Make It Safe for Employees to Disclose Their Disabilities

Summary.   

An Accenture survey found that the vast majority of employees with disabilities don’t feel their workplace culture is fully committed to helping them thrive and succeed. This article offers five steps that organizations can take to make such disabilities feel so safe and included that they will be willing to disclose their conditions. And that’s important: The research found that employees who do disclose their disability at work are 30% more engaged — in terms of career satisfaction and aspirations, confidence, and a sense of belonging — than those who don’t. 

I’ll start with the good news: Many organizations are employing a greater number of persons with disabilities than ever before. Many have committed to a deeper understanding of what inclusion means for persons with disabilities, subgroups therein (such as persons with neurological disorders), and other communities (race, gender, LGBTQ, and so on) and have been taking steps to create supportive business climates for all. Many are doing so because they’re aware that there is a proven business case for hiring persons with disabilities. Many believe they’ve made significant progress: In Accenture’s most recent global survey on the topic, 67% of the nearly 1,750 business executive respondents said they believe their companies support employees with disabilities, including having the right technologies in place to do so and the right environment.

Now here’s the bad news: Despite this clear progress, our survey also found that just 20% of the 5,870 employees in the survey who had a disability agreed that their workplace culture is fully committed to helping them thrive and succeed. Meanwhile, 76% of employees with disabilities in the survey report not fully disclosing their disabilities at work (e.g., to HR, colleagues, supervisors/managers). And 80% of C-suite executives and their direct reports who have disabilities are also not disclosing them.

It’s a debilitating circle. Business leaders need to learn more about what they can do to create a more inclusive climate for employees with disabilities in order to take effective action. Yet, as our research and related interviews revealed, employees with disabilities fear that disclosing will lead to outcomes such as retaliation, slower progression, and less meaningful roles. And for most, disclosing is a very personal and perhaps difficult decision even in supportive environments.

I understand why. In my case, I had been working at Accenture for about five years when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). And for almost 10 years after that, I kept the number of people who knew about it very small — mostly my closest family and friends and a few key colleagues at work who agreed to keep my secret. I didn’t want my wider circle of family, friends, and colleagues to worry about me, and I especially didn’t want to be treated differently than before they knew. On a professional level, I didn’t want people at work to think of me as being suddenly “less capable” because of MS. I didn’t want them thinking I was unable to take on challenging assignments and fully engage.

Fast-forward 17 years and what I’ve come to realize is that the act of concealing this neurological condition and its potential to do me harm was itself creating significant challenges for me at work. Over the years, my anxiety levels increased while my confidence and engagement levels sank. I found myself getting frustrated, for example, with coworkers for not understanding that sometimes I needed my schedule to flex in unusual ways.

I will grant you that when I was first diagnosed, I wasn’t fully aware of the commitment Accenture had made to inclusion for persons with disabilities. And I can also say that since that time, I believe Accenture has also gone on a significant journey, striving to become a more inclusive company on all fronts. I’m fortunate to be here.

But here’s the broader and more salient point: It’s important for companies and for workers to change the way we think (and talk) about disabilities, permanently. Our research found that employees who do disclose their disability at work are 30% more engaged — in terms of career satisfaction and aspirations, confidence, and a sense of belonging — than those who don’t.

What are the best steps a business can take to create a culture in which employees with disabilities feel safe to disclose? The answers emerged from our survey, in which we also examined more than 200 workplace culture factors to see which impact employee engagement most. Eight stood out in particular for employees with disabilities. Interestingly, five of these eight also correlate significantly with a climate in which persons with disabilities feel safe about disclosing their condition. These certainly resonated strongly with me. They are:

1. Bold Role Models

When employees with disabilities have role models at the leadership level who have disclosed their own disabilities, they are 15% more likely to have higher career aspirations than their peers in other organizations. And with this factor in place, employees are 26% more likely to be open about their disability.

Working alongside executives willing to share their lived experiences with areas such as disability, gender identity, race certainly has impacted my own willingness to disclose.  And since I went public with my disability, a growing number of people at my company and beyond — many of them from the communities I mentioned — have told me that my disclosure has helped them feel more included, more willing to ask for what they need at work to thrive, and more confident in their own futures. I’m grateful that’s the case. Knowing now how my experience has helped others, I often wish that I had opened up sooner.

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