Networks & resource groups celebrating the economic contribution of disabled employees

3rd December 2017: International Day of Persons with Disabilities

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Leading the Purple Light Up

CONTENTS:

1. Foreword: Leading from the front, Kate Nash OBE

2. Introduction: Employee networks & resource groups – a coming of age

3. The facts about the economic contribution of disabled employees

4. A purple identity

5. A selection of ideas as to how organisations can join the ‘Purple Light Up’

6. A roll call in the lead up to 3rd December 2017

7. Questions & Answers

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FOREWORD

Leading from the frontThe annual celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) on 3rd December, started 25 years ago by the United Nations General Assembly. The day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of disabled people. It also seeks to increase awareness of the benefits of the integration of disabled people in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

In 2017 the theme for IDPD is “transformation towards sustainable and resilient society for all” and we are being encouraged to notice the central importance of resilience. Member States are encouraged to strengthen the role of disabled people as agents of change1

We live in times of great challenge, both economically and politically and what we mean by citizenship. It is sometimes hard to be constant in your belief that it is possible to reach a tipping point in the recognition of talents of disabled people. It takes great strength and courage to believe disabled people, whether they are in work, or not, can transcend protracted periods of welfare reform, economic austerity and political uncertainty.

But we can. And one of the ways we will do that is by learning directly from disabled people and celebrating and investing in our employer networks and resource groups, and building the community of disabled employees both in the UK and across the globe.

In July 2017 I sent out a personal tweet asking what network leaders thought about network leaders, champions and allies leading from the front this year – and to encourage organisations to create a #purplelightup the week that follows IDPD. We could not have anticipated such a positive response – we have been inundated with requests to lead from the front, as this briefing will explain.

So, to mark IDPD 2017 PurpleSpace is calling on UK and global disabled employee networks & organisations, together with our many champions and allies, to create a #purplelightup to celebrate the economic and leadership contribution of disabled employees.

Just as the rainbow flag has created a new conversation as it rallies an increasingly vibrant LGBT movement – just as it symbolically unites people from every sector of society – just as it shows that prejudice can be positively challenged by building communities from a banner of colours that inspire hope – so purple is inspiring a new grass-routes movement into the reality of what it means to be human.

1 https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities-3-december/idpd2017.html

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Disabled employees want to build on this unity through the purple symbolism. Employee networks & resource groups are already using the purple brand to create new conversations, and together with our champions and allies, focus on the added value disabled people bring as consumers and employees.

I want disabled people to use the power of their networks & resource groups, with their champions & allies to help forge a global identity; one that puts the positive contribution of disabled people and their networks in spotlight.

PurpleSpace is leading the way and will mobilise its network of networks across the UK and globally to spotlight on the existing economic contribution of disabled employees – and inspire hope and affirmation to the millions who are looking for work.

PurpleSpace launched in 2015 because the world was clearly ready and waiting for a new energy that would challenge the archaic assumption that real disabled people were always on the outside, looking in. In actual fact millions of people with disabilities are adding value to the UK and global economies every day and we are talking to more and more of them in the employer networks & resource groups every week.

So, we want you to join us and join in the celebration of the economic contribution of disabled employees on 3rd December 2017 and throughout the week that follows. You can be part of that celebration: you can be part of creating history.

This briefing provides a range of “low-cost, high-impact” ideas which employers / organisations can ‘use to go purple’ to celebrate the benefits that flow from challenging dated assumptions and shifting to investment in human potential.

These “low-cost, high-impact” ideas are designed to promote creativity and stimulate new ways in which we can build on PurpleSpace’s pioneering work in creating a community of disabled people in work, be they today’s young intern or the global Board directors of the future.

We are certainly going purple during that week – watch and be amazed by the start of a new era of disabled employees celebrating their lives and giving hope to others.

Kate Nash OBE

Creator & CEO PurpleSpace

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INTRODUCTION

Employee networks & resource groups – a coming of ageOver 20 years ago there were very few disabled employee networks around. Since then they have grown both in sheer numbers and scale.

Employers increasingly acknowledge them as one of the most logical and cost-effective vehicles to deliver cultural change and engage with their employees who have a disability.

