The Chartered Insurance Institute has teamed up with Scope to develop new guidance on making workplaces more suitable for those with disabilities.
The CII says insurers have a key role to play in ensuring workplaces are more diverse and inclusive, and give everyone the same access to employment.
Its report calls for those working in the insurance profession to collect and report on their workforce’s disability data, so that bosses can identify how many staff identify as disabled and how their experiences compare with their colleagues.
Scope found many employers collect this data but few publish it publicly or use it to understand where disabled employees face barriers at work and use this evidence to inform plans to become more inclusive organisations.
The report explains how to collect data, what kind of information should be gathered plus ways to support the career progression of disabled members of staff.
CII chief executive Sian Fisher says: “Hurdles which prevent people with disabilities from securing work, succeeding in work or even having access to things often taken for granted such as affordable insurance premiums for travel, need to be found and replaced with the right culture of support.
“There is no shame in facing up to any current shortfall in meeting the needs of employees, particularly those with disabilities, as long as this is followed up by action to do better.
“Businesses cannot survive if they ignore sections of society, whether it is in their employment practices or within their potential customer pool. We want our profession, a mature and innovative market of ideas, to be held up as a standard for others to follow.”
The trade body Group Risk Development (Grid) welcomed this new report – entitled: ‘Achieving an Inclusive Working Environment for Disabled People.’
Grid spokesperson Katharine Moxham says: “Employer-sponsored group risk protection benefits have an important part to play in improving access to insurance which can give a real boost to financial resilience for everyone, and can be especially valuable for those with a disability and/or living with a health condition.
“On top of this, the extra help and support that comes with a group risk policy can give employers a simple and cost-effective way of managing the asks being made of them by Government to help their people improve their physical, mental and financial health and to help close the disability employment gap.
“Having group risk protection benefits in place can give employers the comfort of knowing they can support people with disabilities into employment and help to keep them there (because they have independent third party help at hand) and that they can manage their financial liabilities related to risk.”
Disability champion of the Department for Work & Pensions, Johnny Timpson adds: “I fully support and look forward to working with the CII and Scope on this collaborative initiative to make the insurance industry and profession a career destination of choice for people with disabilities, seen and/or unseen.
“What better way to understand the needs of disabled consumers and all customers at moments of vulnerability than by employing colleagues with a disability – be it seen or unseen?”