Advancing Disability Hiring and Inclusion in the Workplace

(DESCRIPTION)
Text, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. 

A laptop on a desk with text on the screen, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Joan Woodward and A.S.L Interpreter Sara appear on a video call. Sara signs while Joan talks. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Joan Woodward, President of the Travelers Institute, and always thrilled to welcome you to our program. We're really so glad you're here. 

Before we get started, I'd like to share a disclaimer about today's program. 

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, About Travelers Institute (registered trademark) Webinars. The Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) educational webinar series is presented by the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. This program is offered for informational and educational purposes only. You should consult with your financial, legal, insurance or other advisors about any practices suggested by this program. Please note that this session is being recorded and may be used as Travelers deems appropriate. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. 

Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Advancing Disability Hiring and Inclusion in the Workplace. Logos. C.B.I.A.. Diversity Networks. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Disability IN. Master's in Financial Technology (FinTech) Program at the University of Connecticut School of Business. M.H.A., MetroHartford Alliance. A.S.R.C., Autism Services & Resources Connecticut. Travelers Disability & Allies Diversity Network. American Property Casualty Insurance Association (service mark).

(SPEECH)
And I also want to recognize our terrific partners. We have a lot of them today, and it's so great to have them. The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the Master's FinTech Program at the UConn School of Business, the MetroHartford Alliance, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the Autism Services and Resources in Connecticut, Travelers Diversity Networks, including especially the Disability and Allies Diversity Network, and of course, Disability:IN. Thank you and welcome to all of our members and networks. 

Today we're going to explore how businesses can recruit, hire and retain employees with disabilities. You may have noticed for today's program we're joined by a sign language interpreter, Sara, to ensure that our content is accessible to all.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Speakers. Pictures of three people, with names and job titles. Joan Woodward, Executive Vice President, Public Policy; President, Travelers Institute, Travelers. Jill Houghton, President and CEO, Disability IN. Bruce Soltys, Vice President, University Relations & Leadership Development Program, Travelers. 

(SPEECH)
Joining me today to talk about this important topic are Disability:IN President and CEO Jill Houghton and Travelers Vice President Bruce Soltys. Jill is the President and CEO of Disability:IN, the leading global nonprofit organization for advancing disability-- business disability inclusion and equality. She has more than 25 years of experience driving disability inclusion. 

Jill leads a team of talented and diverse individuals, including people with disabilities, who are working to build an inclusive global economy that enables people with disabilities to participate fully and meaningfully. Their work has empowered over 400 leading brands to advance disability inclusion and equality through groundbreaking programs, including Inclusion Works, the Disability Equality Index, the CEO Letter on Disability Inclusion, NextGen Leaders, Supplier Diversity and Disability-Owned Business Certification and more. 

Prior to joining Disability:IN, she was Executive Director of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel. Jill began her career interning for United States Senator and disability rights advocate Bob Dole, who was instrumental to the passage of the Americans with Disability Act in 1990. Thank you, Jill, for being here.

Next up, we have Bruce Soltys is Travelers Vice President of University Relations and Leadership Development Programs here at Travelers. He's in charge of sourcing, attracting, recruiting and developing talent by college and universities and other recruiting partners. Prior to Travelers, he held campus recruiting leadership positions with Prudential and Verizon. His previous experience also includes HR business partner and experienced recruiting roles with Citigroup, Ernst & Young and Lucent Technologies.

And just a quick note about Travelers’ disability inclusion, I want to note here that Travelers consistently earns a top score on the Disability Equality Index, the benchmarking tool for measuring disability workplace inclusion. Our company is truly committed to creating an inclusive culture and an environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. I'm really proud of what we're doing here, and we're really leading the way in this space.

Bruce will share more of the Travelers initiatives to support all people with disabilities inclusion. Before joining-- both joining us, we're absolutely thrilled that you're here. Before I get started, I want to remind all of my audience members. You're very good about this. We want to hear your questions, so drop those in the Q&A at the bottom of the screen, and we're going to get to as many as we can.

I'm really thrilled that we have so much engagement and questions coming in for the audience for all of our webinars. So thank you for that. So now I'm pleased to turn over the virtual floor to Jill Houghton. Thanks, Jill.

(DESCRIPTION)
Jill joins the video call. Slide, Disability IN is the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide. A picture of a group on the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange. Text, We empower business to achieve disability inclusion and equality. Our network of nearly 500 corporations expands opportunities for people with disabilities across enterprises. Learn more at DisabilityIN.org. 

(SPEECH)
JILL HOUGHTON: Well, this is Jill speaking. And thank you so much, Joan, for the opportunity to join you and Bruce and talk about an important topic around disability inclusion. For those of you that are not familiar with Disability:IN, we are a global nonprofit, and there's a slide on the screen right now that really just talks to you about the fact that we are the place where business comes together to really learn from each other on their journey. 

And the word disability by design is in our name because we believe that disability is a strength, and it's a natural part of the human experience and one that adds great value to when we're included in business.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, U.S. Disability & Employment Facts. A circular infographic. Text, 61 Million American Adults Have Disabilities. Vision. Hearing. Neurodiversity. Physical Health. Learning. Mobility. Mental Health. 

(SPEECH)
If you look at the next slide, there's just some stats here. It gives you a visual depiction of the fact that there are over 61 million Americans with disabilities in the United States. And what we know is that over 70% of us are people that have disabilities that are not apparent. 

