DHL Express Global

As an employer of over 590,000 employees worldwide, building an inclusive, attractive and welcoming workplace drives DHL as a business. But they can only do this by creating an environment where employees feel safe to be themselves. Fostering awareness of the challenges faced by people with disabilities was an area where DHL could make a positive difference – supporting both current and future employees living with a disability.

Raising awareness on a global scale

To align with the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, DHL wanted to raise awareness, challenge stereotypical assumptions and educate employees about their own unconscious bias about disability. With the insight that as many as two in three people feel awkward around people with disabilities, it was an opportunity to encourage employees to learn, improve attitudes and open conversations to ultimately help to build a more inclusive culture. But this didn’t come without challenges. With a global audience where disability is still taboo in some cultures, we needed to deliver creative flexibility to allow all countries the opportunity to adopt the campaign. Assets also needed to be easily editable and translatable for adaptation across the world.

To tackle these significant challenges, we consulted with DHL’s Employee Resource Groups and launched a campaign that encouraged employees to look beyond the surface.

Using striking imagery showing people with visible and invisible disabilities, the designs showed a layer peeling back to reveal an unexpected truth about that person. The copy “having a disability is part of who I am but doesn’t define me” delivered a clear and powerful message about the reality of living with disability.

There’s also a common misconception that people with disability may be less productive. But Beyond the Surface helped address this and promote that simple adjustments in the workplace can remove barriers and enable a person with a disability to work just as efficiently as anyone else.

The campaign materials included everything DHL needed to encourage employees to stop and reflect during their daily activities, including posters, digital infographics, branding for stairs and mirrors, DHLTV slides and a digital communications toolkit.

Originally created for one division, the campaign was deemed so successful that it was rolled out to all five DHL divisions – educating over half a million global employees about how they can be better allies to people with disabilities, both at work and in other areas of life.