DEI Strategies to Provide More Accessible Healthcare Services

Providing an accessible and fair workplace for all is not just morally sound, it’s good business. 

Having an inclusive workplace is worthwhile because: 

• It broadens the available talent pool, as your workplace becomes more accessible to a wider range of candidates.
• It’s popular with employees across the board. For example, research from Glassdoor found that diversity is appealing to job candidates.

• It fosters improved workplace culture, as employees feel safer, more valued and better understood.

For more on this, we have a blog about disability discrimination in the workplace. And, in a separate post, we discuss facilitating disability disclosure in the workplace. 

Every business should be sensitive to the possibility of serving vulnerable customers. In a healthcare context, this includes (but not limited to) physical or mental health difficulties, physical disability, lower financial capabilities, cognitive disorders, or vulnerability to financial abuse or as a result of a life event (such as bereavement).

You can work towards being a responsible company to vulnerable customers the following ways: 

• Conduct regular risk and control assessments (RCAs) to ensure that vulnerable customers are catered to. 
• Research what policies and actions impact vulnerable customers, and draft policies and products based on this data.
• Tailor communications to vulnerable customers. 
• Train staff on a- identifying vulnerability even when it’s not disclosed and b- in communicating with vulnerable customers. 

Some companies, with employees around the world, should take into account how staff needs differ based on where they’re located. 

For example: 

• Some countries don’t offer as comprehensive a state healthcare plan as others. 
• Laws and human rights differ from country to country, leaving some staff vulnerable to institutional prejudice or challenges (based on gender, sexuality, race or religion). 
• Limited resources for healthcare or mental healthcare in the employees’ country of residence. 
• Telemedicine, which we discuss in our blog, digital health for a mobile workforce.

When drawing up benefits and health plans, take into account the employees’ location. 

This is growing in popularity, but is should be engaged with earnestly and meaningfully. 

Ways in which an employer can promote wellbeing include: 

When it comes to benefits, it’s important to take into account differences in who receives them. 

So, for employees, consider the following groups who might not automatically be catered for in health benefits: 

• Modern families – who may not be covered in the same ways as families that have married parents 
• Aging workers – who might need coverage in different ways
• Disability adjustments – for those whose needs might not be fully addressed

While some employee benefits are enjoyed across the board (high salaries, for instance, or additional paid time off), there should also be nuance and accommodation made for different types of colleagues, too.

Here are some ways a company can achieve this.  

Health insurance is not a one-size-fits-all. So, for workplace coverage to be inclusive, employers should take into account different circumstances and extend health insurance accordingly. 

This might mean extending health insurance benefits to partners who might not be covered as a spouse, such as LGBTQIA dependents or partners who are unmarried. Other examples of inclusive healthcare benefits might include fertility treatments or gender-based care (such as gender confirmation surgery). 

This is especially useful to carers or to those with a specific, chronic condition. Flexible work arrangements can take the following shapes: 

• Allowing workers to operate outside of the traditional 9-5 (starting earlier or later, for instance). 
• Providing hybrid or work-from-home arrangements. This is especially useful for colleagues with mobility challenges. 
• Allowing a “compressed” working week, where employees work the same amount of hours over fewer days (four ten-hour days, instead of five eight-hour days for example). This is useful for colleagues with caring obligations (for children or elderly relatives). 

Braille, as described by the UN, is “a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols. Braille (named after its inventor in 19th century France, Louis Braille) is used by blind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font.”

For a range of resources, including videos from prominent public figures like Stevie Wonder, visit the UN’s web page about World Braille Day, which takes place annually on January 4th.