So it's someone like myself who has dyslexia, which is actually considered a neurodiversity. But it's also people with hearing disabilities and vision disabilities, learning-- dyslexia is also classified as a learning disability-- mobility, mental health, physical health. So it's a very broad area of diversity, and I think it's one area of diversity that any of us can join at any time.

So it's someone like my husband who was able-bodied but was in a motorcycle accident and now is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair. So he wasn't born with a disability, but he encountered disability along the way.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, U.S. Disability & Employment Facts. A bullet point list. 30% of American families have at least one member with a disability. Approximately 500,000 more people with disabilities are participating in the workforce since 2020. People with disabilities control $21 billion in total discretionary income. 36.5% of employed people with disabilities work in management and professional positions. 56% of workplace accommodations for people with disabilities cost $0. After one year, the retention rate for employees with disabilities is 85%. People with disabilities are 2 times more likely to be self-employed than those without disabilities. 4% of current employees self-identify as having a disability. 74% of 2022 D.E.I. Participants have expenditures with disability-owned businesses. 

(SPEECH)
If you look at the next slide, just some fun facts about disability. I think-- in fact, I was in a meeting last week, and it was with a C-suite, actually a corporate board member, who was asking, so what percentage of American families have an individual with a disability in their family, and the answer is actually 30%. So from a customer service standpoint, there is a 100% likelihood that you have employees with disabilities, that you have employees with disabilities who perhaps have family members with disabilities, and that you absolutely have customers with disabilities. So disability lives everywhere. 

There's a lot of information on here, I'll just run through. During COVID, we saw an uptick of over 500,000 more people with disabilities going to work. We believe that that's because of the flexibility that was offered in the workforce. But it's an issue that's being closely studied right now. 

We know that people with disabilities control around $21 billion in total discretionary income. Thirty-six point five percent of employed people with disabilities work in management and professional positions. I think a lot of times when we say the word disability, we all have a different vision that comes in our head. And we don't think about the fact that disability lives everywhere.

I was with a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and his 20 direct reports. And we were talking about doing an event, and we talked about-- he said we really want to make sure we have people with disabilities present. And I said, well, 1 in 4 Americans identify as being disabled. So that means in this room right here, right now, there are people with disabilities.

And the No. 2 person in the company raised her hand and told her story on the spot with her learning disability and how she has masked her disability and actually been able to thrive. We know that 56% of workplace accommodations cost $0. So it's not a reason to screen out talent with disabilities.

We know that after one year, the retention rate for employees with disabilities is 85%. People with disabilities are two times more likely to be self-employed. It's believed that perhaps because of discrimination that people face, they go out and maybe they start an insurance agency or start a--become a realtor because it's a effective form of employment. What we're going to talk about a little bit, and Joan mentioned that Travelers is a top-scoring company on the Disability Equality Index. And what we've learned most recently in the most recent round of data in 2022 is that 4% of the participating 415 companies have a workforce that identifies as having a disability.

So we know that if 1 in 4 of your workforce has a disability, we've got a lot of work to do in order to get that internal, that voluntary self-identification number up. And last point is that we know that of these big Fortune 1,000 companies, 500, 100 that are participating in the Disability Equality Index, around 74% do business with disability-owned businesses.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, The Disability Advantage Yields Results. According to research from Accenture: Prioritizing disability inclusion can lead to 28% higher revenue. 2 times net income. 30% stronger profits. 2 times stronger shareholder returns. 

(SPEECH)
Last slide, and then we'll be turning it over to Bruce, is to just call out that if you look at this slide. This is a study that was done by Accenture. It's called Getting to Equal-- The Disability Inclusion Advantage. And we're going to put this resource in the chat box that really demonstrates, this business case demonstrated, they studied the companies participating in the Disability Equality Index, which is now nine years old. And what they found is that the companies that were leading had 28% higher revenue, two times greater net income, 30% stronger profits, and two times stronger shareholder returns. 

So what they demonstrated is that it pays to be disability inclusive. Now, it gives me a great honor to turn it over to Bruce.

(DESCRIPTION)
Bruce joins the video call. Slide, Workplace Disability Inclusion. Travelers' Journey. A bullet point list. At Travelers, our goal is to continue to develop and launch innovative talent strategies that leverage market opportunities while enabling a work environment where employees engage and optimize all dimensions of Diversity & Inclusion. Logo, D.E.I., BEST PLACE TO WORK FOR DISABILITY INCLUSION 2022 (service mark). 100% DISABILITY EQUALITY INDEX. Text, Since 2018, Travelers has been a member of the Disability IN Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable. This is a collection of innovative leaders from 50 companies who spearhead neurodiversity-focused hiring initiatives. The full list of companies as well as several resources can be found here: https://disabilityin.org/what-we-do/committees/neurodiversity-at-work-roundtable/ 

(SPEECH)
BRUCE SOLTYS: Great. Thanks so much, Jill. And thank you for all the work that you do at your organization with disability. And we've been proud partners for a number of years and couldn't ask for a better partnership with your organization. And thanks also to Joan and to the institute. This is a great topic to have this conversation, creating this forum. 

Awareness really is a very powerful and often initial step to take, so just by having the conversation today, really hoping that others will be able to follow Travelers down a similar path of creating employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. The next few slides we'll talk a little bit about the Travelers journey. Please know that this was not a journey that we made on our own. We have a number of internal partners, as well as external partners, which I'll allude to.

But piggybacking off of what Joan had said up front, here at Travelers, we-- our goal really is to develop and launch innovative talent strategies. We're going to look to leverage market opportunities and make sure that we are really optimizing all dimensions of diversity and inclusion, and that includes disability. So since 2018, Travelers has been a member of a group of employers that is part of a forum called the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable. It's a forum that Disability:IN had created.

