Last week, news broke that Walmart is facing a discrimination lawsuit after two employees with intellectual disabilities were harassed and denied support at a store in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. According to the EEOC’s suit, supervisors at the store mocked and insulted the employees, refused to accommodate a job coach, and ignored their basic workplace rights.

Let’s be clear: this kind of treatment is appalling and illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But it also reveals a deeper problem, one we’ve seen over and over again with national corporations.

From its corporate offices, Walmart has made sincere efforts toward inclusion. They’ve invested in training, adopted inclusive hiring policies, and publicly supported organizations like Special Olympics. We believe their corporate leaders genuinely value hiring people with differing abilities. But here’s the problem: inclusion doesn’t always make it to the front lines. That’s the challenge that all national organizations face.

The Inclusion Gap

This case illustrates a pattern we’ve seen firsthand across industries. As an example, we have witnessed this pattern at a national big-box retailer. This company has makes a public commitment to inclusive hiring. They run beautiful ad campaigns. They partner with nonprofits. Their HR teams attend conferences and issue statements. They push their individual stores to pursue inclusive hiring. But in the stores where the actual hiring happens, there is a great variance in the outcomes.

In some locations, people with differing abilities are embraced, trained well, given meaningful tasks, and treated as part of the team. In others, those same employees are isolated, underutilized, and even mistreated in ways similar to what has been alleged in the Walmart case. It is an awful experience that usually leads to that person quitting.

Inclusive hiring only works when it’s lived and led at every level of an organization. It’s not enough for corporate HR to be on board. Store managers, shift supervisors, and local teams must buy into the mission. Without that local leadership and accountability, corporate policies are just words on a page.

That is the challenge that national corporate leaders face: how can they drive cultural standards through all of their outlets.

Inclusion Requires Culture

We’ve worked with large companies that have successfully bridged this gap. We’ve also seen companies that struggle not out of malice, but because they haven’t invested in building inclusive culture store-by-store.

True inclusion means:

• Training every level of management to understand the value of hiring people with differing abilities
• Establishing metrics and incentives to get all levels of management to care about inclusive hiring
• Creating systems of accountability so that harassment, isolation, or lack of support are not tolerated
• Giving local leaders the tools to recruit, onboard, and support workers with differing abilities in meaningful roles
• Listening to employees with disabilities and their job coaches, not shutting them out

And above all, it means recognizing that this isn’t charity, it’s good business. The greatest success comes when business drive inclusive hiring because it will help their business.

What We’ve Learned

At John’s Crazy Socks, over half of our team members have a differing ability. That’s not just a statement of values; it’s a key reason for our success. Inclusive hiring has fueled our innovation, our culture, and our brand. Our Giving Back program has donated over $800,000 to organizations like the Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Society, and the Autism Society of America.

We’ve shown that when you truly include people, you don’t just change lives, you build better businesses.

A Call to Action

If you’re a company, big or small, that wants to move from policy to practice, we can help. Through our work with Abilities Rising, we support organizations in building inclusive hiring strategies that actually work at every level from the boardroom to the backroom.

We offer:

• Training for hiring managers and store teams
• Inclusive onboarding systems
• Culture-building programs that lead to real results
• Speaking engagements that inspire, educate, and mobilize your workforce

Inclusive hiring isn’t just a box to check. It’s a business imperative. And more importantly, it’s a human one.

Let’s build a workplace  and a world where everyone belongs.

📩 Reach out to us at booking@jmspeak.com to learn more.