“We have included the following in our general vision:
We embrace employees with all kinds of disabilities, they can feel safe to disclose their disability since we value them for their contribution, and we provide them with the same opportunities as all workers in our company.”

Feel free to change it into your own wording: what matters is that all aspects are included in your vision declaration.
Next, translate it into your working strategy and into your daily practice. Make it visible!

“In former days, we would ask for a driver’s license if travelling is needed in the job. Now, we realize that travelling can also be done by public transport or any other means. And this is why we now mention that you need to be able to travel.”

“If special skills are needed, we formerly asked for a diploma that shows you have a proof of ‘having these skills’. Nowadays, we ask for the special skills. Because you might have learned them in your former work, or anywhere else.”

“Formerly we wrote ‘you need to be enthusiastic and dynamic’. We liked the words and wanted all candidates to be this, although it wasn’t really clear why we wanted this for the job. As if somebody quiet and secure wasn’t able to carry out the work in the most effective way. We learned to delete those words and only go for the essence!”

“Before, we used ‘you need to be multi deployable’. It was difficult for interested candidates to interpret what we meant by that. Now we make it clear where the candidate will be deployed, that can be two places, then we define two places.”

“We know we are allowed to openly stimulate candidates with a disability to apply. Since they form a minority in our company, it is generally allowed to mention it, to eliminate the inequalities between people without disabilities who work and people with disabilities who work.”

“ We indicate in our vacancy text that ‘we invite everyone who meets the minimum job requirements and has a disability for an initial interview’. That is positive discrimination and it gives them an advantage.”

“ We work together with this service provider; they have job coaches and candidates and they
support us in making the match between what we need and the candidates. It saves us a lot of time; they are really partners for us.”

“ The service provider’s support has been fundamental, being always available within a phone call’s reach, establishing a relationship of great trust and honesty. They reassure us that we will not be left ‘hanging’ if something goes wrong.”

“We introduced working with tables with a list of requirements, to make use of the objective information mentioned in the application letters of the candidates. It really took some time getting used to working in this objective way, The tendency to immediately put letters of candidates mentioning a disability aside, ran deep. Now, I am happy that we are doing this in our company and I am pleasantly surprised by the choices of candidates we have made.”

“ We always include the following sentence in our invitations: Do you need any specific requirements concerning the time and place of the interview, or is there anything we need to think of when arranging the interview Candidates really appreciate this; young parents appreciate it, as well as the few candidates with a disability we have.”

“We once invited a person in a wheelchair for an interview on the second floor and we had no elevator.
We felt really embarrassed, and decided such a mistake was once and never again. And that’s how it is now, we know what to think of when inviting someone with a disability.”

“ We learned to communicate in a clear way. We skip metaphors, make short sentences, we avoid jargon and difficult words. It was difficult in the beginning, now we feel much more comfortable ourselves.”

“ We know all our candidates want to make a good impression. We once had a candidate that did not look at us, which feels strange. We now know he was very interested in the job, although he appeared not to be.”

“ We give all our candidates time to answer, although this sometimes takes more time than we are used to. Again, it doesn’t say anything about the intellectual capacities of the candidate, that’s what we have learned.”

“ We always organize a tour through our company, that gives candidates a good view on the work and the context of the work.”

“We know most adjustments have to do with hours and time of working, and being respected by colleagues.”

“In our case the necessary adaptations, such as the presence of a colleague to face the employee’s insecurity, arranging the transport to the workplace, or the timely reinforcement of the employee necessary for a predictable increase in the work volume, have been taken care of from the beginning.”

“ We have checked our building. We imagined someone who was deaf, someone who was blind and someone in a wheelchair. We found out we needed support from experts to look for
all accessibility aspects. They checked once more. That really helped us. In the end, only some small adjustments were needed.”

“ The job coach advised us to look at ‘how to get in and around the building’ and also to look at ‘how to get out of the building when there is an emergency’. We never thought of that part, now we have included ‘how to get out’ in our accessibility plan.”

