High costs of 'one size fits all' management
Disability confident employers will benefit from an approach which creates the environment needed to support individual productivity and enable creativity and innovation.
BT worked with Warwick University to look at the issues around the business case for employing disabled people. They found that there were significant costs to a 'one size fits all' or 'vanilla' approach to management. Greater understanding of the wider benefits of diversity and inclusion of people with different skills and experiences is needed if line managers are to develop the flexibility needed to integrate those disabled people who need adjustments.
The study found that there was little understanding of the business case at lower levels of the organisation. "Some line managers question the practicality of putting 80% of effort (even for a short time) into integrating one person into the workplace. Some line managers argue that some reasonable adjustments for disabled people are seen as "favouritism" and "privilege" by other team members.
It raised the question how can organisations which are large and therefore operate on "industrial" scale processes and systems, cater for the individual who has special needs throughout their employment life?" [i]
A narrow focus on performance can create managers whose interests are best suited by uniformity. To meet the relentless drive to optimum performance, many managers seem to see difference only as a perceived inconvenience - a justification for the recruitment and retention of the most convenient and not necessarily the most talented.
If we accept the business and moral case for including disabled people we must create an environment where it is the norm to see difference as talent and changing capabilities as strengths.
If you use performance management, which in turns drives 'vanilla' employment practices, this is not sustainable in the long term - it drives innovation and creativity out of the organisation.BT, Agile Business, Accessible World?, 2005.
Sources
- [i] 'Are there barriers to the employment of disabled people?', Warwick Business School, 2005.