Best DEIB Practices From A DEIB Facilitator

A disability approach

DEIB stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. There are a lot of acronyms that are synonymous with this, but belonging is a critical part of businesses and HR to ensure that organizations and their culture are inclusive. Belonging means that employees feel like they actually belong within the organization and in their roles. Diversity is the range of human differences. Equity is the notion of having fair and impartial opportunities within an organization or system. Inclusion is the act of creating an environment where all individuals feel welcomed, supported, and valued.

Disability Focus

A focus of DEIB that is often overlooked but is starting to get focused on is people with disabilities. There is a lot of work to be done to remove barriers and support people with disabilities. There are a lot of people with disabilities and people who are neurodivergent in the workplace but do not get the support and have to struggle in the workplace and chose not to disclose for fear of losing their jobs. Therefore, companies and HR leaders, and professionals need to be able to know how to better support these individuals in the workplace. Legislation is a critical part of helping to aid disabled and neurodiverse employees in the workplace, but it is very vague and is the bare minimum of the organization’s role in supporting disabilities in the workplace.

 

Best Practices

Attract and Recruit Diverse Talent 

• Evaluate the visuals and the language used in the job description are inclusive for all diverse candidates. It is important to find channels of job boards that are more inclusive such as Microsoft’s career connector for Neurodiverse candidates, but also ensure that the job descriptions and ads use inclusive language and plain language to attract diverse candidates.

 

• Ensure that you have equity and accommodation statements on your career pages to show and be transparent about how your company goes about being accessible and inclusive to all candidates. Accommodation statements should also be directly on the job description at the top so it is seen as a priority rather than an afterthought.

Eliminate Barriers During Interviews and Hiring

• Ensure closed captions and transcriptions are available for the candidate to turn on if they need them.
• Share questions ahead of time when you ask the candidate for an interview.
• Be willing to provide ample time to answer questions and modify questions as needed.

Facilitate Inclusive Onboarding 

• Have Disability Awareness Training when employees first join the organization.
• Let new employees know about Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and how they can get involved.
• Have people know how your company supports and accommodates people with disabilities.
• Come up with a support plan for employees with disabilities and/ or who are neurodivergent.

Learning and Development

• Provide training on Disability Awareness, Neurodiversity and have conversations on these topics, and understand the role everyone plays in supporting this in the workplace.
• Keeping current with trends regarding DEIB and Disability Issues in the workplace.
• Have Disability and Neurodiversity ERGs that are at least 50% employees with lived experience as a lot of times it is parents of disabled and neurodiverse which is important but lived experience should be the leading force of these ERGs

Sydney Elaine Butler is the Founder, as well as a Freelance Accessibility and Neurodiversity Speaker and Consultant at Accessible Creates.