Guest commentary: The business case for disability inclusion
By Craig Levra
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a timely reminder for Alabama business leaders that talent is often hiding in plain sight.
As the new CEO of PRIDE Industries, the nation’s largest employer of people with disabilities, I have spent my first months listening — to employees on job sites, to customers, families and community partners.
What I have learned is both simple and urgent: too many employers are still underestimating one of the most capable talent pools in the country.
PRIDE Industries was founded 60 years ago by parents who believed their adult children with disabilities deserved the same opportunity every person deserves: the chance to work, contribute and achieve independence.
Today, we employ thousands of people nationwide, nearly half of whom have disabilities and we provide employment services to thousands more. But the mission is not nostalgia. It is a present-day workforce strategy.
Across California and the nation, employers are worried about finding and keeping talent. They are trying to improve productivity, strengthen culture and build teams resilient enough to adapt to a changing economy.
Consider this: There are some seven million unfilled jobs in the United States. Job site Indeed lists 25,000 open positions in Ventura County.
At the same time, 16 million working-age people in the United States live with a disability, yet only 38 percent are employed, compared with 75 percent of people without disabilities. That gap is not a reflection of ability. It is a reflection of barriers — some physical, some procedural and many created by assumptions.
One assumption I hear often is that hiring people with disabilities is primarily an act of charity. It is not. It is good business.
Accenture’s research found that companies leading in disability inclusion achieved 1.6 times more revenue, 2.6 times more net income and twice the profit of other companies.
Those results confirm what I see every day. People with disabilities bring resilience because many have spent a lifetime navigating systems that were not designed with them in mind.
They bring adaptability because they have learned to solve problems creatively. They bring loyalty, focus and dedication to work because employment is not taken for granted. These are not soft qualities. They are leadership qualities and every high-performing organization needs more of them.
For example, teams that include people with disabilities maintain 40 County of Ventura buildings. Of the 46 employees working at these facilities, about 30 percent have a disability.
Talent does not always arrive in the form employers expect. Leadership requires us to recognize that — and to build workplaces where ability can show up, grow and be rewarded.
For employers, the path forward is practical. Review job descriptions for requirements that are not truly essential.
Make applications and interviews accessible.
Train managers to evaluate skills and outcomes, not stereotypes.
Partner with organizations that can provide job coaching, training and on-the-job support.
Most importantly, set the expectation that disability inclusion belongs in conversations about talent strategy, operational excellence and growth.
National Disability Employment Awareness Month is a celebration, but it should also be a challenge. If business leaders want stronger teams, they should look more closely at the workforce that is too often underestimated.
The opportunity is not only to open doors for people with disabilities. It is to learn from them — and to build organizations worthy of their talent.
• Craig Levra is the president and CEO of PRIDE Industries, an Oxnard-based nonprofit. Learn more at prideindustries.com.
