Page 61 - Peter Farrelly Issue

really give you a chance to see a true vision of yourself, true reflection. Oftentimes, it was a mentor who saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. They saw what I could take on and do, and they pushed me. So that's important. I've often talked about Rod Martin, who is my predecessor as CEO of Voya and our current executive chairman. He has been an amazing mentor for me.
this year and I wasn’t clear on whether Voya adminis- tered ABLE accounts. So, Voya was focused on educat- ing people about the benefits of an ABLE account, is that right?
And the final bit is company culture. It’s important that you make sure that the culture of the organization you work for aligns with your internal compass. It is so important because when those are aligned, and a person is fully accepted for who they are and it aligns with the company culture, then I think the sky's the limit for what anybody can do.
Lavallee: Yes, and we do sometimes get the question, “What's in it for Voya? Why do you do this? Aren't you selling your own products?” We started this advocacy work and this inclusion work because we thought it was the right thing to do. Now, what we found is, as we talk about that when we're marketing to different popula- tions, being fully inclusive of the disability community in everything we do, whether it's in our television adver- tisements and our marketing and our solutions and our client experience. When we talk about all of our inclu- sion efforts in client meetings and final presentations, it made such a difference, and it's actually driven business results. It's driven a higher level of engagement from our own employees. And so, it was not why we started it, but it's had this amazing impact and it’s something that we didn't necessarily anticipate. But we think if we can serve all Americans, including those with disabili- ties and their caregivers, that's one of the reasons we exist as a company.
Goga: Very well said. Does Voya have ABLE 529 accounts?
Lavallee: As a matter of fact, we do not have an ABLE plan. But, more broadly, it's really the trajectory of how we got into disability inclusion advocacy and started our “Voya Cares” program about seven years ago. At the end of 2015, we decided to form a task force. We believed that disability inclusion was the perfect inter- section of our culture, which was all about full inclusion and our business expertise.
Goga: A win-win. Would you mind telling me a little bit about the Voya Cares program?
We initially started to focus on the special needs com- munity, on addressing the unmet financial need within the special needs community and education. So, really helping our clients and distribution partners and other folks understand the $2,000 asset limitation that could push somebody off means tested benefits (public assis- tance). It started with making sure we understood the need and how we could address that. And then it broad- ened into looking at our solutions, at our accessibility, and even beyond how we are ensuring that we are addressing the unmet financial planning needs in every- thing that we do. Then it was moving into advocacy and then really a focus on competitive workplace inclusion and using our corporate voice to advocate for other employers to also lean in on that.
Lavallee: We formed a Disability Inclusion Task Force at the end of 2015 into 2016. We started that first by learning. We wanted to make sure we got into it in the most authentic way possible. And that started by talking to our own employees. We had a People with Disabili- ties and Caregiver employee Resource group. We use them as very much of a sounding board on how we're approaching the community, how we're embedding peo- ple first language. We have mandatory people first lan- guage training across our organization, in addition to Allyship, which 99% of our employees partake in Ally- ship training. So that was really how we started.
So, it really became a bit of a movement. So, we don't necessarily have ABLE 529 accounts, but we do a lot of education around them. We work with many of the dif- ferent state ABLE programs, and we educate employers on how offering ABLE plans into their benefits program will help them make sure they're providing full equity into their workforce. Because, as you certainly know, people with disabilities oftentimes don't contribute to their 401K or don't accept a match because it could hurt their benefits. So that's really the way we approach it. Hopefully, that gives you kind of a snapshot into our viewpoint around ABLE accounts.
Then we also formed partnerships with different not-for- profit organizations. We thought it was so important to learn from those who are already in the disability space. We sought their help to teach us how we should do this right. We worked with organizations like the National Down Syndrome Society. We've got a new partnership with Easterseals, and we work with The Harkin Insti- tute. So, everybody has a different level of expertise, whether it's on legislative fronts, whether it's on work- place inclusion, helping employers understand how you're doing more integrated work, and teaching our recruiters and managers to hire, and then, frankly, creat- ing a forum where we can also learn from other employ- ers who are leaders in this disability inclusion space. So that was really how we started, and then I think we for- mally branded it as Voya Cares in 2017.
Goga: Absolutely. I was reading about your involve- ment with the Harkin Institute Disability Summit earlier
Goga: What advice would you give other CEOs on the benefits of the disability inclusion initiatives that you've
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