Organisations invest vast amounts of time and money into encouraging employees to share information about their disability status. And we know why, ‘what gets measured, gets managed’. Yet, most still don’t capture accurate disability data.

At our 2024 Global Disability ERG Summit, PurpleSpace Founder Kate Nash OBE hosted a fireside chat with Organisational Psychologist, John Amaechi OBE on how to avoid the disability data distraction.

Disability ERG/Network leaders know that in order for employees with disabilities to share what is ultimately very personal information, organisations must create cultures of trust and safety.

John has often talked about how organisations must ‘earn’ the privilege of receiving this personal information, rather than simply placing the onus on disabled employees to share it.

This month, we publish the recording of John and Kate’s fireside chat as a new resource, with key learnings for disability ERG/Network leaders.

During the conversation, John shares his view that, “trust is more than just a transaction” and explains how organisations often misunderstand what lies at the heart of the disability data challenge. 

This month, we invite you to consider:

• How can you support your organisation to create the circumstances in which employees with disabilities feel safe to share?

• How can you encourage your organisation to ‘measure what matters’?

• How can external sources of data help bridge the disability data gap?

Peer Leadership Roundtables

One of the most valuable aspects of PurpleSpace membership is the opportunity to build your leadership capacity via quality conversation with other disability ERG/Network leaders.

Each month we convene groups of disability ERG/Network leaders to stimulate discussion on the monthly leadership lesson.

Connect with your peers during these interactive one-hour sessions for disability ERG/Network leaders. These sessions are a great way to share good practice and challenges, swap ideas and build your ERG/Network leadership capacity.

In May, we have two sessions to choose from where we explore how you can support your organisation to measure what matters:

16 May 10:00 BST / 15:30 IST / 20:30 ACDT

21 May 16:00 BST / 11:00 EST

ERG Global Strategic Forum 

The ERG Global Strategic Forum is Chaired by PurpleSpace Ambassador International ERG leader at Eli Lilly and Company, Darren Rowan.

The Forum supports PurpleSpace’s strategic goal to drive the global growth of the disability ERG movement and meets on 20 May at 16:00 BST / 11:00 EDT.

For more information contact kirstie@purplespace.org

PurpleSpace and External Useful Resources:

Tap into our Networkology know-how and check out some of the external learning that links to this month’s leadership lesson:

• Five Trust Tests – the five key indicators disabled employees look for their organisations to be doing before choosing to share disability information.

• Secrets and Big News – Kate’s first book, researching the reasons why employees with disabilities choose not to share personal information.

• Data with a Purple Soul – Kate’s film about how stories are data with soul.

• ‘Begin with trust’ – this Harvard Business Review’s 2020 article outlines three drivers of trust in The Trust Triangle, and where trust is lost, it can always be traced back to one of these – Authenticity, Empathy and Logic.

• Valuable 500 ESG and Disability Data - A call for inclusive reporting