The real beauty of networks is that they are led by employees with ‘real jobs’. They understand the opportunities and constraints to delivering change and have the passion required to keep going when there is seemingly no time left from the day job. But they somehow find that time - and it is clear that they, together with champions & allies, have a pivotal role to play as the ‘vehicles’ for driving interest in purple talent and cultural change.

The growth of employee networks is one of the most important indicators in how UK and global employers are investing in their talent. And we know only too well how hard it is to set them up, and keep them going – all of our organisations are at different stages.

But there is one thing that we know - as a direct result of disabled employees networking, we are seeing a significant impact in the number of people sharing their own stories and supporting their organisations to do better in making workplace adjustments. Put simply, building networks helps to create disability confidence from the inside out. The Purple Light Up will give you the opportunity to showcase the disabled talent in your organisation.

Our inspiration comes from the many disabled employees we work with, together with their champions and allies. So we call on all of you to think about what your organisation can do to make the Purple Light Up happen.

This briefing describes:

The facts about the economic contribution of disabled employees Why we are seeing the colour purple symbolise disability A selection of idea about what you can do to celebrate IDPD What PurpleSpace will do to roll-call your contribution

Sarah Simcoe, Fujitsu / David Caldwell, Barclays / Andy Garrett, GSK

PurpleSpace Founding Ambassadors

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The facts about economic contribution of disabled employeesCreating change often requires us to focus on the challenging and difficult facts and statistics about the lack of inclusion and engagement by disabled people. Highlighting inequalities is an important way of conveying the need for employers to think and act differently – it is a fundamental part of creating change – you need to highlight the bad news in order to notice the need to change systems and processes.

At the same time, PurpleSpace believes that delivering only bad news will only ever get us so far.

What we need to focus on is some of the positive indicators about the employment of disabled employees:

Over 3 million people who identify as being disabled are in work: they are today’s senior managers or the managers of the future2

Disabled employees contribute over £16.02 billion per annum in tax3

3.6% of businesses have one or more disabled owner, representing roughly 10,700 companies employing 78,000 people4

6.6 million people with disability or health impairment are in work5 making a huge wealth of skilled and committed disabled people in the UK who make a vital contribution to the economy

A 5% point increase in the disability employment rate would lead to an increase in GDP of £23bn by 20306

2 Labour force survey April- June 2016 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusofdisabledpeoplea083 RNIB research 20104 Leonard Cheshire Disability, 20075https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/ july20176 Scope & Landman Economics research: https://www.scope.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/employment/enabling-work/key-findings

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A Purple Identity In 2013 the UK government launched its Disability Confident campaign 7, and created a broader ‘way in’ to developing conversations around disability.

Around that time we started to see hear about the “purple pound”; in a similar way to how we sometime talk about the “grey pound” to denote the spending power of older consumers or the term “pink pound” to denote the spending power of people from the LGBT+ community.

In 2014, Kate Nash’s research and book, Secrets & Big News8 put the spotlight on the challenges people have in bringing their authentic selves to work. It set out to find out why it is difficult for people to share information about their disability at work. It opened up the question about how we all feel about the word ‘disability’. Disabled people were asked if they felt there was a case to use the symbolism of the colour purple to support the growth of a new, fresh exciting ‘movement’ of change agents in the employers’ community. They offered a simple reply. Yes.

So in September 2015 PurpleSpace9 was created – a professional development hub for network leaders / resource groups with their champions & allies. We started to talk about purple talent rather than disabled employees. And guess what? Both employers and disabled employees like it – and many networks and their leaders are starting to use it. They are creating a new movement because it avoids the need to force people to associate with a word that we don’t always feel comfortable with – and it enables deeper, richer and more meaningful conversations between people who experience ill health or disabilityat work.

The use of the colour purple has begun to symbolise a new positive narrative about disabled people, disability networks and the wider contribution of disabled people in the economy. This your chance to use put a spotlight on your work, share stories and develop an understanding of the contribution of disabled people your organisation.

"It's about identity….and building a way in which people can express that economic power. Colour is a very important way of doing this."10

Philip Connolly, policy and communications manager at Disability Rights UK

“Purple is about creating value. Disabled people knowing the contribution they make and businesses seeing the purple pound as an opportunity. Purple builds a better and more resilient society for us all.”