We work with about 50 other companies who get together on a monthly basis to really spearhead efforts around neurodiversity-focused hiring initiatives. So for those that aren't familiar with the term neurodiversity, essentially it refers to a concept that differences in brain functioning within the human population are normal and that brain functioning that is not neurotypical should not be stigmatized or excluded. There's a number of different neurological differences that are collectively referred to as neurodivergent individuals: autism, ADHD, dyslexia, et cetera.

So I just wanted to level set that because we will speak to the neurodiverse term throughout. But you can get a look at some of those companies in the link that Ginny provided in the chat. So we'll move to the next slide.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Workplace Disability Inclusion. Travelers' Journey. A bullet point list. As part of our broader Disability hiring efforts, there have been 40-plus hires via partnerships with state Department of Occupational Rehabilitation & a local non-profit disability focused agencies in our Hartford (Viability) & Saint Paul (LifeWorks) offices. As part of this effort, Travelers was named Lifeworks' 2018 Employer Partner of the Year. Since the Fall of 2016, we hosted a total of 10 job shadows with multiple College partners that have dedicated resources for Neurodiverse students - Rochester Institute of Technology, UConn, Southern Connecticut State, Central Connecticut State, Mitchell College and Wentworth Institute of Technology just to name a few. In the summer of 2022 we hosted 11 neurodiverse interns with 8 receiving offers to return in some capacity (either a return internship or full-time). This summer, we are welcoming over a dozen returning and new neurodiverse interns. 

(SPEECH)
So as part of our efforts, I'll speak to our broader disability hiring efforts first. We've actually hired over 40 individuals via strategic partnerships in two of our headquarter locations, Hartford, Connecticut, and Saint Paul, Minnesota. As I've mentioned, the Travelers journey is one that involves a number of partners. And the Department of Occupational Rehab, local nonprofits, such as Viability and Lifeworks, they were key to us getting this off the ground and our success. 

And that's the one thing that I'd like to share up front. If you're thinking about embarking on this journey, please know that you're not going to be alone. Know that there are a number of constituents within communities, nonprofits, community partners that are willing, able, ready to help organizations to stand up programs like this. So if there's one takeaway from an employment aspect today, that's really what I hope everyone brings with them.

So as part of that effort, Travelers was named the Employer Partner of the Year. We're very proud of that. But we've got some more specific efforts underway, specifically for neurodiverse students. We've seen over the past decade-plus the number of students identifying as neurodiverse attending colleges, graduating colleges, and becoming employment ready have gone up.

And one of the things you'll hear about from a neurodiverse population, it's not necessarily unemployment per se. But it's underemployment. So individuals that are attending colleges and universities, they're succeeding. They're graduating with degrees, but they're finding barriers to entry when it comes time to join the employment market.

So, and we'll talk a little bit about what this journey entailed, but starting in the fall of 2016, we started hosting job shadows, specifically geared towards college students that identify as neurodiverse. Fast forward to 2022, just last summer, we had over close to a dozen interns that identified as neurodiverse, and just about three quarters of them received offers to come back in some capacity, meaning that their performance met a certain bar, so we brought them back. And I'm happy to announce this summer 2023, we're welcoming over a dozen returning and new neurodiverse interns to our programs here at Travelers.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Workplace Disability Inclusion. Travelers' Journey. A bullet point list. To borrow Microsoft's terminology - we build a "2nd front door" and look for reasons to say "yes" as part of our selection process. Job descriptions that accurately describe the environment. Virtual info sessions with no selection decision from Travelers. "Safe Interview" sessions with questions distributed prior. Disclosure allows for Manager training: Uptimize online portal training. Internal support system: Ad-hoc Team of HR, ER, D&I, Talent Acquisition & subject matter experts. External resources for specific intervention. 

(SPEECH)
Let's move forward. So a few bullets in terms of the how. So Microsoft has been one of the leaders in this space. A colleague of mine, Jim McMahon, we made a trip out to Redman, Washington, a few years back to meet with Microsoft. They hosted a meeting. They've been an open book in terms of sharing their successes, lessons learned, et cetera. 

So to borrow some terminology from them, we built a second front door. And what I mean by that is if you think about the standard interview process, typically folks are involved with a 15-, 20-, 25-minute phone interview or phone screen. They can be very high-pressure environments, quick answers, quick questions, sort of on-the-spot thinking. It's not necessarily a process that is conducive to someone who identifies as neurodiverse.

So Microsoft said, why don't we just build a second front door. And that second front door was an alternate way into the company that didn't have that high-pressure environment, that was a little bit more of a low pressure, get to know you, and so forth. I'll talk a little bit more about that on this slide, but that's the concept, building a second front door.

And looking for reasons to say yes. Again, most selection processes, you find reasons to say no to candidates. And we really wanted to look for reasons to say yes. So that's sort of our mantra and North Star, if you will. We created job descriptions that accurately describe the environment that they're going to be working in. Instead of that initial first round phone interview, high-pressure environment, we did info sessions. Most of them were virtual during the pandemic.

But that first introduction to the company, we got to learn about the candidates. The candidates got to learn about us. There was no pressurized selection decision where they felt any pressure in that sense.

We created safe interview sessions as they moved through the process, distributing questions prior. We ensured that our managers were trained. We actually partnered with a company called Uptimize. But there are several great organizations out there that have training for managers and the like.

