Figure 1: Learn more about FHLBank Boston's core values and culture.
Through educational lunch-and-learns and leadership training, the bank has been working to integrate inclusive language about disabilities into all areas of communication. Their self-identification initiative encourages employees with a disability to self-identify, and education is a key part of this initiative. Education helps remove the stigma surrounding disabilities. At FHLBank Boston 10.5 percent of employees identify as having some type of disability based on data from their 2023 self-identification initiative. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “People may see disability as a personal tragedy, as something that needs to be cured or prevented, as a punishment for wrongdoing, or as an indication of the lack of ability to behave as expected in society.” The bank has been working to overcome this stigma and make the organization a place where employees feel comfortable discussing their diverse needs and abilities.
Bonnie Rivers is the Director of Employer Relations and Training at Work Without Limits, a national program of ForHealth Consulting (the healthcare division of University of Massachusetts Medical School), which helps organizations, including FHLBank Boston, destigmatize disability. Rivers says, “It’s about education and perception. We have organizations that come to us and say, in a whisper, ‘We don’t know if we have jobs for people with disabilities.’ I ask, ‘Well, what kinds of jobs do you have for women or for people of color?’ and then they have this lightbulb moment. People with disabilities are people first. Disability is just one thing about a person, like race or gender. Everyone is unique. Eliminating assumptions and getting to know their skills and abilities is critical.”
By creating an environment where disability is a simple fact, not a problem to be solved, people have become more comfortable sharing their disability status. This shift does not minimize the impact of having a disability. Instead, it helps organizations understand how to allocate resources and tools equitably. This is crucial, as unemployment and underemployment are also much higher among those with disabilities versus those without.
As of February 24, 2024, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 7.2 percent in the U.S. That is nearly double the unemployment rate of people without disabilities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Council for Disability Awareness states that every year, about 5 percent of Americans will experience a short-term disability (illness or injury lasting six months or less). By proactively addressing these differences from the beginning, the bank is making their workplace more inclusive for those who have a disability… and a safe place for those who may become disabled in the future.
Olugbemi continues, “Our efforts have been so successful because it wasn’t just one person saying, ‘do this.’ Everyone from senior leaders to new employees has been invested in the process. We’re making it a part of the culture, not just a one-time thing, so people don’t have to worry about asking for what they need. It’s just there.”
To become more inclusive, an organization must be willing to change course. FHLBank Boston knows this firsthand. When employees began returning to the office with a hybrid schedule, the bank used an application that allowed people to reserve a workspace. While helpful for social distancing, a workplace that changes every day is not accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. Upon realizing this, the bank took steps to ensure that employees have a dedicated workspace, if needed.
Additional updates are also underway, including new signage with braille. When a new teammate with low vision was hired, the bank wanted to learn about best practices for onboarding for someone who is blind or has low vision. The Massachusetts Commission for the Blind provided a seeing eye dog etiquette class, and experts from the Perkins School for the Blind taught employees about assistive technology.
The bank has been collaborating with Work Without Limits since 2015 to improve inclusivity. The goal of Work Without Limits is to increase the employment rate among people with disabilities to be equal to that of people without disabilities. To do this, Work Without Limits provides people with disabilities with benefits counseling to manage their public benefits and wages. They also support a business network that shares best practices for hiring and inclusivity. The bank has repeatedly called on Work Without Limits to provide training to advance disability inclusion.
Programming has included lunch-and-learn sessions on disability etiquette training and targeted training for leaders about inclusive hiring and performance review processes. According to Ms. Rivers, the bank has significantly invested in educating all employees about the value of including people with disabilities: “FHLBank Boston didn’t just want to check the inclusivity box because it’s federally mandated. The bank is the five-star standard, and they want to keep growing in this way.”
Workplaces do not become accessible and inclusive overnight. FHLBank Boston’s decade-long commitment to inclusion has not waivered. When choosing a focus area for the new year, neurodiversity in the workplace was a natural choice. Neurodiversity refers to the many ways people experience and interact with the world, including how they think, learn, and behave, according to Harvard Medical School. Embracing neurological differences means recognizing and valuing the unique ways people think, instead of viewing those with neurodivergent brains as deficient.
Olugbemi said, “We don’t navigate the world in the same ways, and not everyone can control how they take in information. We need to learn about these differences so we can provide the necessary tools and resources. That’s what inclusivity does — it brings everyone into the conversation, so we can all improve together.”