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Introducing the Employers' Forum on Disability Global Inclusion Benchmark

Quality assurance by AccountAbility

The Employers' Forum on Disability's Global Inclusion Benchmark survey of social reports, launched in July 2002, revealed that disabled people were only truly visible in 10 of the 50 leading social reports examined. This increased to 32% in 2002.

A company's social report reveals much about its priorities and values, its relationships with its stakeholders and the extent to which an issue is integrated into the way it does business.

The Global Inclusion Benchmark looks at how companies communicate a commitment to disabled people through their social reports - it does not look at how the companies actually perform in each area.

2003 Global Inclusion Benchmark Press release

Benchmark reports

The Employers' Forum on Disability and AccountAbility have taken a leadership role in developing thinking on disability as a CSR issue. Our purpose in developing the Global Inclusion Benchmark is to raise awareness across business and civil society of the importance of including disability in social reporting. By helping companies and CSR experts understand the disability dimension to CSR and its place in quality social reports, we hope to encourage more effective management of disability across every business.

What is the Global Inclusion Benchmark?

The Global Inclusion Benchmark is:

A guide to where companies should address disability in their social reports
An indicator of the extent to which the business community generally positions disability as a CSR priority in social reporting
A benchmark for individual companies to compare their social reporting over time, and against industry leaders and competitors

Many companies have also found the Global Inclusion Benchmark a useful "checklist" of the areas where disability can impact on their business. It can be a valuable prompt to action and help improve communication across departments.

Developments in 2003

Building on the success of the launch of the Global Inclusion Benchmark last year, in 2003 we again looked at leading social reports identified by UNEP and SustainAbility in their report 'Trust Us', alongside reports produced by the Employers' Forum on Disability core funder 'Gold Card' group. We also examined a selection of reports published by companies included in the newly launched BiTC Corporate Responsibility Index.

The Benchmark itself has been refined and simplified to take into account feedback from members of the Forum, the wider business community, CSR experts and disabled people.

The summary includes:

A list of the top ten social reports
Details of reporting across the social reports against each point of the Benchmark
Examples of best practice
Suggestions for future reporting

Each company whose social report is included in the survey will receive a confidential preview of the results and detailed feedback. Their score and position in the Benchmark will be confidential.

Building the Disability Dimension into CSR

The Global Inclusion Benchmark is part of a three stage Forum initiative to help business understand and respond to the important and growing disability dimension of corporate social responsibility. It is sponsored by UnumProvident.

Stage Two, Disability Online for CSR Practioners, is an engagement project, helping CSR organisations to in turn help business, sponsored by Forum Gold Card member Cable & Wireless. In partnership with AccountAbility, the Forum is working with eight leading CSR business intermediaries to build their website resources on disability as a CSR issue and to help make their websites accessible to disabled people.

As a third component of this programme, the Forum is engaging with standard setters in the CSR arena to encourage them to include disability within leading standards, guidelines and indices, including SA8000, the GRI Initiative, and FTSE4Good. This stage is supported by Royal Mail

The Global Inclusion Benchmark 2003

Truly inclusive organisations will publicly demonstrate that they are addressing disability as a business and societal priority. Their reports will include:

An Equal Opportunities or diversity statement or general statement of corporate values that explicitly includes disability
A CSR strategy which explicitly commits to addressing disability
A commitment to engage with disabled stakeholders
A named board director responsible for corporate governance in relation to disability (either alone or as a specific component of EO/ diversity)
Indicators and targets to measure performance in relation to the disability dimension of CSR and in relation to disabled stakeholders - employees, customers, partners, shareholders, suppliers and community members
Company performance on recruitment, retention and career development for disabled employees and employees who become disabled
The impact on disabled people of employment practices which affect every employee, e.g. work-life balance, health and safety etc.
Work undertaken to make company products, services and the built environment more accessible to disabled consumers
Involvement in partnerships with Govt or Non-Governmental Organisations - particularly organisations run by disabled people - to build the capacity of the company to become disability confident
Details of the disability dimension of any corporate investment which encourages social inclusion and community economic development

The Global Inclusion Benchmark will also look for evidence that social reports, annual reports and accounts are written in straightforward language and are available in accessible formats, e.g. Braille/large print/ electronic format on an accessible website and/ or intranet

The Partners

The Employers' Forum on Disability and AccountAbility have taken a leadership role in developing thinking on disability as a CSR issue. Joint publications include the definitive business case for addressing disability, Unlocking Potential and the Global Inclusion Benchmark 2002, which specifies where disability should be included within social reporting. They are also working together to encourage leading CSR NGOs to include information on disability on their websites; a piece of work supported by Cable & Wireless.

The Employers' Forum on Disability is the authoritative employers' voice on disability as it affects business. It is a membership organisation funded and managed by its 367 members. It enables business to promote economic and social inclusion by making it easier for companies to work with disabled people as employees, customers and partners.

AccountAbility is the leading professional international institute whose mission is to promote accountability for sustainable development.

UnumProvident, a Gold Card member of the Employers' Forum on Disability, has taken a leadership role in many groundbreaking projects on disability.

For further information please contact

Rhiannon Suter, CSR Research and Projects Manager
Employers' Forum on Disability.
rhiannon.suter@employers-forum.co.uk

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