Ingham calls on businesses to ‘own’ disability

WELCOME Leader

Among the benefi ts of being Recruiter’s editor are meeting colourful and fascinating individuals, hearing incredible stories, and basking in the energy and dynamism of a world-changing industry and many, many exceptional people. Sometimes you get the good fortune of meeting these people a few times.

Steve Ingham is one of those individuals who somehow seems more robust and vigorous every time we meet, and even more so last month, when we spoke for the fi rst time in a few years. Th e conversation that followed “It’s business as could actually be four or fi ve stories; it was usual but on diffi cult to winnow (metaphorical) down the experiences steroids for this he shared to the number of pages I had ‘iron man’ of to work with. Despite recruitment” a life-changing accident, his enthusiasm for life, humour and ‘can do’ attitude are something to behold. It’s business as usual but on (metaphorical) steroids for this ‘iron man’ of recruitment. Join us on p18 for a sometimes funny, sometimes sad but always uplifting chat with PageGroup’s CEO.

Recruiters and in-house recruiters: remember, you’ve got little time to get your clients and businesses, respectively, in the groove to meet the devil that is the new IR35 Off -Payroll legislation aff ecting the private sector. Hold on tight, and let us know how you get on!

DeeDee Doke, Editor

Ingham calls on business leaders to ‘own’ disability

BY DEEDEE DOKE

IT’S TIME FOR business leaders who have a disability to “come out”, give it greater visibility and own it, says Steve Ingham, CEO of PageGroup.

Only 7% of board level executives around the world have “a direct connection” to disability, according to the 2019 #valuable/ EY study, ‘Disability Confi dence: Th e Business Leadership Imperative’. Of that 7%, one in fi ve do not feel comfortable letting their disability be known.

Ingham was paralysed from the waist down two years ago as the result of a skiing accident in Switzerland. He is confi ned to a wheelchair for much of his daily life but works out on a home gym that includes a bicycle enabling him to pedal through functional electrical stimulation or electric pulses. Ingham, a long-time marathon runner and a rugby player, also works out several times a week with a personal trainer.

In the UK, Ingham told Recruiter that he was only aware of two business leaders who had shared their disability, himself and former Lloyds Bank CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio, who had spoken publicly of mental health issues. “Are they too frightened or concerned that people will see them as weak or fallible? I don’t know,” Ingham said.

“For me, there was no shame in it, no fear in it. I felt no diff erence – as far as I’m concerned, you know, woe betide anyone who treats me any diff erently,” he said.

After his accident when Ingham made it known he would return to running PageGroup, a senior-level industry executive said to him: “ ‘But you’re in a wheelchair now.’ And I said, ‘I