The Kanchi Blog

Posted on

25th July 2011

in

Business,Disability

Here in Kanchi, we are constantly talking about the Business Case of Disability – between ourselves, with our partners, and with the many organisations we work with. But what does the Business Case really mean?

1. Access to Talent
• An organisation’s human and intellectual capital is one of its most valuable assets and pivotal to maintaining competitive advantage
• Employees with disabilities bring different knowledge and perspectives to their work
• A Diverse Workforce is said to Increase innovation, Improve problem solving, Customise products and services to increase profitability

2. Access to Markets.
• The business world is witnessing greater diversification in their customer base and part of this diversity are people with disabilities and their families
• Disability is a business reality that ultimately leads to greater market share and prosperity for businesses
• The Disability community is the largest minority market segment and impacts on every sector in society

3. Retention of Staff
• Should an existing employee acquire a disability many employers have recognised the business advantage of retaining them and their intellectual capital. Thereby:
 Reducing staff turnover.
 Increasing staff morale.
 Becoming an employer of choice.
 Reducing the cost of litigation.
 Complying with legislation (in some countries )
 Reducing Replacement Costs
 Reducing Training Costs
 Retaining Knowledge

4. Reputation Management
• A business’s reputation is strongly linked to its corporate responsibility which begins in the workplace and extends out to its:
 Operations
 Customers and
 The Communities where it operates
• A robust corporate reputation is of great benefit to an organisation’s profits – it is also a powerful marketing strategy

Essentially it is how a business may benefit from being fully inclusive to people with disabilities. When we say “benefit” from people with disabilities, is this wrong – Should businesses “benefit” from people with disabilities and treat this as a nice market segment as they would with other nice market segments? Or, should they just benefit from people without disabilities? This could be profit, employee productivity, reputation enhancement, and retention of employees. What does it take for businesses to realise their social obligation or market opportunity of being fully inclusive – is it profit or just the right thing to do?
We would love to hear your thoughts on this!