7 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign8 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Big-News-Enabling-themselves/dp/09928984049 www.purplespace.org 10 BBC Ouch, 21 January 2014

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Mike Adams, CEO of Purple

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“I believe that this campaign will be prove to be an iconic moment. It’s our opportunity to engage around a positive identity for disabled people and specifically their contribution within employment, through such a simple medium as the colour purple. Delsion is proud to be championing this in Wales and of all the support we’ve received so far….Bring on the purple!””Julian John, Founder & MD, Delsion

“We are building the largest super-network of disabled staff networks in the tertiary education sector. We want to connect and represent the purple talent and purple passion that literally light up our universities and colleges! The purple banner engages everyone in our disabled community, unlike the archaic and stereotypical wheelchair symbol.”Hamied Haroon, National Association of Disabled Networks (Universities & Colleges)

“Police Forces and their Disability Support Networks across the UK are looking forward to shining a purple light on Disability 3rd December. A variety of awareness raising activities are planned with a focus on joining our private sector partners in celebrating the value of staff networks for disabled people.”Rob Gurney, President, Disabled Police Association

“When we talk about Purple in this context, we talk about Purple talent, the value of the purple pound, we are talking positively and valuing the contribution of people with a disability or long term health condition. I am proud to identify with the color purple as someone with a disability and proud to be part of a movement that is seeking to change the conversation”Mark Russell, KPMG

“We know how important it is for the NHS to demonstrate its commitment to a particular agenda – visually as well as verbally. Seeing women on Boards and on public platforms is important to aspiring female leaders. Seeing rainbow lanyards around the necks of NHS staff is an important signal to the LGBT community that the NHS is a place that welcomes diversity. In this respect, the use of the colour purple as a visual trigger to show our commitment to improving the employment opportunities and the patient experience for disabled people is a fantastic initiative. We will do all that we can to support this campaign as part of our commitment to making the NHS a truly accessible and inviting place for disabled people.”Paul Deemer, NHS Employers

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Purple ideas: what can you do to join the Purple Light Up? At PurpleSpace we know all too well that time and resources are limited. Our conversations suggest organisations need time to build the case for substantial investment in a campaign to celebrate purple light up. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. And from small acorns, Oak trees grow.

So throughout July and August we have been speaking to many organisations that want to support the campaign. And listed below are their “low on resource – high on impact” ideas to get help celebrate the economic contribution of disabled employees in the weeks that precede or follow IDPD on 3rd December 2017.

Social Media – go externalSocial Media is one of the fastest ways to increase engagement on a topic. Your organisation may already use it to build an online community, celebrate a company milestone, launch a new product. So, in the run up to 3rd December and beyond IDPD:

Re-fresh the way your network can build its social media presence – we have all the support you need – take a look at our toolkit #VirtuallyPurple11

Create your own predefined goals to help focus the campaign and drive content – use the #hashtags #purplelightup and #purpletalk and we will support your communications

Start the conversation with your marketing and communications team as early as possible; they may have existing campaigns that you can join and add to

Promote your campaign on your FB page or develop an Instagram purple stream Use the stories of your own people via existing blogs and collateral – help your

people to share their own story of disability by using our toolkit Purple Stories12

Update your companies external Diversity & Inclusion page – offer a statement why your company celebrates its own purple / disabled employees and the positive impact your network / resource group makes

Online & Media – stay internalIf your colleagues / company is constrained by what it can do externally, keep it internal, but don’t miss the opportunity!

Make use of the staff intranet and information screens Update your own network page Dress internal media in purple – take pictures of staff wearing purple

11 https://www.purplespace.org/home?myhub&selected=189312 https://www.purplespace.org/home?myhub&selected=2014

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Identify existing internal campaigns and themes – compliment and enhance Use visual information boards in receptions and communal areas. Focus on short key

messages and contact information Publicise social media campaigns including relevant twitter handle.

Events Consider complimenting online and social media campaigns with a small scale

network event with purple theme – invite non-members to the event and where possible have a celebration theme

Offer purple lanyards to the guests – ensure you offer positive facts and figures Invite your disability champion / executive sponsor / CEO to address the event –

get him or her to add a little purple in their attire

Buildings

Dress building in purple – that might include flags, bunting and lighting. Naturally conversations to ‘dress’ a building need to start as early as possible with the estate and building management teams – get them to raid the light bulb budget

Consider dressing internal spaces with posters, exhibition pop-ups, banners and themed display stands. These could be placed in locations where large numbers of employees are likely to gather such as the reception, canteen, coffee breakout areas.