We also, just as I said, our journey was not one that we undertook alone. It wasn’t something-- we had a number of external partners. We also had a great team of internal partners. So if you're joining today and from an employer lens, don't feel like this is something you have to put solely on your recruiting team. Our team, from a recruiter standpoint, we partnered with a number of internal constituents within HR, Employee Relations, Diversity & Inclusion.

Our Diversity Networks, as Joan had alluded, we have a fantastic Disability and Allies Diversity Network here. Some companies refer to them as business resource groups. Some refer to them as employee resource groups. But we brought in the subject matter experts. We brought in folks that were part of the neurodiverse community, and it's been a great journey. It's a journey that we are continuing and continuing to learn. And I'm just excited to be here to talk and share a little bit more about it.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Workplace Disability Inclusion. Travelers' Journey. A bullet point list. Travelers was named the Disability IN Connecticut 2020 Employer of the Year and the 2021 Connecticut Autism Resources & Services Employer of the Year. Annual sponsorship/attendance at multiple conferences and career events including College Autism Summit, Springboard, Bender Consulting and Disability IN. Global sponsor for Dive In, the festival for Diversity & Inclusion in Insurance, which included Travelers being represented on a Disability Inclusion panel. Utilize targeted Job Boards. NDCC, https://ndcc.simplifyhire.com and Inclusively, https://www.inclusively.com to promote opportunities for People with Disabilities. 

(SPEECH)
And in terms of some of the accolades that we've gotten and some of the engagement that we've seen, so we were fortunate to be named Disability:IN’s Connecticut 2020 Employer of the Year, as well as the Autism Resources Services Employer of the Year for 2021. We partner with a number of external organizations and conferences, the College Autism Summit, Bender Consulting, just to name a few. Other forums that we have been a part of on our journey, bringing awareness to Dive In. That is a global festival for diversity and inclusion in the insurance space; Travelers represented on a disability inclusion panel as well as some partnerships with job boards. 

So again, it's been a great journey. But we're kind of just getting started here. So with that, I will turn it over to Joan for some additional dialogue and questions.

(DESCRIPTION)
The slideshow disappears. All three speakers and interpreter Sara appear on the video call. 

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Terrific. Jill and Bruce, that was just a fantastic kind of overview of where you're sitting, what you see. This is an issue that's not talked a lot about in the workplace in a lot of places. I know we talk a lot about it at Travelers, but we're really thrilled to bring this to a lot of folks listening in. 

So thank you for that. Jill, I want to ask you first because we both worked in the Senate at the same time. You worked for Senator Bob Dole. I worked for Senator Bill Roth when the Americans with Disabilities Act did pass. So you've seen a lot in the last three decades of the evolution of disability hiring. How has it changed? And give us your view of the last 30 years, where we were, where we are now, what you see in the future.

JILL HOUGHTON: So this is Jill speaking. And what I would say to you is that while we have made tremendous strides around accessibility of public transportation and telecommunications and the physical built environment, we know that we have lots more work to do in that space. Like we're not done.

But the area that we have really not propelled forward in is the area of economic participation. And that's why at Disability:IN, we're really laser focused in working with businesses around leveraging talent with disabilities, not just to-- in entry-level positions but all the way up to the boardroom. We have a lot of work to do on those hills, and the last thing that I would say to you is that it used to be that the built environment like the entrance to your facility was your front door.

But it's now technology. And so we have so much to do around digital accessibility. And that's not just your outward-facing interactions with your customers, whether it's on your website, an app, et cetera. It's also internal, looking at things like your payroll, your intranet, your training materials, and making sure that these things are accessible.

And I will tell you it is a journey. It is a marathon. It is not a sprint. And there probably really is no finish line because things continue to evolve.

JOAN WOODWARD: And this is Joan speaking, and we're going to say this throughout our webinar just to identify who we are for the sign language interpreter. So those barriers, Jill, I mean, obviously the physical. When you say you walk up to a business's front door, the ADA act requires every business under-- over a certain amount, I assume, to have a ramp, correct? Let's just start from the front door of walking into that business. So all businesses today are required to have a ramp leading up to their offices, correct?

JILL HOUGHTON: The answer is yes. There's a lot of nuances there because there's federal law and state law and local. And there's a lot of maybe historical buildings that-- but the short answer is yes, things should be. Is everything accessible? No.

I mean, I can think of some beautiful buildings in New York City that aren't so beautiful because the way they constructed it. The elevator, for example, doesn't stop at every floor.

JOAN WOODWARD: Got it. OK, this is Joan again. I'm going to ask Bruce a question on the employer side. What challenges do businesses face when it comes to recruiting and retaining people with disabilities? I mean, you went out to talk to Microsoft about their best practice. So tell us on the implementation side of this how it works and how does it work at Travelers?

BRUCE SOLTYS: Yeah, sure. And again, this is Bruce, answering the question. I think the first perceived challenge that a lot of companies have is we can't do this. We don't have the staff. We don't have the experience. We don't have the knowledge. So where do we begin?

I mean, in all honesty we didn't have that expertise either. This effort and the efforts that are undertaken here really were started with conversations, awareness, a lot of that driven by our Disabilities and Allies Diversity Network, finding advocates internally, finding individuals that had a passion for this. I myself got involved in this work, given someone that I'm close to that has a learning disability, and I've seen struggle right through the employment process.

So finding those advocates that have personal connections sometimes can really go a long way. So I think sometimes that initial challenge is a bit self-inflicted when you're like, oh, we can't do this. So from the start, it's important to remember that there's a host of those community partners and nonprofits. They're the subject matter experts in this space. They serve this population.

