In this exclusive interview, Valuable 500 Founder Caroline Casey spoke to Rosaleen Blair, Founder and Chair of Alexander Mann Solutions, about creating working cultures in which difference is celebrated, and the talent opportunities available to inclusive employers.
Rosaleen Blair is Founder and Chair of Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), a global workforce solutions firm employing more than 6,500 experts around the world, whose clients include 100+ blue-chip companies.
Rosaleen founded the firm in 1996 and was also one of the first leaders to join the Valuable 500. So what inspired her to sign up?
As an organisation, Rosaleen explains that AMS tries to promote a culture that celebrates difference, in order to create an environment in which people can truly be the best version of themselves. Therefore, joining the Valuable 500 presented an opportunity to promote that vision at scale and be part of a community that enables organisations to take the challenge and learn more. “It was too great an opportunity to miss”.
But it was also important to Rosaleen on a personal level. Being dyslexic means that she has always been aware of difference, something which she sees as “a huge, huge, huge advantage”, adding “it has always been an advantage because I’m wired in a different way, I think in a different way.” In fact, she believes that her dyslexia has contributed to her professional success, saying “I don’t think I’d be here today if I wasn’t tapping into that in some way”.
In turn, this has impacted how she views the importance of diversity and inclusion as a leader. “If someone has something about them, and they have to hide it, then I think that’s a very poor indictment of the society we live in.”
According to a piece of research commissioned by the Valuable 500, in partnership with EY, 7 per cent of C-Suite leaders have a disability, but four out of five admitted to not disclosing. Rosaleen believes that this points to the need for more inclusive cultures and environments where difference is celebrated and it’s recognised “that’s just part of who you are”, adding “I don’t believe you can truly be authentic if you’re not being open about you as a whole individual”.
When asked why many businesses are still not including disability as part of the inclusion agenda, Rosaleen says focus is important, but within reason. “It isn’t a pick and mix, it isn’t one or the other. It’s actually creating an inclusive organisation that celebrates difference of whatever sort.” She believes that unfortunately disability has been an afterthought for many business leaders.
However, in her opinion, the disabled community is an “untapped pool of talent”, a fact that many of the most successful and “enlightened” companies in the world are now waking up to.
We need to make our organisations far more accessible and open, to celebrate this amazing opportunity.
And how does this relate to the business of talent? As Chair of a workforce solutions firm, Rosaleen explains that she has witnessed a rise in clients engaging with the conversation around disability inclusion. She points out that, in her experience, valuing difference is hugely beneficial to companies in terms of employee retention. “A lot of the people that I talk to, who have had one challenge or another, when they find an organisation that is willing to adapt and support them, honestly the additional discretionary effort that you get from that person is just second to none.”
Ultimately, when it comes to disability inclusion, Rosaleen states ‘we should be doing it because it’s the right thing to do, and plus it makes good business sense.”
In her view, it’s also important that businesses “create the stage and the opportunity” for people who are willing to share their own experiences and start a conversation about disability.
“The more people share their stories, I think the more people will feel comfortable that it’s just another part of you.”
In conversation with Rosaleen Blair.
You can find out more about what Rosaleen Blair and AMS have committed to as part of The Valuable 500 campaign on AMS’s commitment page.