“ We made adjustments inside the building. For the outside it was more complicated, we only had stairs. Then we were advised to ask for a subsidy to adjust the outside, now that is arranged too.”

“ We hired an administrator who was wheelchair-bound. On her tour through the building, it turned out she couldn’t open the glass swing doors, they were just too heavy. We readjusted all doors. Not only she, but also all our other employees were happy that we ‘finally got rid of those heavy doors’.”

“ The new employee with a visual impairment asked us whether our company newsletter and all our company instructions were also available in a digital way. We arranged it, now we offer it to all our employees.”

“ We know our workers are open to their new colleague. Still, they need to know what is expected of them and what kind of support is needed. We also support the new employee with how to be open where needed. We learned a lot from the job coaches; they are trained in providing everyone involved with simple and functional information, always only related to the job.”

“ The new colleague takes away some of the work our mechanics are happy to hand over to somebody else, now they can focus on their core tasks, which they like and it is also good for us as a company.”

” In the beginning, we thought we had to pay for the loss of production ourselves. Then we found out, we could receive subsidies for this. We also learned about receiving support of a job coach. It all made it much easier to hire our employees with a disability.”

” We receive a 50% compensation for the loss of productivity, which does not only reflect the employee’s functional performance, but also the adaptation effort conducted by the company, in terms of needs for supervision, for example”

” Our chef baker has the seniority to guide the new employees. He knows exactly what needs to be done, he knows the traps in the beginning, and is able to explain all the tasks in a very clear way. He also has the patience to support this new colleague to become a really good assistant baker!”

” Every employee with us has to be trained, that’s nothing new for our people. We always look at who is new and who then takes on the supervision. The arrival of this new employee is no different from others. It is always tailor-made and there has to be a click or it will not work.”

” We made a short film of our company and the work that needs to be done. This was really helpful for all new employees, also for those who had difficulties reading. “

”I start and end the day with a short conversation of five minutes with this employee. I find that it’s enough to take the pressure off the day and catch things at the end.”

” I talk to her for an hour a week about how the work is going and what she encounters. With other employees it takes me ten minutes at most. I have incorporated that coaching time into my targets and I still come out positive.”

”I saw her carry out the work, she was fast and I wanted to reward her by giving her more work. She felt proud and took the extra work and then, after two days, she completely dropped out. I had to learn about her limits, as with any new employee. I will now stick to what we agreed upon, and stimulate her, that is best for all of us.”

” We sometimes forget that our employee has some limitations – difficulties have always been overcome with ease. Supervision is essential, mainly to give simple, clear and short instructions, accompanying him in his daily work routine, reassuring him in his tasks through clear instructions.”

” He is very strong in details, I saw possibilities to create a new specialist function in my company, to find out how to optimize our working lines and I offered him the possibility to follow an education in this. He took this opportunity with both hands.”

”In the beginning she worked on the production line. She is very accurate and we offered her the possibility to check the products on the line. She was nervous about this career step and it took some time for her to get used to it. She overcame her nervousness and we are very happy with her accuracy in this new role.”

” In fact, it only requires, as already indicated, understanding and flexibility of our side and a clear motivation and a positive attitude from the applicant with a disability.”

” During the first year, our disabled employee learned and developed ways to overcome his limitations, adapting his interaction with the work tasks and gaining skills. The only necessary adaptation was to give him time to learn the craft in his own way, and from the moment he achieved that goal, he has been perfecting his skills to mastery. Our relationship reflects a bond we try to establish with all our workers: of mutual help, collaboration, and familiarity, but also of demand, professionalism, and quality.”

” We need workers that match. In the beginning, we often had to disappoint candidates, because of their mismatch with what was needed in the job and our company. It took some time for the vocational service provider to understand the seriousness of our requirements, now we cooperate in a satisfying way.”