To understand the right to work of people with disabilities, we turned to Theresa Shearer, Chief Executive Officer of Enable. Enable works to support people with disabilities to find jobs in the open labour market. Theresa leads this organisation with a lot of experience, knowledge and passion. Drawing upon her background in professional recruitment services, her extensive experience in organisational design and development, and with her success in leading Enable to become one of the country’s fastest growing and most impactful charities, she gives us a view of businesses hiring people with disabilities in Scotland. Read Theresa’s full interview as she takes us through her personal journey of helping drive the agenda of employment of people with disabilities in Scotland.

Tell me about how you entered into the disability sector.

Theresa: I label my journey into the disability sector as ‘a-typical’. I come from an educational background of political sciences and business. Little did I know that it was the perfect mix for what the future held for me.

My career kicked off in the private sector where I worked as a Recruitment Consultant. This period of my career was a wave of knowledge on personalities, employability and effective strategies to attract and retain key talent within organisations.

Then I decided it was time for a change. I took a short break to have my wonderful 3 kids and during that time I freelanced and worked with some management consultancies. Then, one day I was approached by an NGO in the UK to work for them on an innovative employment project.

I was particularly intrigued by this opportunity as I did not have much knowledge on the potential of NGOs in impacting lives of people, and so I thought, let’s give it a shot!

And it was an absolute eye opener for me. I saw how NGOs with the right attitude and policies can make a world of a difference. I entered this sector, unusually for many NGOs, with a business mindset. Therefore, the starting point for me to come into the disability sector has to be the idea of people, profit, planet. I took what I learned in the private sector and applied it in an ethical, values-based manner in the NGO sector to drive purpose-driven impact through a financially stable and sustainable business model.

Rewinding the clock back to your HR and consulting years, how open were businesses to hiring people with disabilities?

Theresa: In the mid-90s and early 2000s, hiring people with disabilities was not really spoken about. I noticed that most businesses just wanted to focus on the productivity of their employees, not much on their well-being and general awareness. Concepts like Diversity and Inclusion training did not even exist. So, I actually saw the beginning of inclusion of people with disabilities at the workplace. The US is where the conversation originated from, with Senator Tom Harkin piloting the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and slowly, we saw change in the UK and Europe.

We started seeing business and big corporations understanding the value of hiring people with disabilities. The idea started growing into seeing people with disabilities in the workforce as profitable for their business – and not just a ‘nice’ thing to do.  It went from not being talked about, to being an uphill battle, to the better – but not yet perfect - position we are in today. I have had the privilege to see this progress right in front of my eyes. Companies like Boston Consulting Group  and  Ernst & Young (EY) started conducting research on returns of investing in people with disabilities.

When you have big consulting agencies advocating for such inclusive policies, it doesn’t take much time for other corporations to follow. It was almost like a domino effect with businesses.

Coming to Scotland, do you see the difference while comparing other countries in Europe?

Theresa: Yes, I think in Scotland we are a very socially democratic and liberal democracy. I do think there is a lot of openness between our government and business to work together for inclusion of people with disabilities at the workplace.  

Being a small country also helps! The networks between government, academia and businesses are quite tight and that makes understanding each other much better.

Our model is also very self-directed, and we want people with disabilities to find their own identity within society and not outside of it. In fact, at Enable, we want to know the aspirations of each individual person with a disability and support them to secure and sustain the best job for them. In Scotland we use the self-direction principle. So as a country, we are certainly very forward looking. It is also important to properly grasp the concept of inclusion. We do work for inclusion of people with disabilities at the workplace, but we also look into other aspects of inclusion like having anti-racist policies. My point is, you can’t choose to include one part of the society and not the other. At Enable we make sure to follow this idea very strictly.

How do you know companies are not hiring people with disabilities for tokenism?

Theresa: My reflection on this is that these big businesses are really ’switched on’ when it comes to employing people with disabilities. They are being authentic. For example, EY stands by the idea of “building a better working world”; they understand the concept of neuro diversity and the value of welcoming and including neuro divergent employees for the success of their business. As mentioned earlier, its simply good business for them!

What are some improvements you would like to see in the disability sector?

Theresa: Yes, we have progressed but there is a lot of improvement still needed. We still need to fight to get more people with disabilities to work. Even though we have progressed drastically from the mid-90s, we aren’t quite where we should be.

Secondly, we need to celebrate our wins. As a sector we are always so busy moving onto the next task that we forget to talk about things that worked. Successful stories of people with disabilities entering into a work environment and retaining their jobs; these testimonies push other businesses to have more inclusive policies.  

Lastly, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as a standalone NGO sector. We are part of a larger eco-system, with the government, the private sector and the NGO sector- it’s all interconnected. It takes all 3 to make a difference and move the dial.

Lastly, looking back at your whole career can you share some of your proud moments?

Theresa: On a personal level, I think going to university has to be one of them. I was the first person in my family to study at university, and having secured my business degree in Scotland in 1994, I then had the privilege of attending Harvard Business School 20 years later, studying alongside highly effective and successful NGO Chief Executives from across the globe.

In terms of professional achievements, I am proud of the Breaking Barriers programme, which I co-founded with Professor David Hillier of Strathclyde Business School in 2018. It is a groundbreaking partnership, extending the opportunity to attend university to young people who have learning disabilities. They achieve an accredited qualification and gain real work experience with some of the country’s largest corporate employers.

Seeing these success stories – and how a platform has been built and strengthened for future generations of people with disabilities to access inclusive workplaces – has made all the struggles worthwhile.