Attraction, Retention, & Engagement of Women with Invisible Disabilities-It Matters

 In 2014, it was found that 27.4% of women ages 18-64 identified with a disability in some form, compared to 20.8% of men in the same age range. And while the rest of society has visible clues to indicate some disabilities, there is a large faction (sometimes estimated as high as 74% of all disabilities) that are invisible, unseen. A 2017 study showed only 37% of working-aged people with disability are employed in the US. How should companies hire, retain, grow, and include this marginalized group?

At Business Agility 2020, Jes Osrow shared why organizations should be thinking about how to attract and retain women with invisible disabilities, including what some of the biggest factors that attract this marginalized group are along with some of the biggest "red flags;" how managers can improve best practices to be more inclusive of a population that won't often disclose; and some of the outcomes of conversation around disability and career.

About Jes Osrow:

Jes is the Head of Learning and Organizational Development at Quartet Health. Her goal is to create fundamental change in People Operations. She empowers organizational culture to be inclusive, diverse, and promote equity for all employees. As Co-Founder of The Rise Journey (www.therisejourney.com), she works with growth stage companies designing and implementing strategies to build cohesive teams while developing a sustainable organizational culture. Jes puts theoretical People Ops ideas into scalable best practices.

As a "no BS" kind of person, Jes is focused on hands on engagement, real world experiences, and communicating successes and struggles in personal and professional realms. Her talks and workshops are engaging, transparent, and relatable, with action-oriented takeaways. Focus areas include: Career development, Invisible disability advocacy, Imposter syndrome, Diversity recruitment and engagement strategies, and Women in tech.

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