And honestly, that was the best starting point for us. I spoke about the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable. As joining that, you are making a commitment that you're essentially going to be an open book. You are going to share your best practices. You're going to share your learnings.

So when folks think that, oh, these challenges are going to come up, we can provide those resources, we can provide those learnings, we can provide that collegial feedback and guidance. Travelers was the benefit of a number of conversations with companies that had gone before us down this path, and we have in turn, we pay it forward. And we have been on the phone with a number of other companies, large Fortune 500 companies and some smaller companies, to help them get started.

So I think that's one of the biggest challenges is that notion that you can't do it. I think another challenge though, Joan, that I want to share is sometimes starting a bit too early. There's energy behind the effort. You want to get going, and sometimes you get out a bit ahead of your skis.

And what I mean by that is you go out; you create a program. But really, the first thing that I can stress is making sure you've taken all the appropriate steps internally, making sure your organization is ready, making sure they understand the why, education, training, awareness, infrastructure, partnerships, making sure those things are in place because, honestly, this is certainly about employment. But we want to make sure it's about gainful employment and most notably retention and career paths.

So there's a lot of energy behind it but just making sure that you've made those introspective steps to make sure that your organization is ready for when a program like this gets off the ground. And again, there's some resources that we'll share towards the end of this that can certainly help you, so you're not starting from nowhere.

JOAN WOODWARD: Great, great. We love those practical takeaways for sure. This is Joan, and I'm going ask Jill a question on getting to the top of an organization. You said you sat down with a board member recently of a top Fortune 500 company. How do you go about talking to executives at the top about the importance of including more people with disabilities in their senior leadership teams, for example?

We clearly do a lot of this at Travelers on the diversity and inclusion front, but the disability side of the equation sometimes is not in that top tier when we're talking about different cohorts of people. So how do you get the attention of the top people in organizations?

JILL HOUGHTON: What we have done-- this is Jill speaking-- at Disability:IN is anchor everything to the business case. And so if we're talking with someone on a corporate board or someone in a senior leadership role in a company, helping them to understand that companies that are on this journey, for example, and improving on the Disability Equality Index demonstrate four times greater total shareholder return. So this isn't a nice thing to do. It's a good business decision.

And recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with quite a few corporate board individuals from a pretty wide range, last week, of industries. And interestingly, this issue, disability has risen to the boardroom, and they each had different examples of why. But it was all anchored in the business case.

So for example, there was a huge tech retailer who talked about when they made some digital accessibility improvements on their platform. They could quantify it with dollars. There was another company in there that was talking about what they've done in their operations. And again, they could quantify examples with dollars, and that gets on people's radar.

JOAN WOODWARD: Thank you for that, Jill. Back to you, Bruce. So you're in charge of university recruiting at Travelers, among other recruiting avenues. Talk to us about university recruiting and how do you make that more inclusive when you're out at these different schools.

BRUCE SOLTYS: Yeah, absolutely. So again, those partnerships are key. What we found was having conversations with the schools, with the representatives from the different departments that serve these students, inviting them in to get a sense of our company, our landscape, our culture, the specifics of the job, the jobs that we have in mind. The more that you can read them in, the better off they will be in terms of helping you identify the right talent.

So as part of these job shadows that we host for students that identify as neurodiverse, oftentimes they are preceded by extensive conversations with representatives from the schools, from the programs. I talked earlier about the rise of college students identifying as neurodiverse. As that number has risen, a number of institutions have implemented specific departments and created different programs to serve this population.

Here at Travelers, we're one of the founding partners of something that just launched at the University of Connecticut. It's housed at the University of Connecticut, but it serves a number of different academic institutions. It's called the Center for Neurodiversity and Employment Innovation. And really, their goal is to help colleges be more prepared to serve this population.

So it's efforts like that, that five, 10 years ago really were not happening. So it's great to see that this population is being looked at. So the other piece from helping-- recruiting more inclusively, as I talked about that introspective look at your processes, I will say sometimes what you find, it is not going to be pretty. You may find that some of your practices are unintentionally exclusionary, like what I talked about up front in that phone interview to be a knockout for those folks.

So I think those are two key steps to making sure that you can recruit more inclusively. The last thing that I'll mention is making sure that you have a process that looks at workplace accommodations. So any conversation around inclusivity really should look at the workplace accommodation piece.

And when we started working with neurodiverse populations, there's this misconception that they will all need workplace accommodations, and they will all cost a lot of money for these accommodations. I think that's a real misnomer. Most workplace accommodations are minor in terms of cost. And in many times, they're very manageable, and the potential returns are really great.

So to realize the true benefits, you have to look at adjusting your recruitment process, your selection process. And I think you'll find inclusion comes from that.

JOAN WOODWARD: This is Joan. Thank you, Bruce. I really appreciate that. And I want to just pivot on this and go back to Jill because to employ a disabled workforce on site, you need those accessible facilities, parking lots, bathrooms, workspaces. Are there resources out there, grants, incentives that employers can tap into? If you're a small business listening on our call today, we have a lot of small business owners and agents listening in these events. Is there any grants, federal grants, or other incentives that employers can tap into?

JILL HOUGHTON: So I think-- this is Jill speaking. When Bruce began at the very beginning, he talked about that a key ingredient to your success is establishing partners locally. And in every state and in almost every community, there are-- there's a federal program that's administered statewide called Vocational Rehabilitation. And in some states-- they have different names. But rehabilitation is usually in the title.

