Article

Workgroup 3

Promotion of HRM-Services for

People with Abilities
(Original title: Awareness Raising for Open Labour Market Actors)

Armin Steger

August 2006

ZSE WERT SCHAFFEN DURCH VERÄNDERUNG

AUSTRIA; 6850 Dornbirn, Müllerstraße 7, fon +43 / 5572 / 33 458, fax +43 / 5572 / 33 458-4

e-mail: office@zse.at
www.zse.at
 Table of Contents

Article....................................................................................................................................1

1 Starting Point and Framework..........................................................................................3

2 Transnational Participants................................................................................................3
2.1 Belgium “Plug-in Gaps”.....................................................................................................3
2.2 Austria “dafür” – dauerhafte Arbeit für Menschen mit Behinderungen...............................4
2.3 Finland „Inclusive Diversity“..............................................................................................5
2.4 Hungary „Changes for a Better Life“..................................................................................5
2.5. The Netherlands “Halen, Brengen en Vermengen”..........................................................5

3 Objectives...........................................................................................................................6

4 Target Groups....................................................................................................................6

5 Planned Actions at the Beginning....................................................................................6

5.1 Procedure.........................................................................................................................6
5.2 Identification of stakeholders (in their role as employers)..................................................7
5.3 Interviews/questionnaire...................................................................................................7
5.4 Focus on companies employing people with disabilities....................................................7
5.5 General comments of companies employing people with disabilities................................7
5.6 Conclusion drawn from the interviews...............................................................................8
5.7 Identification and analysis of existing Awareness Raising campaigns ..............................8
5.8 Formulation of a slogan, message and strategy for Awareness Raising...........................8

6 Steps to Find a Strategy....................................................................................................8

6.1 Our newly defined objective .............................................................................................8
6.2 What do we promote?.......................................................................................................9
6.3 Slogan...............................................................................................................................9
6.4 Draft Message...................................................................................................................9

7 First Ideas and Suggestions for a Necessary Toolbox.................................................10

8 Suggestion for a Process to Promote HRM-Services ..................................................11

8.1 Company related marketing............................................................................................11
8.2 Company related acquisition...........................................................................................11
8.3 Process of creating adapted workplaces.........................................................................12

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1 Starting Point and Framework
Apart from the difficult economic situation and the labour market trends and evolutions, many
open labour market actors are not yet aware that people with a disability can contribute a lot to
their activities and businesses. The lack of awareness about the abilities and possible positive
contributions of people with disabilities can be seen as one of the major barriers to find and
keep a job on the open labour market.
Therefore, it is crucial to start an open communication with open labour market actors in order
to convince them of the positive contribution people with disabilities can bring to their
enterprises.
Awareness Raising can be achieved through the social network and its professionals, as well
as through the network of employers and official authorities. Responsibility lies on the client’s
side as well as on the side of the (profit) organisations and care providers.
Our work group’s main argument in favour of raising awareness and integrating people with
disabilities in the open labour market is “diversity”. Diversity relates to the fact that in our
society there are people of different religions, languages, colours, skills, etc. We have to learn
to manage and promote diversity. If profit companies and public services learn to manage
diversity within their organisations, success will be guaranteed: profit companies will be
successful with their clients and public services will be successful with their citizens.
The work group’s ultimate task is to design an Awareness Raising campaign.

2 Transnational Participants
There are five nations participating in the EQUAL project. The individual national projects are
described briefly:

2.1 Belgium “Plug-in Gaps”

Too little people with a labour disability find their way to the labour market and more specific to
interim-labour. Even though the sector of interim-labour is growing, people with a labour
disability don’t reach it. In the past there have been some efforts but we have never
succeeded to work together. In this project we want to build a bridge between the interim-
sector, the social economy and the social profit sector.
Now there is no structured consultation between these sectors. From ad hoc contacts we
notice that there is a need for research, information, tuning and innovation.
Prejudices and negative image – interpretations keep on living on all sides: professionals of
both working fields often operate with prejudices and doubts about the chance on the
correspondence between supply and demand, employers and interim-services often doubt the
sincerity or feasibility of the offer concerning an application. These prejudices in mind,
everybody wants to have a clear view on who does what when there are threats in the quality
of the labour.
There is a need for signals towards the working field en the target group that cooperation is
needed, possible and good for all parties. Regulations and support services should be
adjusted to each other, gaps between safety nets should be closed. It is not clear what is and
what isn’t possible in accordance with the regulations.

