Workplace Panel; Disability Matters Europe, Springboard

The “Disability Matters Europe” conference was held in Paris from 12th till 13th of June. The conference, organised by Springboard Consulting, features experts from corporations, academia, government and non-profit sector who share best practices with regard to successfully embarking on the special needs workforce.The Workforce Panel was presented by Michael Stuber, the founder of European Diversity Research & Consulting. Two Honouree Presenters (Niamh Carew, Services & Solutions Global Program Management at Dell, and Claire Martin, Vice President Corporate Communications at Renault) reported on initiatives in the workplace of the two companies and their experiences. Michael Stuber mentioned a survey which shows that the majority of Eurostoxx50 are dealing with Diversity but disability was still a neglected category. Disability is on third rank, right after Race & Gender, with 33 mentions (out of 50) in CSR Reports. Against this backdrop, the very encouraging examples from Renault and Dell showed the participants how valuable Diversity Management can be when including different abilities. Dell highlighted their Employee Network around disability and Renault talked about the many internal communication opportunities they were leveraging.