And in some states, there's one agency that serves everyone. And in some states, there's two agencies, one that serves the general population with disabilities and one that serves the blind. That being said, they're a great partner to small business. They're a great partner to help you find talent. They're also a great partner to help you retain talent and to help you find-- tap into perhaps tax credits to help you modify your physical environment, so partnering, key to your success, and they're in every community.

The last thing I would say is in almost every community, there are Centers for Independent Living. Again, it's a federal program administered at a state-- at a local level. But these are organizations run by and for people with disabilities, and they usually have somebody on their team that can be there to help small businesses, help local businesses in their community find the various resources to work on accessibility.

JOAN WOODWARD: So these are federal programs administered by the states, correct?

JILL HOUGHTON: Correct.

JOAN WOODWARD: OK, and would it be like the center or department-- like if a small business is listening right now, where would they call? What would be the name of the organization at the local level they would call, the Department of Health and Welfare or--

JILL HOUGHTON: So you know what I would do. There is an organization called the Council of State Administrators for Vocational Rehabilitation. That's a lot of words.

JOAN WOODWARD: We'll put that in the chat. Say that again.

JILL HOUGHTON: They break it down, and they call-- it's C-- it's CSAVR. Or the Council for State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation. And in that organization is something called the NET, or the National Employment Team. And they are-- specifically there's a woman there, Kathy West-Evans, who can help you as a local business owner, navigate your state rehabilitation agency. She is there. Her team is there. She's got boots on the ground in every state to help you as the business owner tap into this talent and get your needs met.

JOAN WOODWARD: This is Joan. I think that's fantastic. I think having real takeaways for people to get engaged and call because you don't know what resources are available to you as a small business owner in your locality, and there might be not only just best practices but some dollars behind it to help you get more compliant. Thank you very much for that. Excellent. OK.

Staying with Jill here for a second. I want to hear some examples, some concrete examples that Disability:IN has helped organizations create that more inclusive workforce. Can you give us some concrete examples that your organization comes in, does an assessment, I assume, of an organization, and what some best practices you can share with us today?

JILL HOUGHTON: So this is Jill speaking, and we have been talking about the Disability Equality Index. If you go to disabilityin.org and look under what we do, there's a tab that says Disability Equality Index. It's a tool that was designed in partnership with the American Association of People with Disabilities because they're across disability, and we're business. And together, we created this tool that looks at leadership and culture, employment practices, enterprise-wide access, community engagement, supplier diversity and non-U.S. operations.

It has weighted questions and non-weighted questions. And if a company scores an 80, a 90 or 100, we celebrate you as a best place to work, recognizing that if you score 100, you're not perfect. There's still a lot of things you probably said no to, and there is no such thing as perfect.

For companies that score below an 80, no one will know you ever took it because it's a carrot and not a stick. So in terms of actions, the tool itself is designed to create a roadmap of actions, everything from in leadership and culture, looking at something like what are the newest questions, looking at your nominating and governance documents, for your board, does it include-- does your definition of diversity include disability? If not, there's an opportunity to add us there, all the way to looking at your procurement, if you're consciously including doing business with women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, LGBT-owned businesses.

Are you doing business with disability-owned businesses? Or looking at your enterprise-wide access and looking at are you testing and utilizing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to look at your internal tools, as well as your external tools.

And the last thing I'll say, and Bruce talked about it, and he said it several times. The greatest resource you have are your people. And at Travelers, you have your Disability and Allies Diversity Group. They're the greatest people. Nothing about us without us. If you're a small business, engage with a local partner. Engage with people in your community. People with disabilities will guide you on things that you can do to be more inclusive.

JOAN WOODWARD: Great. I'm going to go to the Q&A because we have a lot of thoughtful questions here coming in for our audience. This is Joan speaking. I apologize. I have a question here coming in from Brigitte. She's asking is ADHD a disability. Who defines what is considered a disability? Thank you. So is ADHD in the neurodiverse?

JILL HOUGHTON: So this is Jill speaking, and the answer is yes. ADHD is a disability. And if you look at the definition of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act that was updated in 2008, you'll see that it's a pretty broad definition and that, in fact, it does include ADHD.

What I would tell you is the following. We like to talk about the World Health Organization definition of disability because up until 2011, they defined disability through a medical lens, that something was wrong with the person. And in 2011, they revised that definition to focus on the fact that there's a misfit with the environment.

So for example, if I use a wheelchair, and there's not a curb cut, it's not because-- the lack of access isn't because something's wrong with me because I'm in a wheelchair. It's because the environment didn't accommodate for all people. And we know that when we do things like build a curb cut, we're helping moms and dads with strollers, people with walkers, people with shopping carts, people pulling their suitcase, as well as people with scooters and wheelchairs, et cetera.

JOAN WOODWARD: And let's just finish-- this is Joan speaking. Let's finish up on the answer. Who defines what is a disability? How does that happen, Jill? Who defines it?

JILL HOUGHTON: So the definition is defined-- I mean, listen, there's thousands of definitions of disability. So the answer is lots of different entities define the definition of disability. The definition that's in the Americans with Disabilities Act is-- the body that puts that into regulation is the U.S. Department of Justice.

And then there are layers on top of that at state levels and regulation. So if you want to talk definitions of disability, there's definitions of eligibility for Social Security programs, for Medicaid, for Medicare, so the list goes on. So the answer is not like a one shot deal, where we say, oh, these people do because the reality is there are thousands of definitions of disability.