Wider employee engagement Ideas to encourage wider buy, develop conversations, build an understanding purple and promote your network

Create lanyards for staff and visitors – branded with the network and twitter handle

Hold a purple / disability themed quiz at lunchtime (and throw in some questions to test knowledge on disability)

Hole a purple themed bake off – and tweet your pictures to @BritishBakeOff Develop a support book – online and physical Hold a ‘wear purple day’ during the week that follows 3/12 Get employees to use purple face paint to signify their support Commission and handout pins (awards) and purple badges

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Allies ProgrammeConsider launching a purple allies programme – use the Purple Light Up to reach out to other staff networks across the diversity strands. This might include:

Joint meetings with other employee networks Promote cross cutting diversity themes Joint champions hosted networking event Joint branding – encourage the use of other diversity symbols alongside Purple.

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The role-call in the lead up to, and post 3/12:PurpleSpace is engaged with many employers / organisations / iconic buildings who are actively considering what they can do to celebrate the Purple Light Up – and to celebrate, in particular the role of disabled people as agents for change as part of the announced theme of International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Here are some who are leading the way:

Barclays Barclays will be inviting colleagues to pledge their support to become Reach Purple Champions building disability and mental health confidence across the business.

This will be a fundamental pillar of our programme of activities in the run up to International Day of Persons with Disability.

BPBP’s ‘Accessibility’ Business Resource Group at our ICBT campus is planning to turn the site Purple to raise awareness about disability. BP is partnered with a local charity called Dramatize who provide theatrical workshops for young adults with disabilities. Dramatize will be running a photography exhibition and a live event of artists with learning disabilities expressing themselves in a different light and changing perceptions of being ‘disabled’. We will run this exhibition for 2 weeks prior to the 3rd December, culminating with a live show in early December.

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council will be talking part in the ‘Purple Light Up’ and celebrating the contribution of disabled employees across Cardiff – watch what happens at City Hall.

Civil ServiceThe Civil Service will be inviting Departments and their Agencies to think creatively about the ideas set out in this landmark initiative. We are asking our Champions and their Networks to consider how our business can send out a unique set of signals. It remains important that we all continue to find creative ways to engage, further build on and strengthen our community of disabled colleagues, networks and allies. Using not just the day, but the week of the 3rd December as an ongoing celebration of disabled talent offers creative opportunity for all sectors and, for the first time, an extended moment to come together with one disability confident voice.

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E.ONE.ON are working on building their disability confidence, focusing on mental health and the skills and talents of our disabled employees. In celebration of IDPD we will be having lots of fun including wearing purple, baking purple and lighting up purple. We will be using our social media to let the purple light shine and open up good conversations.

EYEY will be celebrating IDPD on 30th November when we host a global summit – and as a platform to launch our Purple Champions programme. The ‘Purple Light Up’ campaign is a great way of focusing on the economic contribution of purple talent.

FujitsuFujitsu is delighted to be hosting the PurpleSpace annual reception of network leaders and champions / executive sponsors at our London Offices on 4th December – and to launch and be part of the new Purple Champions & Allies Guide. This is one of the ways that signals our strong support to the ‘Purple Light Up’ and the celebration of our network SEED as an active member of the network community.

Health and Safety ExecutiveHSE is fully supporting the ‘Purple Light Up’ initiative. A team comprising our award winning network, Equal, facilities management and others are busy planning how to make this event something that staff and those visiting our offices in Bootle, Liverpool and others across the country will enjoy and remember for a long time.

HSE will be linking this event with others around IDPD, including our continued Disability Confident journey and Equal will be providing a celebration with a guest speaker.

KPMGKPMG is supporting the ‘Purple Light Up’ initiative with our WorkAbility network and facilities team working together to plan how we can shine some purple light to raise awareness to coincide with IDPD.

Public Health Wales Public Health Wales will be supporting the ‘Purple Light Up’ to mark IDPD.

Wales Millennium CentreThe Millennium Centre is supporting IDPD and the purple symbolism through the ‘Purple Light Up’ – proud to take part and light up purple.

