How directors can unlock disability talent and increase productivity

SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis AM GAICD explains how directors can tweak their organisation’s governance to unlock disability talent and increase productivity.

Directors hold the strategic levers that determine whether an organisation merely signals its commitment to diversity or delivers measurable value from it. 

For boards wrestling with skills shortages, reputational expectations and tighter margins, one answer is hiding in plain sight — Australia’s under-utilised community of more than one million people with disability who want to work. 

Around 113,000 of them are actively seeking employment today, even as one in three businesses say they cannot fill critical roles.

The Pathways to Possibilities report from human and social services NFP organisation  Settlement Services International (SSI) translates research and lived experience into four barrier-breaking commitments that directors can embed in governance settings to convert good intentions into economic and social dividends. 

Here, we outline why each commitment matters at the board table and the governance moves to help directors turn possibility into performance.

1. Put disability inclusion at the heart of your business

Boards set purpose, culture and risk appetite. By framing disability inclusion as a strategic value creator rather than a compliance exercise, directors unlock fresh thinking, higher engagement and improved decision-making.

Governance moves

• Codify commitment in the enterprise strategy. Whether you approve a new ESG roadmap, as we are embarking on at SSI, or refresh your people strategy, ensure that you embed disability participation targets alongside financial metrics and climate goals.

• Mandate co-design. Require management to involve employees with disability when designing policies and products. Utilise their unique problem-solving skills — honed through navigating systems not built for them — to help lead to innovation and customer insights.

• Monitor board composition. Ask the nominations committee to broaden the skills matrix to include lived experience of disability and inclusive-design expertise. Too many boards still rely on ad hoc “community consults” instead of appointing directors who carry that knowledge into every debate.

When our corporate partner Allianz co-designed an intake program with social enterprise Jigsaw, trainees cleared a backlog of over 2000 claims in two weeks and have since scaled across four states, demonstrating how inclusion and productivity go hand-in-hand.

2. Become disability confident

Misconceptions about cost, safety and red tape still deter boards from pushing management harder.  The Pathways to Possibilities report shows:

• 88 per cent of Australians with disability need no workplace adjustments at all.

• 60 per cent of modifications cost nothing and government funds exist for the rest.

• Employees with disability record 34 per cent fewer accidents — and every dollar spent on adjustments returns $40 in benefits.

Governance moves

• Integrate disability risk into the audit and risk committee charter so that you view inaccessibility as an operational risk and shift the mindset from “nice to have” to “must fix”.

• Leverage external expertise by partnering with disability employment services and JobAccess to audit premises, policies and digital assets.Confidence grows rapidly when boards see the numbers in their own profit and loss reports, not just in case studies.

3. Empower leaders to drive change

Tone from the top is pivotal. When managers believe the board is serious, they prioritise inclusion amid competing pressures.

Governance moves

• Set measurable executive KPIs and consider linking a portion of remuneration to disability hiring, promotion and engagement targets — because what gets measured, gets done.

• Champion visible role models by encouraging executives with disability to share their stories and support leadership-development pathways that prepare high-potential employees with disability for management roles.

• Sponsor a community of practice such as SSI’s forum, which includes Australia Post, Crown, City of Sydney and Woolworths Group. This forum allows leaders to exchange practical solutions and benchmark progress. Directors can host quarterly board-level briefings to ensure lessons flow into governance discussions.

When executive accountant Abrahim Darouiche spoke about his lived experience of employment barriers at the Pathways to Possibilities symposium last year, he explained inaccessible recruitment practices and a lack of information on workplace accommodations had left him at a disadvantage when applying for roles, despite a master’s degree in business and commerce.

“Simple things such as making job ads accessible and training hiring managers to discuss accessibility needs make a big difference in ensuring people like me feel welcome,” he noted.

4. Create a safe, supportive and accommodating culture

Culture opens or closes the door on talent — and people disclose disability or request adjustments only when they trust the organisation.

Governance moves

• Make psychological safety a board metric. Include “comfort to request accommodations” in pulse surveys and demand corrective action where scores lag.

• Resource flexibility. Whether height-adjustable desks or remote-working policies, most accommodations are simple once endorsed by governance. Boards should treat accessibility upgrades like any other capital project.

• Embed intersectionality. Women, First Nations and CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) people with disability experience compounding barriers. Overseeing intersectional policies ensures inclusion efforts are equitable and future-proofed against social expectations.

Boards that foster safe disclosure unlock the discretionary effort that drives both productivity and retention.

The strategic payoff for directors

The Pathways to Possibilities project calculates that if each of the 584,097 businesses in Greater Sydney hired just one person with disability, national disability unemployment could be eliminated four times over. For individual organisations the benefits are immediate:

• Lower absenteeism and higher retention translate directly into operating-cost savings.

• Brand reputation and social licence strengthen with investors, regulators and customers.

• Access to new markets — the global disability economy is valued at US$13 trillion in disposable income.

Put simply, boards that act now secure a competitive edge while fulfilling their fiduciary duty to manage talent and risk, and to create long-term value.

Where to next?

• Table the SSI report. Schedule a board discussion focused on the four commitments and current gaps.

• Set targets and milestones. Align them with strategic and remuneration frameworks.

• Commission a JobAccess workplace audit and tap the Employment Assistance Fund to underwrite adjustments at no net cost.

Join SSI’s Community of Practice. Engage peers and people with lived experience to accelerate learning.

By championing these commitments, we can dismantle barriers that have stifled talent for more than 30 years and, in the process, build more innovative, resilient and trusted organisations.

Violet Roumeliotis is CEO of SSI and deputy president of the Australian Council of Social Services. She holds non-executive roles on the NSW Women’s Advisory Council, NSW Ageing and Disability Commission Advisory Board and NSW Commissioner’s Modern Slavery Advisory Council.

This article first appeared under the headline 'From intention to impact' in the August 2025 issue of Company Director magazine.