For decades, disability inclusion has been framed as charity, compliance or corporate social responsibility. The intentions are often good, but the results are predictable: pilot programmes that never scale, roles that lack advancement, and initiatives that quietly disappear once the grant cycle ends. Inclusion, when treated as a moral gesture rather than an operational strategy, rarely survives market realities.
But a different model is emerging, and it treats inclusion not as a campaign or branding exercise, but as a productivity engine.
Across global labour markets, employers face a common crisis: persistent talent shortages, rising turnover and roles that demand precision, focus and consistency.
At the same time, the global average of unemployed or underemployed disabled adults is often estimated at 80 to 90 per cent, amounting to millions of capable adults who have an elevated ability for sustained focus, heightened pattern recognition, high attention to detail, reliability, strong visual processing, systems thinking, comfort with repetition and honest communication.
These two challenges are solutions to each other, but the hiring process often demands savvy social skills, which obstructs the pathway to employment.
This is a structural issue that can shift as uniquely abled workers (a better term to use than disabled) are recognised as essential to productivity and, therefore, baked into the very root of business strategy. At that point, it stops being a “programme” and it starts to become a normal part of a business’s structure.
In Abu Dhabi, the Zayed Authority for People of Determination has been building a proof point for what this looks like in practice through its Bee Brand of enterprises. Since its launch in 2019, Bee has created sustainable, skill-based employment for people of determination, proving that inclusion, when professionally designed, can generate real market value.
A different model is emerging, and it treats inclusion as a productivity engine
Across its Bee portfolio, teams contribute to advanced, precision-oriented work such as 3D machining and robotics, while also operating consumer-facing and craft-based businesses including coffee, textiles, flowers, upscale chocolates and cheese. These enterprises are intentionally designed to demonstrate success as jobs are created and matched to an individual’s inherent abilities and then taught the technical skills to achieve productivity results.
The result is not just social impact, but also operational reliability.
From Fortune 500 Companies down to small manufacturers, employers report that their uniquely abled workers have higher retention, lower error rates and increased productivity in roles that previously experienced chronic churn. Productivity gains of 30 to 50 per cent and retention rates far exceeding industry norms are not anomalies and are indicators of a system designed correctly. And in this context, inclusion becomes measurable.
Many well-intentioned initiatives fail for the same reason startups fail – they are not built around the long-term financial strategy of the organisation.
The current model of inclusion starts with the “charitable” notion of hiring someone who thinks differently. Employers are asked to make accommodations without being shown how those accommodations translate into value. Training is not individualised and roles are not being considered strategically. In short, there is a misalignment of where the individual can shine for the business and themselves.
Inclusion done well starts with an examination of the jobs within a company that need to be optimised. Upon identifying those roles, employers can then assess the inherent abilities needed within that job that are naturally possessed by the unique thinker. Those abilities include a long list of traits associated with business interests including consistency, accuracy, sustained focus, pattern recognition, attention to detail, reliability, adherence to rules, systems thinking and comfort with repetition.
Matching the job needs to the person is where this model finds success.
And what makes this approach powerful is that it is replicable. The operational strategy has five steps to it. First, it requires analysing HR pain points by identifying jobs that are hard to fill. Search for the employment gaps and figure out why they exist. Second, you need to evaluate the inherent abilities required within those jobs to be successful.
Third, match candidates who naturally have that specified set of natural abilities. For example, we found that those who enjoy repetition loved making the specialised cheeses because of the constant motions of rolling and stirring the ingredients.
Fourth, provide skills-based training to those candidates. And finally, continue tracking the return on investment across the team to ensure success.
This protocol can be applied across industries and geographies. In fragile or post-conflict regions, the stakes are even higher. Employment pathways are not just about individual success but also about economic stability, reduced dependency and creating social cohesion. Inclusion, when designed correctly, becomes a development strategy.
The question for business leaders is no longer whether inclusion matters. The question is whether they are willing to design it with the same seriousness they apply to any other core function.
This strengthens the moral argument for inclusion. Dignity is not delivered through symbolic participation. It is delivered through meaningful work, fair compensation, advancement opportunities and economic contribution. When uniquely abled adults are positioned as producers rather than beneficiaries, the narrative changes. So does the outcome.
The Zayed Authority for People of Determination offers a compelling global example, demonstrating that when inclusion is engineered with seriousness, discipline and humanity, it can redefine what modern workforce design looks like anywhere in the world.