Expand your horizons

Lauren Rowles strived for sporting greatness and became a World, European and two-time Paralympic rowing champion. Now she’s helping businesses succeed by opening the doors for disabled and LGBT+ recruits

MotorPro: How did you get involved in talking to businesses about diversity and inclusion?

I run my own consultancy business, which I set up a couple of years ago. I found that as an athlete, businesses were calling on me, as somebody who has a disability, to say “How can we be more diverse? How can we be more inclusive for people like you who have disabilities?” And I realised that there was a real lack of education out there for businesses that are trying to engage with people with disabilities and those like me in the LGBT+ community, to help make a more inclusive environment.

What gave these businesses the impetus to reach out to you and start making changes?

After the incredible London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, all of a sudden paralympic sport exploded. As a nation, we had been exposed to disability in a way we never had been before. A lot of people started asking questions and realising how inaccessible Britain was – and unfortunately that includes a lot of businesses. For example, there’s a statistic that 19% of working adults are disabled, but disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed as able-bodied people. That’s primarily because lots of businesses aren’t accessible.

How do we make businesses – and whole industries – more accessible for those with disabilities?

We really need to change people’s perceptions around what disability is, break the stereotypes down, and then people will be able to make their workplaces more accessible. I go around telling my story and showing how easy it is to make your workplace accessible and inclusive. Hopefully one day we won’t have to have these battles, and the world will just be more welcoming.

What progress have you seen since you started talking to companies?

I’ve seen a lot of diversity and inclusion working groups talking about these issues. That’s a great forum to have, because once those conversations get started you’ll be able to identify what needs to be improved, hearing direct from the people who actually work in the business.

You span two areas: disability and the LGBT+ community. How do conversations with businesses on those two topics differ?

Massively. Being gay doesn’t stop me from getting up a flight of stairs, but being disabled does.

Being disabled is very exterior. You can see that I’m in a wheelchair, so before you’ve even spoken to me, you might change the way you talk to me. But you wouldn’t treat me differently from the outset because I’m gay, because you wouldn’t know that until you spoke to me.

The number of people who hide their sexuality in the workplace because they don’t feel they can be themselves is staggering. What I try and do with businesses is find ways to help those people feel more confident, because it not only brings employee retention up, but it also boosts productivity. Those people are then able to come to work feeling like they can work without experiencing prejudice and without feeling fearful or scared.

What industries could automotive look to for inspiration on diversity and inclusion?

Recruitment agencies are doing a fantastic job at the moment and are really leading the way. Finance is definitely moving forward too; there are a lot of banks doing good work. But we’ve also worked with plenty of automotive companies. We recently worked with Jaguar Land Rover to help it support its LGBT+ employees, and it’s really investing in that effort.

How much progress do you think will be made over the next decade?

I think the fact that we’re still talking about things like racism, women in the workplace and women’s safety shows that there’s still a lot of work to do. My generation is fairly open to being out there and owning who they are, but as Gen Z kids start coming into the workplace, that’s going to completely revolutionise the way businesses are run, just because of how young people are. It’s more acceptable than ever before just to be who you are.

This is an edited extract from IMI's new MotorPro magazine, received free as part of IMI membership