Deloitte: ‘You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to start’ disability inclusion work

“We want everyone to feel they can be themselves and to thrive at work – in every country where we operate, in everything we do, every day,” Kay Forsythe, Senior Advisor, ESG Advisory at Deloitte UK, tells UNLEASH.

At the end of the day, “if we enable people personally, professionally to be their best, we get much better outcomes, as do our clients”, adds Forsythe.

This explains why diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is a “business priority” for US$65 billion-revenue professional services giant.

“We know that this vision can only be achieved by providing a workplace culture that is always inclusive, underpinned by respect and appreciation for diversity in all its forms,” she continues.

To achieve this, Deloitte has built out a global diversity, equity and inclusion strategy for its firms and their more than 457,000 professionals working in more than 150 countries and territories.

While classic diversity priorities like women’s equity, LGBT+ inclusion, racial inclusion, and mental health are four of the strategic pillars globally, in 2022 Deloitte Global agreed to add another two, disability inclusion and neurodiversity.

This formalized progress that Deloitte had already made.

For instance, in 2019, Deloitte became a signatory to the Valuable 500, a global business collaborative of companies working together to end disability inclusion – it has since become a Valuable 500 Iconic Company.

The professional services organization’s work with the Valuable 500 has brought “increased focus to designing with accessibility in mind, both for internal and client projects”, shares Forsythe.

The need for top down and bottom-up approaches to disability inclusion

Deloitte’s approach to disability inclusion is “built upon the ‘social model’ in that people are disabled only by the social and physical environments around them”, explains Forsythe.

This means there is space for the employer to step up to provide resources and tools that enable people to reach their full potential, as well as educating colleagues on disability inclusion (and why it’s a business imperative).

When figuring out the types of support that Deloitte wanted to provide on a global basis to both its neurodiverse and disabled colleagues to help them thrive at work, the professional services organization followed the framework of the International Labour Organization’s Global Business and Disability Network charter, which Deloitte signed in 2023.

This top-down approach drives accountability and builds on the fact that Deloitte’s commitments are led by senior leaders, including Deloitte Global Board Chair Anna Marks, Deloitte Global Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Emma Codd, or Deloitte UK’s Managing Partner for People & Purpose Jackie Henry.

While leadership support is essential to driving progress, Forsythe is clear that the global resources and materials Deloitte provides to support disability inclusion and neurodiversity globally have, importantly, had input from its people with lived experience.

Through this bottom-up approach, Deloitte people share their voices and perspectives through global disability inclusion and neurodiversity advisory groups, which were created in 2023.

These are in addition to employee resource groups, and employee listening surveys conducted in-country by Deloitte firms.

“They serve as a critical and valuable sounding board, contributing to our entire strategy”, notes Forsythe.

In fact, even before the advisory groups were created, Deloitte was listening to feedback from employees with lived experiences.

Indeed, many neurodivergent colleagues told leadership that “they often do not self-identify as a person with a disability”, and that’s why neurodiversity and disability inclusion sit as two separate pillars in Deloitte’s global inclusion strategy.

Collaborations with groups like the Valuable 500, as well as Auticon in Canada, Automatic in Belgium and the Australian Network on Disability help to sense check Deloitte’s inclusion policies, too.

In her UNLEASH interview, Forsythe shares some examples of programs and initiatives that are driving awareness and disability inclusion at Deloitte.

Firstly, Deloitte Global has created accessibility and workplace accommodation guidance for the organization’s talent and DEI teams.

The organization also strives to make HR technology used in Deloitte “accessible by design” and has also introduced a global inclusion hub that provides helpful resources to help embed inclusion every day, including when it comes to disability inclusion and neurodiversity.

On the awareness-raising side, Deloitte Global has introduced conversation guides for employees that help them talk about these topics, and an award-winning series of eight short and powerful educational films called ‘Can you see me?’ featuring fictional characters played by actors with lived experience, telling stories that are an amalgam of real lived experience of people across workplaces.

This is in addition to a series of ‘immersive experiences’ that allow people to gain imagined first-person perspectives of how someone might experience their workday in a typical workplace, bringing to life scenarios developed in consultation with people with lived experience.

These awareness-raising initiatives are really starting to gain traction throughout Deloitte’s workforce – they are permeating through the entire organization.

Forsythe shares a real-life example that shows that shows the global disability inclusion strategy is “getting real traction”.

“Just a small human example, in our building, we have accessible toilets on every floor, and every floor is served by a lift.

“If you can’t use the toilet on the floor, you could have to access the lift – you might have to ask somebody to get the door for you, and it could be a more difficult experience,” notes Forsythe.

“Our floor managers prioritize getting those accessible toilets fixed immediately. They’re alert to how important it is to be respectful and provide those facilities at a really practical level.”

Data and disability at Deloitte UK

Deloitte firms operate in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide.

With disability inclusion a global priority for the organization, this means that Deloitte firms are able to use globally created guidance and materials and to share leading practices to advance disability inclusion across the organization.

For example, Deloitte UK has encouraged voluntary self-identification in its surveys around disability – as well as for gender and gender identity, ethnicity, and socio-economic background.

There is no mandate, but the People & Purpose team does run engagement campaigns to encourage disclosure.

This data collection means that, for the second year running, Deloitte UK has been able to voluntarily include disability data in its Pay & Inclusion report.

In 2022, 5.1% of Deloitte UK professionals identified as having a disability or a long-term health condition – this rose to 5.4% in 2023.

Kay Forsythe, Senior Advisor, ESG Advisory, Deloitte UK.

Given the value of a data-driven approach to disability inclusion, Deloitte UK is striving to “create greater psychological safety and trust to disclose through leadership, communications and engagement”, notes Forsythe.

The employer’s global relationship with the Valuable 500 is helping here, according to Forsythe, and she is hopeful that by talking about self-identification outside of Deloitte (and working with the Valuable 500 on a new Self-ID resource guide), the organization can inspire its clients to follow suit.

Deloitte has “a huge footprint,” she adds. “If you think about the ripple effect of that, not only through colleagues, their families and their communities, but also adding our clients, there’s this huge opportunity for impact.”

Small steps equal big change on inclusion

Given that, for Deloitte, this disability inclusion work isn’t just internal, UNLEASH was keen to hear Forsythe’s advice for other companies unsure where to start on their journeys.

Forsythe shares, “It is about going on the journey, with commitment, and curiosity and a willingness to learn. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from, but start the journey and have the courage of leadership to do that.

“You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to start.

“You should have the humility to recognize that you don’t have to be fully accomplished in the space to start to talk about the progress and achievements that you have made.”

While “business leadership holding the responsibility” for this work is so important, the key really is “to create an environment where colleagues are listened to”.

“Get them to understand why it would be beneficial to start thinking about self-ID.”

Remember, “it is not for colleagues with a disability to upskill everyone else; it is not for them to shoulder the burden of creating an inclusive culture.

“It is for the entirety of the colleague community to learn and have respectful conversations, evolve their personal understandings, and address subconscious and conscious biases.”

Beyond the value of self-ID for an organization’s disability inclusion strategy, regulatory change adds further impetus.

For example, the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is on the horizon – from the  2025 financial year, large companies may need to disclose how many people in their organizations identify as having a disability.

“It is a very helpful regulatory impetus to help increase self disclosure”, concludes Forsythe.

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