Nine New Jersey companies have been named to the 2019 Disability Equality Index “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion” by Disability:IN and the American Association of People With Disabilities.
The index, which is in its fifth year, had a total of 180 companies making the list this year by scoring an 80% or above on the 2019 DEI. The DEI considers itself the “most comprehensive benchmarking too for disability inclusion.” To get on the list, companies were measured on inclusion criteria including: culture and leadership; enterprise-wide access; employment practices (benefits, recruitment, employment, education, retention and advancement, accommodations); community engagement; and supplier diversity.
“The DEI is designed to promote and advance disability inclusion practices and policies within corporate America that lead to better employment outcomes for and inclusion of people with disabilities, as employees, customers and suppliers. When businesses include people with disabilities, everybody wins,” Jill Houghton, CEO and president of Disability:IN, said.
In New Jersey, five companies scored 100% and four companies scored 90%. Zero were in the 80% range. They are as follows:
100%
- American Water, Camden;
- Merck, Kenilworth;
- Prudential, Newark;
- TD Bank, Cherry Hill;
- Unilever, U.S. HQ: Englewood Cliffs.
90%
- BD, Franklin Lakes;
- Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick;
- Quest Diagnostics, Secaucus;
- Sanofi, U.S. HQ: Bridgewater.
“At American Water, we embrace and value the fact that we’re beautifully different, through our varying abilities, strengths, experiences and viewpoints,” Susan Story, CEO and president, American Water, said. “By fostering an inclusive and diverse environment in the workplace, we all play a role in making American Water a physically and emotionally safe place for our employees to do what they do best – serving customers and communities with safe, clean, reliable and affordable water and wastewater services. We are proud to be recognized for our inclusion and diversity practices and as an ally to those with different abilities.”
“As an employer of more than 46,000 people across the United States, we are committed to hiring an inclusive workforce that is representative of our patients and clients, which is why we value disability inclusion and support inclusive programming such as our DiverseAbilities Employee Business Network,” Cecilia McKenney, senior vice president, chief human resources officer of Quest Diagnostics, said. “The varied experiences of each of our employees makes us stronger as a company and supports Quest Diagnostics’ goal of becoming an Employer of Choice for the disability community.”
To see the full list of companies, click here.
