After holding its conference on fostering employment for the disabled on Tuesday 19 April 2016, Inspiring More Sustainability (IMS) Luxembourg has announced the launch of its first guide dedicate to the subject.
IMS stated that the (Handi)Cap Emploi project was developed in response to the questions that remain among employers regarding disability in the Luxembourg labour market. To promote the integration of this target group into regular employment, the association launched the guide to support businesses in the Grand Duchy and facilitate their efforts.
At Tuesday's conference at the EIB in Kirchberg, sponsor of the Diversity Charter Lëtzebuerg and Minister for Family and Integration, Corinne Cahen, emphasised the need to "multiply information and awareness campaigns" on the theme of disability - words which were later echoed by Director of the Agence pour le développement de l'emploi (ADEM), Isabelle Schlesser.
"The recruitment of a person with a disability can be a source of innovation and creativity," Minister Cahen continued. This sentiment was similarly expressed by Vincent Ferry, CEO of agro-food distributor Clair de Lorraine, who highlighted disability not as a barrier to a professional project but a factor which holds the potential to add diversity to an enterprise. Mr. Ferry has been combatting the taboo of disability through lectures and events since he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in 2008.
"I had to develop an adapted management to lead with my handicap, such as only talking about problems and solutions that you could find at meetings," Vincent Ferry explained.
Through the first practical handicap employment guide to support companies in Luxembourg, IMS has drawn on the Diversity Charter to actively promote hiring people with disabilities, shedding light on existing aids and devices for recruitment and integration, actors within disability services as a point of reference and all centralised information for organisation wishing to engage in a proactive approach to diversity through disability.
With 4,000 Luxembourg residents recognsied as 'disabled workers' or 'disabled employees with reduced work capacity', and figures from February 2016 showing that 22% of ADEM jobseekers have a handicap, showing the fundamental role to be played by an employer in promoting disability within their organisation and fighting against discrimination and exclusion.
Photo by IMS
