For the past ten years LinkedIn have run their annual Talent Connect conference, giving delegates from all over the world the chance to hear from global leaders in talent acquisition, learning and development and HR. The conference creates a space to share knowledge and experiences and address the key challenges and trends shaping modern workforces. This year over 4,000 delegates attended the conference in Dallas, Texas, which was headlined by Michelle Obama.
The Ability People were delighted when our co-founder Liz Johnson was hand-picked from almost 500 applicants to speak at LinkedIn’s prestigious event. Liz was invited to lead one of the Breakout Sessions in Dallas and speak about embracing disability in the workplace.
Liz’s session drew on her personal experiences as a Paralympian to explore the countless visible and invisible barriers placed in front of disabled people. She spoke about the staggering disability employment gap, the reasons this gap is continually reinforced, year on year, and the practical ways to close it. Liz challenged the audience to examine their own hiring practices and company structures and see if they were truly disability inclusive.
Watch Liz’s speech on disability in the workforce in full here.
Following the success of her speech on disability in the workplace in Texas, Liz was invited to speak again at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect on Tour, held on November 18th 2019 in London.
Members of the TAP team were also in attendance, including Mandip Sehmi, Adil Ghani, Kate Oliver and co-founder Steve Carter.
During her London speech, Liz explained that disability inclusion and parity of opportunity isn’t about filling quotas or checking a tick box. 📷It’s about businesses driving profit, growing their customer base, strengthening their brand position and capitalising on new ideas.
LinkedIn liked Liz’s thoughts so much that they have recently compiled a post highlighting her top 5 Tips for Creating a More Inclusive Workplace. The article is well worth a read.
In addition to attending Talent Connect, The Ability People team were invited to LinkedIn’s London offices to take part in an exclusive Question and Answer session with LinkedIn’s talent acquisition and HR teams. This session was, of course, centred around disability in the workplace, with LinkedIn tapping into the extensive knowledge of The Ability People.
There were plenty of incredibly insightful questions put forward. Of course, we cannot include all of them here. However, below is a few of the questions the TAP team answered with honesty and openness:
- Do you have any advice or examples of exactly what NOT to do when interacting with someone who has a disability?
- Are there any widely-used words, terms or phrases that we should avoid or that might be insensitive to use, particularly in job descriptions?
What are your thoughts when you read these questions? How would your business answer them?
Every business has a duty to include disabled talent – a duty to their staff, to their customers and to themselves.
Disability education, and embracing disability in the workplace, comes in many forms. Sharing personal experiences is a key way to gain in-depth understanding of an issue and work out how to tackle it.
Would your company benefit from The Ability People consultants speaking to your team? We’d love for you to get in touch – simply visit our Contact Us