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 in Colorado.
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.