The health care organization that administers Medicaid plans in seven states shares tips for turning support for employees with disabilities into a competitive business advantage.
For companies that are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging, programs must have a clear connection to key business outcomes.
For CareSource, a health care insurance provider in Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia, President & CEO Erhardt Preitauer set an ambitious goal for the company to become the employer of choice for people with disabilities.
The goal has clear strategic benefits for CareSource.
“CareSource makes a difference in more than two million lives. While we are supporting our members, we want to ensure we support employees and make a space that is inclusive for all.” says Solomon James Parker, director, research and development, complex health solutions at CareSource.
“How can you do that if your employee base is not representative of that population?”
CareSource sees its efforts as crucial for elevating the culture of the organization to drive innovation and progress that downstream impacts the lives of members.
“Building an inclusive workplace is a bet on the future,” Parker says. “We are investing in and creating spaces where the leaders of tomorrow can thrive.”
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Setting benchmarks to measure impact
To understand how to create more inclusion for people with disabilities, companies might want to explore a self-ID campaign to learn more about the employees in the organization.
“First, we have to ask, ‘Who are our employees that have a disability?’ and ask if we are creating a culture that makes them feel supported in disclosing that they have a disability,” Parker says.
At CareSource, this became a campaign to invite people to share information about their experience with the HR team.
“Our initial percentages of individuals who felt comfortable self-identifying as persons with disability was fairly low,” says Patrice L. Harris, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at CareSource.
“If you’re not engaging your employee base, how can you know what is working and what is not?”
To increase participation, CareSource has focused on trust, and uses its Great Place To Work survey to understand the experiences that increase or decrease trust across its workforce.
Survey results are broken out by different demographic groups, including employees with a disability. Statements around things like psychological and emotional well-being revealed gaps between employees with disabilities and the larger workforce at CareSource.
“It wasn’t horrible, but it was lower,” Harris says. The team then takes the results and builds action plans to try and improve scores.
To increase the number of employees who trust the organization enough to share their status, the team has focused on communication and education.
“We built two web pages, one external, one internal, so people can go and see our goals, annual KPIs and accomplishments,” Harris says. “We’ve launched education around disability inclusion, how our words matter, etc.”
Executive sponsorship has also been incredibly important, with engagement from Josh Boynton, senior vice president, specialty companies and complex health solutions, and Jennifer Dougherty, chief human resources officer. With these top leaders making the issue a clear priority for CareSource, there has slowly been an increase in the number of employees who are disclosing their disability status.
“Are we where we need to be or want to be?” Harris says. “No, but we are really, really proud of the progress that we’ve made.”
Making disability inclusion a business priority
To build more inclusion and offer support to employees with disabilities, CareSource launched 10 workstreams to tackle different aspects of the employee experience, from recruitment processes to offering accommodations.
Each workstream is made up of a cross-functional team with measurable goals that are not a side-project, but rather a core part of their job duties. A workstream might include employees with lived experience or who identify as having a disability, but also have relevant roles such as human resources, IT, facilities, and more.
"First, we have to ask, ‘Who are our employees that have a disability?’ and ask if we are creating a culture that makes them feel supported in disclosing that they have a disability.”
When Dougherty as CHRO sent out invitations to join workstreams, the first message was sent to managers. “From the start, we wanted to set our expectations around DE&I,” Harris says. That meant being explicit with managers and seeking their input on the right person for the workstream and what would be expected of those that participated.
Harris summarized the message: “If you say yes, this work is a part of their workload, not something that they do off the side of their desk when they have time.”
When performance reviews come around, Dougherty reaches out again to make sure managers are considering the disability inclusion work and all the progress the workstreams have made when evaluating their direct reports.
“We created an internal dashboard that all the workstreams can access,” Harris says. “They go in, they put in their desired goals and their deliverables. They tell us to what degree have they completed those goals — and we revisit on a quarterly basis.”
Getting direct employee feedback
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are an essential part of the strategy and ensure that employees can share their experience.
“If you’re not engaging your employee base, how can you know what is working and what is not?” asks Parker.
At CareSource, there are two ERGs that have direct responsibility for employees with disabilities, but other ERGs can also offer their insight and provide valuable visibility around different intersections, like race or gender.
For the CareSource team, the groundswell of support that employees have shown for the effort to increase visibility and inclusion for people with disabilities has been tremendous.
“It was almost like people have been waiting for us to say or have this conversation out loud and to simply say, we want to help,” Harris says. For others looking to tackle this challenge in the workplace, she advises doing your prep work to avoid being bowled over by the enthusiasm and energy people will bring to the work.
“Partner with consultants or advisors — people who have been there, who know what you don’t know — to help you put your strategy together, then sit still for a minute,” she says. “Take time to pressure test your strategy and socialize it before you launch.”
Both Parker and Harris are clear about the opportunity that exists for companies of all sizes to have an impact.
“Just start the work,” Parker says. “Don’t wait for the perfect timing.”
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