80% of all people with lived experience of disability or ill-health are individuals who acquire that human experience during their prime working years. And with roughly 12% of every workforce comprised of employees with a disability/experience of ill-health, it means that a lot of people are often making sense of a new identity and what it means to be human – alongside trying to do well at work. Over the years thousands of employees with disabilities have shared with us that it is often their own lack of personal disability confidence combined with having to manage disability ‘alone’ at work that frequently hampers their careers and risks damaging their mental and physical wellbeing. This lack of inner confidence can cause colleagues to feel hesitant in requesting the adjustments or extra support that would enhance their productivity; reluctant to share their personal information or stories at work; and unable to bring their authentic selves to work. 

We are going to change that. During the course of 2021, we embarked on our Purple Confidence project whereby we invited individuals with considerable lived experience of disability and life experience of managing difference to join impairment-specific focus groups, sharing what they have learned that ‘works’. Armed with this hard-earned know-how and creative thinking, we have produced guidance in the form of Helpful To Know documents to expedite for so many others this journey to what we call inner Purple Confidence.

During the month of February we look forward to sharing with you Helpful To Know documents covering:

• Hearing loss
• Dyslexia
• Mental health
• RSI and upper limb conditions
• Progressive and/or fluctuating conditions
• Musculoskeletal conditions

Do leverage our helpful resources and peer engagement opportunities this month (listed below) created to support you to empower your colleagues to build their inner confidence. 

February learning & development opportunities

Connect with your peers at one of this month’s peer group learning sessions – these small, interactive one-hour sessions for ERG/Network leaders and those working towards disability inclusion are a great way to share good practice, swap ideas, share challenges and opportunities and build your leadership capabilities.

We have four sessions to choose from: 

• Wednesday, 2nd February at 08:00 – 09:00 (GMT)
• Thursday, 10th February at 16:00 – 17:00 (GMT)
• Tuesday, 15th February at 11:00 – 12:00 (GMT)
• Wednesday, 23rd February at 13:00 – 14:00 (GMT)

Positively impacting people’s lives and accelerating cultural change are among the core purposes of a high-performing ERG/Network and our Working Group meetings this month provide a unique platform for ERG/Network leaders to discuss and feed directly into our work in these areas. 

PurpleSpace’s ERG Global Forum, our strategic Working Group bringing together organisations operating globally who support us to deliver tools and resources in order to accelerate cultural change for employees with disabilities around the world via the power of ERGs/Networks, will meet on Tuesday, 8th February.

On Wednesday, 23rd February we will assemble PurpleSpace’s Impact Steering Group – this strategic Working Group assists us in setting the standards by which we create collateral and resources that describe the true value of disability ERGs/Networks and the impact they can have both within an organisation and beyond.

If you are interested in finding out more about our Working Groups, please do get in touch via hello@purplespace.org.

Further reading & helpful resources

Our extensive Resource Library has a number of resources to support you in embedding this month’s theme, including:

• 10 Steps to Building Disability Confidence at Work: A briefing paper for employees with disabilities or long-term health conditions containing tips on how to stay confident at work.
• Purple Confidence Maturity Model: A model enabling individuals to assess their level of confidence and providing a practical framework to evidence their own personal confidence journey.
• Insights Report: A collation of top tips and reflections from conversations with our members who attended previous peer group learning sessions on How to Encourage Colleagues to Build Inner Confidence.

Spotlight On … Lorna Woodman, Marks & Spencer: Video interview with Lorna Woodman (Co-founder of the M&S Buddy Network and member of PurpleSpace's Purple Confidence Think Tank) sharing her wisdom on building inner confidence.