But we utilize the one from the Americans with Disabilities Act at Disability:IN, and we also look towards the World Health Organization because we're working in a global environment.

JOAN WOODWARD: Thank you for that. When we talk about different industries, Jill-- this is Joan speaking. And Jill, I want to ask you. You work with all sorts of industries. Are there other industries like the tech industry or the financial services or there's some better than others in adopting this more inclusive workplace? What have you found in your many decades of working with different industries?

JILL HOUGHTON: So this is Jill speaking. And rather than like pointing a finger, I would tell you that business is competitive. And then if somebody is doing something that's good for their bottom line, then you can bet that their competitors are getting in the game.

So if we look at tech, if we look at financial services, if we look at insurance, if we look at health care, I mean, who is health care's biggest customer? I would tell you. I would submit to you, in my personal opinion, it's people with disabilities.

So there isn't an industry that can afford to not be working on this issue. And the reality is for even those that are using their platform, and they're empowered, and they're talking about the awesome work that they're leading, they also are quick to say, and we have so much more to do.

JOAN WOODWARD: Terrific. OK. I want to ask about doing-- this is Joan speaking-- and want to ask both of you about doing diversity, equity and inclusion surveys. So how often should employers do a survey? What can you learn from your employees about doing a DEI survey? Is it encouraged, Jill, in your work?

Bruce, obviously, internally we do a number of employee surveys. We're taking their pulse on all sorts of things throughout the year, not just one time of year. But hearing from employees and what they care about, how often, Jill, in your experience should employers do that? Obviously, they should be anonymous, I assume, to learn about what employees are thinking. What have you found in your many years of working on DEI?

JILL HOUGHTON: So this is Jill, and what I would tell you is this. There are a lot of different ways to build in your employees' feedback. So perhaps it's through your engagement, your employee engagement surveying that you do. And in the Disability Equality Index, there are questions there asking if you're consciously including your talent with disabilities.

There are your self-identification-- voluntary self-identification efforts that you're doing in your HRIS system. And when and the cadence in which you do those things really varies, if you're-- and it depends on whether you're a federal contractor or you're not. So there isn't-- again, there isn't this one answer. Some companies, we believe it's a best practice and something that we're trying to promote through the Disability Equality Index is to build disability into your voluntary self ID into your HR-- human resource information system platform and that you should be doing it yearly.

And actually, we want to see companies include that workforce representation data of people with disabilities in your DEI report or in your corporate social responsibility report. And we're seeing an uptick in the companies that are reporting out on that data. So we can see a baseline of where you’re at to help drive where companies should be going, so see disability alongside race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, et cetera.

JOAN WOODWARD: Great. This is Joan, and I want to ask Bruce the same question with regard to surveys of employees.

BRUCE SOLTYS: Yeah, Joan, I'll take it from a bit of a different angle and share less from a survey mechanism, but in terms of the actual feedback that we've heard from our managerial constituents, as it relates to the impact, right, of hiring folks. So again, it wasn't done via an anonymous survey, but actual real-time feedback. And what we've seen was productivity gains, quality improvement, innovative capabilities being boosted, as well as an increase in employee engagement just with the team.

So I don't know that it's related just to our neurodiversity program efforts. I think more often than not, diverse teams tend to ask better questions. They're offering varying perspectives. They're expanding your interactions. And I think all of that tends to lead to better results.

We have heard directly from managers that have taken part in this program that we've built, it's made them a better manager because they've had to engage more with their team members. And it really opened their eyes. One of the most powerful feedback pieces that we've gotten was an individual saying, you know, thank you for opening my eyes to a dimension of diversity that I never knew existed.

And to me it doesn't get more powerful than that. So that's what we've heard, and the feedback is continuous both from participants in our program as well as the managers of the program because we want to continue to get better cohort after cohort.

JOAN WOODWARD: This is Joan speaking. Thank you both for that. I have an audience question I really want you to address. Maybe this is for Jill. Audience member asks, "If we're not formally diagnosed with this disability, are we still able to ask for alternative interview process? Meaning, can I still ask for the second door option if I've not been formally diagnosed as autistic? I'm terrified of interviews, but I ace any tests that I'm given related to the work. Or do I have to have a formal diagnosis to qualify for an autistic-friendly interview process?" Thank you very much for your thoughtful question. Jill, can I ask you that?

JILL HOUGHTON: This is Jill. And I guess I would maybe defer to Bruce. When people go through your program, how would you respond to that?

BRUCE SOLTYS: Yeah, so there's a few aspects to it. One, we and a number of other companies have a formal accommodation process. So in a lot of our recruiters' signatures and when they're scheduling interviews, there is a mailbox that if you are requesting an accommodation, you can ask for one. And those are handled on a case-by-case basis.

One of the things that I will say in our process, disclosure is a very important aspect to our process. And what I mean by disclosure is from a candidate perspective, sharing their neurodiverse status at the front end of the process. It serves as what I like to refer to as an unlock. It allows us to ensure that the decision-makers involved in the hiring process for our programs are trained. They're prepared.

But I will say the caveat is disclosure is a very personal choice. There are varying opinions and schools of thought on disclosure. In our experience, and I can only really speak to that, we've found that disclosure earlier in the process tends to have better employment outcomes, if you will.

JOAN WOODWARD: Thank you for that. Excellent. I also want to point out that one of our partners for today's program, the Autism Services Resources of Connecticut, has a neurodiversity job fair coming up on October 26 at Quinnipiac, North Haven. We're going to put that in the chat, the link to look for more information. But the Connecticut Autism Services Resource place will be having that job fair on October 26.

