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Santander, Sony, Citi, Orange, Sodexo, GSK and Coca-Cola European Partners are among 60+ companies to sign up to The Valuable 500 in December and January, more than a company a day.
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New members announced as The Valuable 500 founder Caroline Casey prepares to return to Davos a year on from launch.
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Announcement coincides with the release of Tortoise’s #Responsibility100 index – first index on corporate responsibility of FTSE companies to include disability.
London, 15th January, 12:00pm GMT: A year on from its groundbreaking launch on the stage of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, disability inclusion movement The Valuable 500 has announced that over 60 further global companies, including Sony, Citi, GSK, Orange, Sodexo, Coca-Cola European Partners and Santander, have committed to putting inclusion of people with disabilities on their board room agendas.
Unveiled at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting in January 2019, the launch of the The Valuable 500 was the first time disability was discussed on the main stage of the Meeting with the support of global business leaders.
The campaign calls on 500 global businesses to commit to placing disability inclusion on their business leadership agendas, making a firm commitment to eradicating the exclusion of disabled people in business.
The latest members to announce their membership today are Aer Lingus, Acosta, AIG, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, All Nippon Airways, Amot Investment, Aroma Espresso Bar, Assuta, Ayalon, Azrieli Shopping Centre, Bank Yahav, Barratt Developments PLC., Britvic, CCEP (Coca-Cola European Partners), Cisco, Citi, Concentrix, Delek Group, Direct Line Group, Dow, DSM, Ecowize, Egged, Enterprise Holdings, Google Israel, Greencore, GSK, Hachette, Harel Insurance, Hertz, Hoxby, IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), Jacobs, Japan Airlines, Kantar, Kao Corporation, Keio Plaza Hotel, Kerry Foods, KNT-CT, London Luton Airport, MSD (tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA), Mount Sinai Health System, NEC, NTT Group, OAMTC, OmniServ, Orange, Ornua Co-op, PageGroup, Pearson, Phoenix Group, Pictet Group, Psagot, Quilter, RPG Group, Sage, Santander, Sodexo, SoftBank, Sony Group, Sony Music UK, Taldor, The Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, TOTO Group, UniCredit Bank Austria and Wilson James.
Over 200 companies have now pledged to take a definitive stand on diversity encompassing disability in the workplace, including Virgin Media, Microsoft and Sainsburys.
One year since launching at WEF’s Annual Meeting, Founder of The Valuable 500, Caroline Casey, will return to Davos next week to announce the results of the campaign and debate the progress achieved on disability inclusion in business, speaking alongside business leaders including Chairman of The Valuable 500 Paul Polman, and Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer.
Caroline Casey, Founder, The Valuable 500, said:
It is extremely promising to see global companies from all four corners of the globe and across a vast array of sectors, continuing to pledge to join our disability inclusion movement nearly twelve months on from its launch. As The Valuable 500’s historic return to Davos fast approaches, it throws into sharp relief our progress in tackling ‘diversish’ attitudes in the workplace over the past year. We gladly welcome these new members – I am certain they will be instrumental in ensuring disability inclusion becomes the norm in working life globally.
At Davos, Caroline will discuss The Valauble 500’s journey over the past twelve months, and its vision for 2020. Details of key events below:
The Valuable 500 Press Conference, 21st January, 15:00-15:30, Media Village, Press Conference Room.
- Moderator: Oliver Cann, World Economic Forum.
- Speakers: Caroline Casey, Founder, The Valuable 500; Paul Polman, Chairman, The Valuable 500; Peter Grauer, Chairman, Bloomberg; and Eddie Ndopu, Human Rights Activist.
The Valuable 500 panel, ‘Closing the disability inclusion gap’, 23rd January, 13:00-13:45, Salon, Congress Centre.
- Moderator: Caroline Casey.
- Speakers: Molly Burke, Motivational Speaker and Youtuber; Award-winning activist and United Nations Secretary-General’s Advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals Edward Ndopu; and Mike Fries, CEO and Vice Chairman of Liberty Global.
This announcement follows the launch this week by British media outlet Tortoise of the first ever sustainability ranking of FTSE 100 companies, measured by their commitment to key social, environmental and ethical objectives, to include disability.
Launched yesterday, Tortoise’s #Responsibility100 Index finds that only 39 FTSE 100 employers (or notable subsidiaries) are Disability Confident. Of the 39 FTSE 100 disability confident employers, only 7 measured disability representation.
Only 10 of the FTSE 100 reported the proportion of their employees who disclosed as disabled; none referred to representation at a senior management level; and no companies had calculated a disability pay gap.