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For a part of the target group, the cooperation between the interim sector, the social economy
and the social profit sector, could hold new opportunities. Some of them fit better in a working
system in which they van do a clear task for a limited time where others prefer (for medical
reasons) to work a limited time, where after they can have a period of rest.
In other European countries there are co-operations from which we can learn.

2.2 Austria “dafür” – dauerhafte Arbeit für Menschen mit Behinderungen

The occupational integration of people with disabilities/disadvantages as well as the
developmental possibility of this target group in companies poses a great challenge for all
actors in Vorarlberg, but also in other countries. The percentage of unemployed people with
disabilities/disadvantages is 3-4 times higher than those without disabilities. The risk of
becoming long term unemployed is disproportionally higher than the risk for those without
disabilities/disadvantages. This problem will intensify due to demographic development
(increase in the target group).
Therefore it is of utmost importance to improve existing advice and support facilities for
companies and to restructure the existing ones, with the objective of increasing the
acceptance and competence for those dealing with people with disabilities/disadvantages in
companies and in order to reduce existing reservations.
A survey that deals with the occupational integration of people with disabilities/disadvantages
from an organisational point of view indicates to the following conclusions:
• Social responsibility is relatively high in Vorarlberg compared to other regions
• The willingness to further employ people who became disabled while working is very
high
• People with disabilities have a high loyalty to their work/company
• Companies hope to increase the social competence of their other employees by
working with people with disabilities
• Considerations relating to image play a minor role
• Financial or economic considerations play no role at all – funding is valued positively
but not relevant to actual employment
Important factors in employment are that qualifications meet the requirements of the job.
Due to the variety of organisations (30 in Vorarlberg) dealing with the occupational integration
of people with disabilities (assistant services), customers as well as organisations are
confronted with the complexity of the system. From the funding institutions point of view there
is a need to steer funding tools and use the funds more efficiently due to reduced budgets.
The development partnership with the national social department (Bundessozialamt) as a
leading partner has set the ambitious objective of changing the whole system in Vorarlberg
regarding not only the drawing of support benefits through social services, but also to
reorganise them in terms of dealing with companies and is therefore initiating a change of
paradigms in the funding methods.
A central issue for both people with disabilities and companies is the introduction of regional
competence centres as the only point to turn to.
It is important for people with disabilities to earn their living independently. Furthermore
integration into professional life enables them to actively participate in society. Thereby
companies have a central role: only if companies realise the benefit of employing people with

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disabilities, they will offer appropriate jobs (module 2). The competence centres support the
placement of people with disabilities in cooperation with the AMS Vorarlberg (job centre).
Companies that offer employment to people with disabilities are supported and informed;
vacations can be replaced quickly. Accompanying sensitization measures are set, that
contribute sustain ably the normality of people with disabilities in companies.

2.3 Finland „Inclusive Diversity“

The project goal is to combat discrimination of persons with disability in the working life. The
innovative element of the project idea is that it starts and focuses on the role of the employer
and local working conditions. This means a change in both attitude among recruitment
personnel and employment practice.

2.4 Hungary „Changes for a Better Life“

This project aims at enhancing equal chances for the mentally slightly handicapped and
disadvantaged young Roma people and helping them entering the labour market. The project
helps the socialization of those falling behind in their studies and the Roma youngsters by
after school training, motivation, skills development, improving vocational training, training for
approved (OKJ) professions, providing health-psycho-sociological support, employment, as
well as ensuring the physical, methodological and personal conditions for their employment.
Modern vocational training, a range of customized services, integrated employment activities
are going to be provided as a result of a broad co-operation of society to give better chances
to the mentally slightly handicapped and the disadvantaged young Roma people. The
programme is based on the principles of complexity, addition and partnership.

2.5. The Netherlands “Halen, Brengen en Vermengen”

Development Partnership started because of explicit expertise of the partners cooperating.
Former collaboration of the PameijerKeerkring en the OMIJ has been leading. In this
collaboration an organic mixing of mentally disabled people and regular employees was
noticed. Because of these observations research was started to explore more possibilities.
The aim was an innovative and methodical approach towards equality, care, and possible
work-like activities for people with intellectual disabilities. Therefore a search was started to
find partners with equivalent questions concerning these issues. Amarant was considered to
be a competent partner with proficient experience with the care for people with intellectual
disabilities. The NIZW provides the project with excellent knowledge and networking
possibilities.

