Hypocrisy does not require a hypocrite. A well-run process will do
Work design and inclusion · 19 June 2026
A company can formally open every vacancy to people with disabilities and hire almost none of them for ten years. Nobody breaks a policy. Nobody makes a discriminatory remark. A job designed around complete availability, a selection process that rewards the standard candidate profile, and a manager who bears the risk of change without seeing any benefit in their own results are enough. Good people. A badly designed process.
Key points
- An “Apply” button gives access to a form. It says nothing about access to the work or equality of outcomes.
- Identical treatment does not remove barriers in tools, schedules, communication, commuting or assessment. It can preserve them by leaving them unnamed.
- Even with good intentions on every side, the system can produce exclusion when the manager's incentives and the company's stated interests pull in opposite directions.
What this means for a company
The diagnosis starts with the recruitment funnel, not a values statement: who applies, who drops out, who reaches the manager, who gets hired and who is still there a year later? If every stage is “within the norm” but nobody is employed at the end, the candidates are not the problem. The process is delivering precisely what it was designed to deliver. Only then does it make sense to redesign the work. Reverse the order, and the “dedicated team” becomes an accounting device with decorative elements.
Originally published 19 June 2026.