers with disability networks.

One key best practice message appeared to be that the firm should consult with as many of its staff with disability as possible in advance of formally launching the network.  Its initial internal communications throughout the firm invited staff to attend one of a series of group meetings held around the country to discuss the possibility of establishing a disability network.  As a result of these discussion group meetings, over 160 staff had an opportunity both to put forward their views on how a network might best help PwC become more disability confident and to confirm their desire to be involved from the outset.

Kate Nash runs Kate Nash Associates consultancy which advises on diversity strategy and employee networks.  Call ++447904 018 939 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

‘Disabled Employee Networks: a practical guide’ is available at www.katenashassociates.com or from EFD at www.efd.org.uk/publications