Work group 3 is set up of the following national representatives:

Philip van Londen, chairman NL
Kathleen Timmermans BE
Mark Vanhamme BE
Armin Steger A
Péter Mikuska HU
Kees van der Spek NL
Ruud van Gorp NL

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Hans Notenboom NL
Michael Peter A
Maria Winqvist FIN
Nina af Hällström, FIN

3 Objectives
(1) Development of a clear and mobilising message to key actors on the abilities and
strengths of people with disabilities. This message will be developed on the basis of a
dialogue with employers, unions and authorities.
(2) Creation of a tool for awareness raising campaigns targeted at different groups.
(3) Design and development of a format for awareness campaigns. A more holistic
approach of the awareness raising issue.

4 Target Groups
The target groups for our campaign can be divided as follows:

Group 1: Employers
• Employers providing temporary employment
• Multinationals and
• SME (small and medium-sized enterprises)
We mainly address to the CEO level and HR management.

Group 2: Trade Unions

We address to staff association officials in companies and in local units of Unions.

Group 3: Civil servants and authorities

We address to civil servants and authorities.

5 Planned Actions at the Beginning

5.1 Procedure
At the beginning work group 3 agreed on the following procedure:

• Dialogue with employers and authorities. Through this dialogue it should be possible to
identify key issues to work on a draft message.
• Drafting the message

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• Creation of tools
• Design of the campaign
• Launch of an Awareness Raising campaign on the basis of the developed tools with the
prepared message to test the format of the campaign.

5.2 Identification of stakeholders (in their role as employers)

1) Government/Authorities
2) Social Sector
3) Private Sector

5.3 Interviews/questionnaire
The interviews on “success stories” were based on a questionnaire including the following
main questions:
1) What is the background of the company?
2) What was the initial experience with a person with disability?
3) How did it work out? What were the do’s and don’ts?
4) How could this “success story” be sold to another company?

5.4 Focus on companies employing people with disabilities

Each country made three interviews (one interview per stakeholder). An overall summary was
made.

5.5 General comments of companies employing people with disabilities

General comments based on the interviews:
o A person with disabilities is a human being and should be treated the same way as
‘normal’ people.
o To be a person with a disability doesn’t mean that he/she doesn’t know how to work or
doesn’t want to work. In fact, it is quite contrary. Those people are
- highly motivated to work
- eager to show their talents
o In the beginning the manager or company owner (the person who deals with the PWD)
might need extra time and patience in order to:
- find the ”right” job with the right tasks – mapping of tasks
- provide an adequate period of training (try-out)
o It is important that a person with disabilities fits in well with the team.
o It is important for the working team to be informed of the disability and of problems that
might arise from that.

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o It is also important for the working team to know how to deal with different situations and
how to solve possible problems.
o In general the positive aspects of employing a PWD should be taken into account:
- the atmosphere at work might get better
- the quality of the work (when the right tasks are found) is good
- people with disabilities are loyal and meticulous about their tasks

5.6 Conclusion drawn from the interviews

- Positive experiences, focus on possibilities for people with disabilities
- It is possible to employ people with disabilities: “the right man at the right place”
- The crucial point is to find a method that works
- It is important to visualize the costs and benefits

5.7 Identification and analysis of existing Awareness Raising campaigns

Each country gathered information about awareness raising campaigns already existing in
their country, e.g. ‘Commission Working Perspective’ in The Netherlands.

5.8 Formulation of a slogan, message and strategy for Awareness Raising

At that point the plan was that following the previous steps a slogan, message and a clear
strategy should be found.

6 Steps to Find a Strategy

6.1 Our newly defined objective
Promotion of HRM-Services instead of Awareness Raising
The discussion in Tilburg showed that the concept of Awareness Raising is not adequate for
promoting the necessity of integrating people with disabilities in the open labour market. We
should rather look at the situation from a marketing point of view.
The starting point is that we have clients. Some of them will buy the product that we sell, some
of them will never buy. We want to reach the clients that are in between these zones.
We want to stress that people with disabilities do have abilities if they are given the right
tasks. Compared to “normal” people, they are proud to have been given a challenging task
(even if it’s a simple one) and even develop a great deal of motivation. They are mostly highly
satisfied and happy with what they are doing and the results of their work are perfect.

Therefore, Awareness Raising is not the best slogan. Following discussions it was agreed that
the goal is to promote HRM-Services for people with abilities to employers.

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6.2 What do we promote?
The group came to the following result:
- We promote expertise in HRM
People responsible for integrating people with dis/abilities should no longer function as
“petitioners” and merely ask for employment opportunities, but should now offer
professional HRM-Services for people with abilities to potential employers.
- We promote diversity (management)

6.3 Slogan
In order to promote these HRM-Services we need a suitable slogan. Work group 3 agreed on
the slogan: “We can help you!”

