“I have two sons, of which one had many difficulties functioning in the learning environment when being a child. The support I received was very effective and I felt really grateful for this support. Then I decided to ‘give something back’, which in my case meant opening the vacancies for persons who have difficulties finding a job in the open labour market. I started with one employee, found out it worked very well and now I have more than ten employees with a disability working on a regular basis in my company.” 

“For the hiring of her personnel, I intensively work together with the local employment service for people with disabilities. I have one counsellor that is assigned to me, Fleur. She knows my company and knows what profiles match with my needs. I must say, I am very happy with this collaboration. I know Fleur always comes up with motivated people since that is my most important criterion: they need to be motivated to work. As I put it, they need to give that extra when working for my company, the rest I can learn them.”

“Fleur delivers candidates. Then Annemie as a job coach takes over the guidance. We always start with an internship, this gives me as well as the new candidate the possibility to find out whether there is a match between the candidate, the work, and the colleagues. Annemie and I both believe in starting slowly’, some hours per day, some days per week. When that works out well, we will increase the number of working hours as well as the number of days, until the full working day and working week is reached, if possible. If not, this new employee works as much as can reasonably be expected. After the internship, if the candidate and I feel okay, I offer them a working contract.”

“In most cases these internships work out well, though twice I had to stop because it did not work out. I already found this out in the first weeks of the apprenticeship. It is no fun to stop the internship, though at the same time, it is part of the game. That is, when you decide to give those having difficulties finding a job, a chance to become your employees. If it works out well, we all feel okay. We have to accept that this is mostly the case, not always.”

“I am a family person, my team is like a family for me, all of them. My husband and I run the company. Every year we organise a family day. We invite the family of our team for an open day. All employees, especially the young ones with a disability are proud when their parents come and see where and how they work. And, if support is needed, I will arrange it. For instance, once Sue wasn’t able to come, because her bike had a flat tire. Then I arranged for her and her bike to be picked up. Sue can work and her tire will be repaired so she can go home safely again after work. My simple rule is ‘treat others like you want to be treated’ and go one step further and the world will be a much more fun world.” 

“I have learned a lot since my first step into hiring an employee with a disability. In the beginning, I was strongly supported by Annemie, who taught me what is ‘special’ when being the supervisor of Sue, with an intellectual disability, or John, with autism, or Patricia having a hearing disorder. The support of Annemie went further, she also trained all colleagues in disability awareness, which was strongly appreciated by them. All employees have the opportunity to develop themselves in their work tasks. Apart from the development in work tasks, my employees with a disability will also be trained in working independently, in their social skills, safety aspects, and individual thinking. I always want to offer them something on the level they can handle. They come in as pebbles, we invest in them to make them feel at home and then they become pearls!”

“As far as I understand my employees, they really like to work in my company. They have different roles and different positions. Sue for instance, is preparing the recipes, while John is good at roasting peanuts and Patricia’s favourite is to prepare the handmade bonbons with chocolate and peanuts. If I ask them about their future plans, they all say ‘I want to stay here for the rest of my life’. As they formulate it, they like it here because there is hardly ever a conflict here, they can eat as much chocolate as they wish to eat, and they can develop themselves. There is a sort of golden rule here, that is when something doesn’t feel right, they know they do not need to get angry, they just have to explain individually to me what bothers them and I always reflect on it and support them as long as it is needed to solve the problem.

“Their colleagues ‘without a backpack’ take all the time to explain to them how the work should be done, and if they do not carry out the assignment correctly, they are supported by their colleagues until they do so. My young employees with a disability have learned to stay calm, instead of flipping like they did when they were still in class before they started working here. They themselves have found out that what they did before is not the best solution, and how they react now  works out much better.”

“I have made the decision to continue working in the handicraft way. It is possible to use machines to make the bonbons, but my customers really value the ‘handmade chocolates’ and losing customers is something I would like to avoid. I also realise that while choosing this way of working, handmade chocolate and part of the crew having a disability, it requires a specific attitude of the co-workers. It made me decide to include a new criterion in my recruitment process. Part of the criteria now of my recruitment is that employees have to have an open mind towards persons with a disability and they need to have an intrinsic motivation to support them when needed. They need to have the skills for the production process and once they have them, they need to be open and able to support and guide somebody else in getting to know it. They need to have patience, empathy, they need to be team players, they need to really like it to ‘teach somebody else’. And they need to be open to grant others successes.” 

“I always assign one co-worker to guide one new employee with a disability. I accept the ‘loss of production’ while guiding this new employee. In the beginning this takes around half an hour per day, that goes down soon to max fifteen minutes a day and within some weeks, because of this intensive guidance it goes down to almost nothing. The new employee can work independently and does not need to be guided anymore, at least not more than others. It seems like ‘losing production’, that is not the case. The senior colleague gets the support of the new colleague with a disability, with some extra hands available to do the work.” 

“When working with employees with a disability, it is essential to have a job coach present. Without this job coach I would not know what to do to guide the employees. Annemie supports us in training the new employee and training me and the co-workers. Annemie also stimulates possible candidates to be open about their needs, their wishes, their difficulties, etc. This stimulation is needed because the candidates themselves are not used to doing it. And I need this openness to know the possibilities and the chances in the company.“ 

“One specific measure is essential and that is the no-risk insurance policy, offered by the social security service. This means that we as employers do not pay for sickness absence of the employee. This is covered by this policy. This policy guarantees me no extra costs will come up when somebody drops out of work.” 

“I would certainly recommend my fellow entrepreneurs to open their doors for employees with a disability. At the same time, I advise them to first look at the person, let them try out the work. Do not think in products, think in ‘a team of people’. It is all about people, without them your company cannot exist. And, make use of all legislation, policies, subsidies that are offered. Also, ensure there is a good job coach, thinking with their heart, reacting fast, and coming with solutions, and knowing the company, knowing the work processes and the company culture.”