Workplace Culture
Unpacking Workplace Culture at Disability Confident Organizations
Disclaimer: This is a free resource created by community and is not for sale. All tools, contents and resources are not to be sold.
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
Executives and Senior Management
Practical Information:
DEI and HR Professionals Direct Line Managers
Useful to know:
All Staff
What guidance does it provide?
- Understanding what workplace culture means
- Understanding an intersectional approach to developing an inclusive workplace
- How to build a disability confident and inclusive workplace culture
Take home points
- Companies who succeed in developing inclusive workplace cultures strive to understand, continually learn about, and take action to remove and prevent barriers to full participation at work from an intersectional perspective.
- When workers with disabilities feel accepted, valued, respected, safe, and supported, the shift towards an inclusive workplace culture is immaculate
Changing Workplace Culture in Partnership with People with Disabilities
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
Executives and Senior Management
Practical Information:
DEI and HR Professionals Direct Line Managers
What guidance does it provide?
- Understanding important considerations when partnering with disability organizations
- How to collaborate with the disability community to spark culture change and advance your business’s disability confidence
Take home points
- For effective change to take place, leadership, management, and front-line staff are required to play a role in shaping organizational culture
- Remember that culture change does not happen rapidly, but rather, it is deeply embedded within a workplace and will slowly change – it can take months and even years to influence the way workers think, feel, and act in a workplace
- The only way to advance a disability-confident workplace culture is to ignite dialogue and action that challenges stereotypes about people with disabilities
Creating Inclusive Workplace Policies
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
Policymakers within an organization
Senior Executives
Practical Information:
People Leaders
What guidance does it provide?
- How to determine who should be involved in policy review and development
- Understanding what systems and domains should be addressed in an accessibility policy
- How to share and communicate new and revised workplace policies
Take home points
- When beginning to work on inclusive workplace policies, ensure a senior executive has taken the responsibility to lead the committee. Invite persons with lived experience and expertise to participate. Don’t forget to communicate that you are seeking cross-level representation as well, so that all workers feel welcome to contribute.
- When policies are completed, ensure you share, communicate, and incorporate new feedback on revisions and updates
Addressing Barriers to Culture Change
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
DEI and HR Professionals
Senior Executives and management
Practical Information: Direct Line Managers
Useful to know: Frontline staff
What guidance does it provide?
- Understanding the different factors that may influence behaviour change
- Understanding ableism in the context of a workplace
- How to shift attitudes, challenge workplace norms, and empower workers to build an inclusive workplace culture
Take home points
- Ableist views position the person with the disability as ‘the problem,’ rather than the environmental barriers that exist in society as ‘the problem.’
- To help avoid tokenism, educate workers about the types of bias, ensure to chose an unconscious bias training that goes beyond ‘sensitization’ to disability and training is practical and action-oriented, and lastly dedicate time for employees to explore their biases and encourage them make connections with how they can unlearn and change their ways of thinking
Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
DEI and HR Professionals
Senior Executives and management
Practical Information: Direct Line Managers
Useful to know: Frontline staff
What guidance does it provide?
- Understanding the difference between diversity and inclusion
- How to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace
- Understanding what equity means for workers with disabilities
- How to enable an equitable working environment
Take home points
- As an organization working towards diversity, you can leverage for cross-organizational support, create a culture of accountability across the employment life cycle and routinely review workplace policies for inclusion for strategic management.
- With equity, an organization understands that they may need to treat people differently, by providing varied resources, privileges, and support, to treat them fairly. When equity is paired with diversity and inclusion, employees do their best work, and the business is primed for success
Strategies to Engage Workers with Disabilities
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
Direct Line Managers
Practical Information:
Researchers
Quality Assurance Workers
What guidance does it provide?
- How to identify engaged and disengaged workers
- How to support engagement among workers with disabilities
Take home points
Employees who experience high levels of engagement are present, passionate, and motivated to work
When improving engagement in the workplace, the top eight factors identified are:
- Clear role models
- Employee resource groups
- Parental leave
- Fair and transparent pay
- Training
- Flexible working options
- Freedom to innovate
Mental well-being policies
Embedding accessibility into Workplace culture
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
HR Professionals
Executives and senior management
Practical Information: Cross-departmental managers
Useful to know: Frontline staff
What guidance does it provide?
- A deeper understanding of the decision around whether workers disclose their disability
- Recommendations for how to create a culture that supports workers with disabilities who do and do not disclose
- Specific examples of how to communicate the availability of accessibility supports during recruitment and hiring, as well as on the job
Take home points
- An integral component of an accessibility-focused workplace culture is adopting a trust-based, de-medicalized process to deliver workplace accommodations across all stages of the employee life cycle.
- Disclosure is individualized. There is no ‘be-all-end-all’ approach to disclosure. The process of the disclosure will look and feel different across all workers, employers, industries, and contexts
- Workplace accommodations should be available from end-to-end. This means that the moment a candidate with a disability begins contact with your company, each staff member they are met with (e.g., a recruiter, interviewer, manager, etc.) works to ensure that they can compete fairly based on their career potential and ability to work
Focusing on health and Wellness in the workplace
Who is this for?
High-Level Priority:
DEI and HR professionals
Practical Information:
Direct Line Managers
What guidance does it provide?
- Understanding health and wellness as essential components of an inclusive workplace
- How to develop and implement workplace wellness programs
- How to become more disability and mental health confident
Take home points
- When developing a wellness program, a culture that is focused on inclusivity and accessibility must be at the heart of your strategy
- Managers typically have close relationships with their team members and are in an optimal position to observe and support employees who may be experiencing barriers to health and wellness
- Review attached Mental Health resources for additional guidance