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During the campaign PurpleSpace will be:1. Coordinating the roll call of commitments to the Purple Light Up – this will be where organisations (members and non-members) can share what they are doing

Email Vanessa@purplespace.org with photos and images of the ways you are going purple – and your key messages (no more than 50 words). We can upload your pledge from 1st October 2017 and update your entry once you have any visual images to share beforehand, in the run up to, and during the week that follows 3rd December.

2. Offering a template Press Release that organisations may wish to use as a basis of announcing their commitment to the campaign

Every employer / organisation / building will want to have their own emphasis in order to highlight the different ways by which they are marking the IDPD. Some might focus on their network. Some might focus on their success in the Government’s Disability Confidence campaign. Some might have more modest, though valuable achievements.

However you run at this, we recommend that you follow through the Purple Light Up campaign theme which is targeting the #IDPD theme of celebrating the role disabled people play as agents for change and focus on how you learn directly from disabled employees and/or customers/key stakeholders.

3. Leading the twitter storm up to and during the week i.e. from Sunday 3rd December throughout the following working week

Follow us @mypurplespace and use the hashtags #IDPD #purplelightup #purpletalk #disabilityconfident

And keep the UK Minister of Disabled People informed about your celebration – tweet her your pictures @PennyMordaunt.

4. Bringing together senior business leaders and network leaders at a reception on the evening of Monday 4th December to mark the campaign and launch the “Purple Champions & Allies Guide”.

For more information contact us at events@purplespace.org

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Q&A’s1. Why do employers set up networks/resource groups?

Most employers whether local or global, and whether they monitor their workforces or not, will have a workforce where 10% of their people will have a disability, or a health condition or who have sustained an accident or an injury.

So, whether an employer has a workforce of 100 people, or 10,000 people, either way it’s a sizeable chunk of their workforce investment. Networks/resource groups are an integral component of how employers learn directly from their own people in order to create and sustain cultural change. They are mini agents of change and when working in partnership with champions, executive sponsors and allies are a powerful vehicle to promote change.

2. How can our organisation become disability confident?

There are lots of organisations/campaigns that can support you in the journey of becoming disability confident. Here is a small selection:

Government’s Disability Confident campaign: www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign#history

Business Disability Forum: www.businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

Purple: wearepurple.org.uk

Delsion: www.delsion.co.uk

3. What is PurpleSpace

PurpleSpace is a professional development networking hub for disabled employee networks/resource groups working with their disability champions & allies. It was established to build a better world for disabled employees – one that we need to create for ourselves. We want to help employers to continue to improve their policy, practice and procedure when it comes to recruiting and retaining disabled employees. But we do that by helping them to set up, or improve the effectiveness of, their employee networks/resource groups. And we do it by providing all the ‘know-how’ and networking that leaders and committee members need to deliver high quality networks. www.purplespace.org

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4. Is there a specific pantone colour purple that we have to use to get involved with the campaign?

No. We use colour codes CMYK 60 90 0 0 or RGB 130 54 140 (Pantone number 2612 C is similar) at PurpleSpace but there are no hard and fast rules here – we like all shades of purple. We support diversity and inclusion for all shades of purple .

5. Is there a specific flag, like the rainbow flag?

No there isn’t, so you can create your own. Your organisation might want to add its company logo and/or the logo of your internal staff disability network and/or the governments Disability Confident campaign. If you do create a flag why not add the words “joining the Purple Light Up” to link up with all the other organisations via the Purple Light Up campaign.

6. If we take part are we committing the company to yet another project or standard or benchmark?

No. Your company may already be involved in the UK governments’ Disability Confident campaign and / or be undertaking the Business Disability Forum’s Disability Standard. Or you may not be involved in either. Being part of the Purple Light Up doesn’t commit your company to anything. And you certainly don’t have to be a member of PurpleSpace to take part (though would love your network to join the world’s first network of disability networks across all trades and sectors).

7. Is this all glam and glitz with no substance?

No. We don’t think so.

On 1st July 1972 the first official UK Gay Pride Rally took place with approximately 2,000 participants. By July 2017, in London alone, 60 company supporters joined in the London annual Pride march and there were 50 official partners, ranging from airlines to mobile networks. 26,5000 people took part.

PurpleSpace is now starting the ‘Purple Light Up’ on 3rd December 2017 – lets see how far we get….

PurpleSpace

Building disability confidence from the inside out

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