Business leader, CEO, national speaker, author, and father of a son with an intellectual and developmental disability.
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
If you are a business owner, a CEO, or a leader in your community and are committed to embracing inclusion, the time is NOW.
While DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion – is crucially important, it very often doesn’t include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Hiring people with IDD is smart business and can…
- Improve your bottom line
- Give you a deep resource of untapped potential
- Reduce turnover
- Improve morale and company culture
- Expand your customer pool
- Qualify you for financial incentives
- Enable you to meet federal contractor requirements
Why Don’t Employers Hire People with DISABILITIES?
Perception
- Hiring and managing people with IDD is expensive, complicated, and time consuming.
- Accommodations and resources are difficult to navigate.
- Disabled employees aren’t as efficient, capable, or valuable as typical employees.
Reality
- Revenue of companies hiring disabled employees is 28% higher, economic profit margins are 30% higher, and net income is 111% higher than those companies that do not hire people with IDD.
- A study by Accenture of 140 U.S. companies confirms that disability inclusion increases business performance, specifically innovation, shareholder value, productivity, and market share (Accenture et al., 2018).
- According to employers participating in a recent study by Job Accommodation Network, a service from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, a high percentage (59%) of accommodations cost absolutely nothing to make, and if there is a charge, it is typically less than $500 per employee with a disability.
The U.S. is falling behind. Countries such as Italy and Germany have strict mandates for hiring people with disabilities, some even requiring that 7% of all employees be disabled. We can do more.
Leading the CHANGE
Lloyd Lewis has grown a $32 million dollar retail chain into a $120+ million social enterprise that is one of the largest employers of people with disabilities.
LLOYD is available to speak to your organization, or at your event or conference. Topics include:
What We’re Missing When We Say We’re Being Inclusive
- Why DEI doesn’t include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- There is no typical person with IDD and there are many ways to define “inclusion.”
- We try and make people “more like us.” We should, instead, try to be more like them.
Why Inclusion is Smart Business
- Companies employing people with IDD have seen a 28% higher revenue, are growing sales 2.9X faster and profits 4.1X faster than their peers. How you can do it, too!
- Accommodations, supervision, and management don’t have to be difficult.
- How to create a true culture of inclusion.
National Organizations Featuring Lloyd Lewis as a Speaker
Why Not THEM?
Lloyd Lewis’s inspiring account of personal transformation and how he revolutionized a company by employing people with IDD.