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By Carmel Crimmins
June 4 (Reuters) - Caroline Ashrafi, who built a successfulcareer as a manager at KPMG in Britain while privatelystruggling with mental health problems, recalls being sent on amanagement training course on how to retain talented women.
She found that discussions - ostensibly intended to increasediversity in the workplace - had little to do with her.
"Most people were talking about childcare, workingpart-time, being a woman. And I just sat there and thought noneof them apply to me," she said. "What struck me then was that mybiggest barrier is my depression."
Companies are working harder than ever to make theirworkplaces diverse. But in their efforts to reach out to womenand members of ethnic minorities, many may be overlooking one ofthe biggest groups of under-represented talent in their midst:those living with disabilities.
The disabled are rarely covered in company reports intodiversity, despite being the world's largest minority group,numbering more than 1 billion, according to the World HealthOrganisation.
The debate around corporate diversity tends to be framed asa way of making workplaces less "pale, male and stale". If theproblem is that women and members of ethnic minorities areunder-represented, then the solution is to hire, retain andpromote more of them.
But some advocates say that reduces diversity to a narrowconversation about ticking gender and race boxes, rather thanlooking more broadly at the ways people are different.
"Sometimes when I talk to firms about working with them youoften get the 'Oh, we're not doing disability, we're doingwomen, we're doing women and black people at the moment,'" saidHelen Cooke, who advises companies on how to recruit and retaindisabled graduates in Britain.
"That is the approach a lot of them will take rather than,'let's be inclusive for everybody'."
A senior headhunter in London recalls looking for candidatesfor a top executive role at a major financial services firmwhich had been at pains to express its interest in "diversity".
His list of candidates included people of different ethnicbackgrounds, sexual orientation and physical disability.
"After our shortlist review meeting, the head of HR calledme and said rather sheepishly, 'What we were really wonderingwas...do you have any middle-aged white women?'," said theheadhunter, who declined to be identified because he is notauthorised to speak to the media.
THE FEAR FACTOR
The business case for having a diverse workforce andleadership is well understood. Different backgrounds andexperience encourage people to think differently, helpingorganisations to compete. Recruiting from wider groups broadensthe talent pool.
Both of those arguments apply to people living withdisabilities as surely as they apply to women or those fromethnic minorities.
Cooke, the consultant, says many companies arewell-intentioned, but don't know how to target talented disabledindividuals.
"There is a huge fear factor around disability and we areafraid of getting it wrong and we are afraid of what to do andwhat to say and embarrassing somebody," said Cooke, who has useda wheelchair all her life after suffering a spinal tumour as ababy.
Richard Priestley believes it is up to him to put people atease. Head of retirement income at Canada Life in the UK,Priestley broke his neck in what he describes as a "really dull"cycling accident, two weeks before he was due to get married in1998.
He was working with Dutch insurer Aegon inEdinburgh when he came off his bike, paralysing him from thechest down and leaving him with limited mobility in one hand. Hehas since worked for Lloyds Banking Group and nowCanada Life in London.
"As I have moved through various employers it is all aboutthe people around you who make it either easy or hard to do thejob in a wheelchair. The biggest challenge is that first timewhen people are almost tiptoeing around it."
Priestley said his injury has not had a major impact on hiscareer. He can travel for work and doesn't require much in theway of adjustments to his office. He is upfront about needingassistance when required.
"Occasionally, there might be a couple of steps up to abuilding but it's relatively easy to find a couple of heftypassersby and say, 'Would you mind giving me a hand?"
LIP SERVICE
One problem in encouraging companies to hire people withdisabilities is that many are not as visible as Priestley's.People who have disabilities that can be concealed may choose tohide them at the workplace for fear of being stigmatised.
Around 10 percent of university students in Britain are openabout being disabled, but people with declared disabilities onlymade up around 2 percent of applicants for graduate jobs in2011-2012 according to a study of 70,000 applications fromGradWeb, a recruitment group.
Ashrafi spent years hiding her depression from colleagues atKPMG until she realised the subterfuge was draining her ofenergy and hampering her career.
She "came out" and was staggered by the positive response.
"I thought, 'Oh my god, if I had known I was going to getthis much positive reaction, I would have done it years ago',"she said. "The attitude is definitely changing in favour ofdisabled people."
It's easier to be open about your mental health if youalready have a well-established career. Those starting out onthe career ladder may be afraid to expose a disability torecruiters.
"You can tell an awful lot by their facial reaction andquite often I will get a, 'How did you get into university' ora, 'How are you even in front of me,' kind of face," said amasters student in London, describing his experience withcorporate recruiters during a search for a banking job.
Hospitalised for two years at 17 for depression, thestudent, now 31, does not lie about the gap in his resume or whyhe didn't sit his secondary school exams.
He hasn't had depression for five years and hasn't taken aday off work or university in seven, but says companies seemedto overlook his academic achievements.
"In my experience, very few companies follow through ondiversity. It is largely lip service," said the student, whoasked not to be identified for fear of hurting his job prospectsfurther.
Dennis Stevenson, one of the few members of Britain'scorporate elite to come out about mental illness, agrees withthe glum assessment of firms' understanding.
"The world is changing but there are only a small minorityof corporations that are quite enlightened," he said.
Stevenson, who founded a successful management consultancyand has held directorships across British industry, opened upabout suffering from depression more than 15 years ago while inhis fifties and serving as chairman of media group Pearson.
He doubts whether he would have been as frank if he had beena career man rather than a wealthy entrepreneur, and advisesfellow sufferers to be cautious about going public if they aremid-career or starting out.
Stevenson, who was also chairman of UK bank HBOS, believescompanies' attitudes to mental illness will only change when topexecutives open up about their own experience of it.
"A big proportion of top business leaders have clinicalillnesses," he said. "The culture of doublethink and denial isabsolutely extraordinary." (Reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Peter Graff)