The results from Tortoise’s #Responsibility100 Index are hugely disappointing – the fact that only seven FTSE 100 companies measure disability representation is frankly shocking, and implies that few FTSE businesses are actively working to ensure full inclusion for disabled people. These insights clearly outline the huge task that still lies ahead to ensure our biggest businesses are inclusive for disabled people. It is my hope that, through The Valuable 500, we can ensure such figures soon become a thing of the past.
All of our colleagues at Citi, without fail, should feel welcome and empowered to succeed in the workplace and their communities. Our commitment to disability inclusion is central to this aim and why we see the Valuable 500’s mission as vital to strengthening corporate inclusivity across the world.
At Coca-Cola European Partners, we are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve and celebrates the unique characteristics that make each of us who we are. I am proud to stand alongside other business leaders in The Valuable 500 and say that we must offer inclusion to all, and must do more to support equality for disabled people within our business. This will build a greater diversity of ideas, thinking and experience. We know more inclusive teams perform better, leading to greater innovation and ultimately better business results.
At Concentrix, diversity and inclusion is the foundation of our organization. It’s inherent and essential in our culture, operating philosophy and core values. This makes for better business and contributes to our objective of being the greatest customer engagement services company.
As a member of The Valuable 500, Jacobs is committed to the journey of becoming a more accessible and inclusive company, leveraging our Inclusion & Diversity platform to encompass disability in the workplace on a global scale, while empowering employees to bring their full, authentic selves to work. Through our ACE (Access. Connect. Empower.) Employee Network and our Mental Health Matters program, we actively support the adaptive challenges and mental health of our people and communities and continually encourage employees to find strength in our differences.
As a business we are totally committed to making a difference in the community. Our relationship with Special Olympics has led us to start a programme of employing people with intellectual disabilities. Whilst we’re in the early stages of the programme it is working and we see a real opportunity to do much more within Kerry Foods. This is great for the communities we work in and by improving our diversity I truly believe this is driving better business performance.
We are proud to be part of The Valuable 500 alongside hundreds of other businesses across the world. The work they are doing to raise awareness around disability is an inspiration for our own improvements as we strive to be a great place to work for everyone and to provide accessible air travel for our passengers.
As a Business School, we are uniquely positioned to inspire leaders with powerful ideas, equip them with effective frameworks and tools for making real impact, as well as provide an independent platform for an open dialog on the burning issues for the business and society. We aim to integrate sustainability related topics into our product offering and operations as well as develop our internal expertise.
This is a vital initiative to ensure businesses are committed to opening up opportunities for those with disabilities. Too often in the workplace we view disability through the lens of deficit rather than strength. As a result, people with disabilities in the UK are almost twice as likely to be unemployed than those without a disability.
Everyone should be given a chance to reach their potential. Businesses fostering an inclusive culture will benefit from the distinct insights and perspectives of disabled people, which are often born of resilience and a typically strong work ethic. I’ve already seen this evidenced through the work we’ve done with those who struggle with their mental health.
Our differences are what make us unique and valuable – at Quilter we believe we can only be our best if we learn to leverage everybody’s contribution.
About two years ago we made a commitment to recruit differently abled people and we now have over 200+ such people. We are proud to have them as part of the larger RPG family and we are a happier place because of the diversity they bring to the group. We are fully committed to Valuable 500 to make RPG an increasingly inclusive conglomerate.
We are convinced that by mobilizing our employees towards a more inclusive growth, we can eliminate misconceptions and biases that hold people with mental or physical disabilities back to make sure everyone can reach their full potential. We hope many other companies will join the Valuable 500 initiative to make our collective efforts part of the usual way of doing business going forward.
Media contacts.
Harriet Potter, Seven Hills.
- Email: [email protected]
Richard Poston, Director of Communications, the Valuable 500.
- Email: [email protected]
About The Valuable 500
Launched by social entrepreneur and activist Caroline Casey at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2019, The Valuable 500 aims to put disability on the global business leadership agenda.
The Valuable 500 was created by Binc, the organisation founded by Caroline Casey in 2015, with a mission to ignite a historic global movement for a new age of business inclusion – capitalising on Caroline Casey’s 18-year track record of success engaging over 450 organisations.
Our goal is to persuade 500 multinational companies that have at least 1,000 employees to make a public commitment to advance disability inclusion in their organisation. By engaging the most influential business leaders and brands, we want to create a tipping point within business that unlocks the business, social and economic value of the 1.3 billion people living with disabilities around the world, and the millions of us who will become disabled over time
We believe that if business takes a lead, society and government will follow, truly inclusive businesses can build truly inclusive societies.
