“I needed more personnel. The online furniture market is growing, and I want to keep up with developments in this area. At the same time, I wanted to stop my specialists doing unskilled work when there is so much work at their own level for them to do. Then my company grew to over 25 employees, meaning I had to employ someone with a disability; otherwise, I would be fined. This is a legal obligation. I had no problem with that. I am open to employing people with disabilities. My son has autism and I would be happy for him to find a job in the open labour market once he has finished his education. If I employ someone with a disability, I also receive tax advantages. I realised that the unskilled work carried out by my specialists could easily be done by an employee with a disability who matches the competencies needed for the work. This is what I planned to do.”

“I got in touch with a service provider that helps people with disabilities find jobs in the open labour market. I knew about them because I had a short introductory meeting with one of their employment specialists. She told me about their activities and said that I could contact them if I wanted more information. I did just that: I explained the job requirements to them, and together we created a detailed job description to ensure a good match based on tasks, requirements, working hours and other essential elements of the work. Based on this, they started searching their client database for suitable candidates. I then received a number of CVs and we interviewed some potential applicants. We invited Mark to start an internship in our company. The entire recruitment process was quite fast, partly because the employment specialist took care of all the administrative tasks.”

“When I hired Mark after his internship, I was careful not to expect too much from him. He did very well during the internship — he could do the work flawlessly. He was faster than we had expected and really motivated and interested in doing more work. He asked if he could expand his area of responsibility, so after consulting his job coach, we gradually gave him more tasks, all of which he was able to carry out effortlessly. One of the tasks he took on was making delivery trips by car. This eased the workload of the qualified workers, and Mark really enjoyed this new task. Mark works completely independently and only needs some support from the supervisor. This is possible because the work package was set up to fit Mark’s capabilities, and no extra guidance or onboarding was needed. Everything went just the same as for any other employee.”

“Some of my employees were rather sceptical about hiring a disabled person. I could understand this, since we previously had another employee with a disability and the integration process did not go well. This person refused to carry out cleaning work, despite it being specified in the job description. They played with their mobile phone all the time and hid in the toilet. We finally had to terminate his employment. Mark is the opposite: he is very friendly, motivated, helpful and generous. He is always happy and fulfils the requirements of his role. Mark is fully integrated into the team. He himself informed his colleagues about his disability, and now they are all aware not to let him lift too much weight or forget to take breaks.”

“Mark is very motivated. We need to slow him down to make sure he stays healthy and stable. For example, he often wants to lift ‘heavy things’; he overestimates his own abilities in this regard. He also needs to take more breaks. We are aware of this, it is planned for, and everyone ensures he takes them. Mark is seen as a worker with specific tasks delegated to him. When he is working, his disability is not noticeable and his colleagues treat him like any other employee. They include him in their work and wanted him to work with them on construction sites, which was possible to a limited extent. He felt proud that he could.”

“Mark is very much appreciated by his colleagues because he reduces their workload and relieves skilled workers. This allows me to focus my specialist workers on their area of expertise. It’s a classic win-win situation for us. We are happy with Mark and feel proud too. He receives a labour wage. Since he started working, he has been able to pay off his debts and move into a nice little apartment; previously, he lived in a basement. This means so much to us that we are already looking for a new applicant with a disability.”

“One risk is that we employers expect people with disabilities to be able to do more than they can, and then they drop out because they accept the challenge and think they can do it, but then it goes wrong.” It’s better to always keep in contact with the service provider and discuss the possibilities. They might be a bit cautious. We might be a bit over-demanding, but maintaining an open dialogue is the best approach and will benefit your employee with a disability the most.”