Highlights • Highmark Health

For Aaron: A best place to work for people with disabilities

At the Highmark Health companies, a diverse workforce is key to getting health care right.

This year the Highmark Health organization was proud to be named one of the Best Places To Work in a new benchmark called the Disability Equality Index^SM established by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the US Business Leadership Network^® (USBLN^®). With a top score of 100 points in the index, Highmark Health is one of only 19 Fortune 1000 organizations to earn the "best places" designation.

"So now the rest of the world knows what I've known since I joined the organization in 2005," explained Aaron Bosley, an application developer with HM Health Solutions. "Our success is in our people.

"Our customers include many different kinds of people," he said. "And we know that diverse employees are best equipped to understand their many different needs. So all kinds of people are important at Highmark Health, including those with disabilities.

"We're recruited, we're championed, we're valued and we're included, because we help make our businesses stronger," said Aaron.

According to the joint announcement by the AAPD and USBLN, "By scoring 100 points, these companies demonstrated significant business leadership, going far beyond compliance activities, driving their business success through leading disability inclusion policies and practices."

Among the business practices in which the Highmark Health organization excels are programs and partnerships that help to recruit people with disabilities; a centralized accommodation process; support and leadership of organizations in the community that advocate for people with disabilities; and executive sponsorship of business resource groups through which we can involve diverse employees in workplace and community-wide programs.

Sara Oliver-Carter, vice president of diversity and inclusion at Highmark Health, aptly summed up the organization's efforts:  "A diverse workforce is the right way to understand and guide our many customers through their very personal, very individual and very diverse health care journeys."