OK, I want to get back to a couple more audience questions. And thank you all for your thoughtful questions. Anonymous person's asking this question. "I'm a parent of a 25-year-old neurodiverse son. We've been working with him since he's little on all of his issues, but no jobs are sustainable for him. Very difficult to find companies willing to hire individuals with disabilities in our area. So how should we move forward? What should we do next?" So if you have someone in their 20s or 30s with a disability, Jill, I'm going to ask you that question. What resources are available for a neurodiverse person who really can't find or hold a job that's sustainable?

JILL HOUGHTON: So this is Jill speaking. And I would say as a parent, you move mountains for your kids. So I know it's hard. I'm a parent. I have a 13-year-old, who has anxiety and ADHD and a lot of things going on. So I know it's one day at a time.

What I would say to you is the following. Find local resources, and it sounds like you're working with VR. And if you're not having a good experience, then move on. Connect with other families, which I'm sure you are, to figure out and to try different community resources in your community.

I will tell you at Disability:IN, it's a small program. But every drop that we put in the bucket, we're working on filling the bucket up. We have a NextGen initiatives program where we take college students and recent grads and companies like Travelers or internships. And last year, I met an individual who identified as autistic, and I know he was really having a hard time.

He was falling between the cracks. He graduated from college, and he wasn't getting yes. He was finding no. And so we worked through the Neurodiversity Employer Roundtable at Disability:IN. There's something on our site called the Career Connector, and we used the Career Connector. And for me, it was a test.

It was like, does this really work? And I'm really excited to say that in this instance, and maybe not in every instance, but with this individual, he ended up with a software engineering position at a health care company in Minnesota. So it helped him find the door and get to the answer yes.

So don't take no for an answer. Keep persevering and find those local resources. That's the best advice I could give you.

BRUCE SOLTYS: If I could just chime in, Joan, quickly on that. This is Bruce. Hopefully today is awareness that wow, I had no idea that organizations and companies had these established programs. The fact that we are one of 50 companies that are part of the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable, using the links here in the chat, finding out who those companies are, do they have offices within your geography and so forth, starting those conversations, hopefully just the awareness of these established programs will really help from parents and advocates and individuals that are seeking employment.

JOAN WOODWARD: Terrific. This is Joan speaking. My good friend, Alan Tuvin, just messaged me and said, "Joan, remind listeners that retention rates for disabled employees is like 85%, north of 85%." And we clearly know that retention rates for non-disabled are a lot less than that. So Bruce, to you. How can we convince our companies and employees that it's good business to hire people with disabilities? How is it that we can get that message across? Because the retention rates, the performance evaluations are all off the charts from what we see.

BRUCE SOLTYS: Yeah. The business case is really key in a lot of this journey. There's a few resources in the chat that-- Harvard Business Review articles that speak to why neurodiversity is a competitive advantage. That article dates back to 2017 and really was a rocket booster to the movement. When Harvard Business Review puts something out, it really takes off. It got a lot of people's attention.

They just put a follow-up out in the most recent edition around disability as a source of competitive advantage, too. So like I'd said before, we saw productivity gains. We saw quality improvement. We saw higher than normal attendance rates, lower attrition rates, et cetera.

So all of that is music to business case's ears when it comes to that. And at the end of the day, we were able to put forward a better product with better results. And again, everybody that was touching it from an employee standpoint really enjoyed the process. So I would say make sure that the business case, you know, you've really done your due diligence on that. But there's a plethora of information out there as to the why behind it. I really encourage folks to look at some of those links that we shared.

JOAN WOODWARD: This is Joan. I'm sorry to say our entire hour just flew by, and I'm so grateful to you, Bruce and Jill, for all the work you've done throughout these decades to help advance disabled hiring, and we're just so happy today to host the session today and have thousands of people sign up for it, just a testament to the work you've already done. So, thank you again. We really appreciate your time.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Register: travelersinstitute.org. Upcoming Programs: Webinars. June 29 - Taking Your First Steps Toward Public Leadership. July 12 - Independent Agents: The Trusted Choice. July 19 - Global Hotspots and Geopolitical Risks with Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper. 

(SPEECH)
I also want to talk to my audience about our upcoming events. We have amazing programs. I'm going to highlight and put an asterisk and put a star in your calendar for my good friend, former Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper is coming on our program on July 19. He will take us around the world and talk about all the global hotspots that are happening out there. It is a scary world. He'll break it down for us and tell us what it's going to mean for your business, understanding geopolitical risk. So that's the highlight of July 19. 

A couple other programs that I mentioned. Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, I know it's not a Wednesday, but tomorrow, Thursday, we have a great, great program partner with our friends at Citizen Travelers. If you've ever been curious about holding elected office, we're going to talk to lots of people tomorrow about getting started to be a civic leader in your community.

So take your first step towards civic engagement. And then also on July 12, we're going to have a program with Chip Bacciocco. He's the head of Trusted Choice. And our friend internally, Senior Vice President Sean Ramalho is going to join us, talking about what's coming for independent agents and brokers and the horizon for them in the coming months and years.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) Webinar Series. Watch Replays: travelersinstitute.org. Connect: LinkedIn, Joan Kois Woodward. Take Our Survey: Link in chat. #WednesdayswithWoodward. 

(SPEECH)
So thanks again for joining me as always, friends. We'll see you on tomorrow for Citizen Travelers and then July 12 and 19. And then we're going to take a little breather in August, and I hope you do, too. Thank you for joining. 

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text, Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. travelersinstitute.org.