6.4 Draft Message

Work group 3 came to the following conclusion: to draft the message the AIDA formula will be
used, a well-known marketing tool standing for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

(1) Attention
Attention is drawn to the issue by using a teaser. In the steering committee we will discuss the
possible hiring of an advertising agency to create a tangible idea. Something special is needed
to call the attention of a client (employer), e.g. an icebreaker, a teaser, a door opener, etc.1

(2) Desire
“We can help you!” is an excellent starter to get desire.

(3) Interest
The client’s interest will be drawn by addressing his/her company view in the following fields:
- General expertise in HRM
- Diversity (management)
- Image building
- Continuity
- Possible low risks (when hiring)
- Possible low costs (when hiring)
- Qualified HRM analysis

1
After discussion in the steering committee, it was decided that we do not dispose of a budget to
engage an advertising agency. Therefore every country is asked to have a brainstorming session to
come up with 5 tangible ideas. During the next meeting in Belgium, we will decide on the idea to be
used.

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(4) Action
The main goal is to get the opportunity to talk about our expertise in HRM and the
management of diversity. So our action will be: “Invite us for 15/30 minutes and we will explain
how we can help you with your HRM issue!”

7 First Ideas and Suggestions for a Necessary Toolbox

Step 1 Teaser (to establish a first contact) has to
- have a strong connection to the message
- be something very special

Step 2 Manual for the toolbox

- We want to be seen as experts and demonstrate our tools in a manual.

Step 3 Structured interview/questionnaire for the 15/30 minute invitation (to gather
information)
• Information package (to deliver information)
• PowerPoint presentation (1 or 2 slides)
• List of validated references with names, phone numbers, email addresses
• List of testimonial statements (preferably corresponding with validated
references)
• Leaflet/Articles describing “success stories”
• List of names, phone numbers and email addresses of people that have
experience in a specific HRM-field and want to contribute to the project goal
• SWOT analysis tool for organization (HRM related)
• Tool for visualizing economics concerning HRM issues
- Subsidies
- Costs
- Added value of the integration of people with disabilities
- Low risk of costs
- Possible reductions of costs
- etc.

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8 Suggestion for a Process to Promote HRM-Services
Information and awareness raising are important on a large scale. There is no doubt about
that. However, what is equally important is the necessity to demonstrate and convey the
benefits and advantages of employing people with disabilities. This aspect can be compared
to the sales business. Let’s take the example of a seller of Smart cars: he has to communicate
his conviction about the real advantages of such a “minor” car to potential buyers; he has to
highlight the car’s actual positive aspects such as its convenient size, its minimal petrol
consumption, etc. rather than mention possible weaknesses.

Companies have to be informed about the capabilities of disabled people. They also have to
be assisted in becoming more self-assured when getting into contact and coping with disabled
people. Furthermore, they have to be advised on the diversity of subsidies and financial
support.

By presenting best-practice models, fears and prejudice on the part of companies can be
diminished and their social responsibility can be strengthened.

All these tasks challenge people presently working in the system for the integration of people
with disabilities as consultants.

In this role they have to focus on three main consultancy processes:

8.1 Company related marketing

This process is seen independently of an individual case. The person in charge of this process
is a marketing expert. Company related marketing has the character of a process in order to
elaborate possibilities and solutions for the employment of people with disabilities through
awareness raising.

This process helps to support the acquisition process and, as a consequence, the future
individual placing process.

Its objective is to demonstrate the benefits of employing people with disabilities.

8.2 Company related acquisition

This process is also seen independently of an individual case. The person in charge of this
process is a labour market assistant. He doesn’t work on the case of an individual person with
disabilities, but acquires workplaces for people with disabilities in different companies. He

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cooperates with personnel managers, or general managers and executive managers in
smaller organisations.

This process is aimed at winning companies as well as their employees for concrete projects
after they have been made aware of the issue by means of the marketing process. Such
projects could be offering a job to a person with disabilities or the elaboration of a company
model for the integration of people with disabilities.

The acquisition process mostly stretches over a longer period of time and often requires
substantial changes in attitude on the part of the customer (company).

Such changes in attitude don’t happen just like that. Ways to raise awareness and trigger
activity with companies have to be found, which sometimes represents a long-lasting learning
process.

At the beginning of such a learning process, it is important to reduce the company’s inactivity,
as well as its fears regarding the reaction of the surrounding towards its change in attitude and
behaviour. As soon as the customer has changed his attitude towards the issue, i.e. he has
been sensitised personally, he is motivated to make a change, i.e. he is motivated to ponder
job offers for people with disabilities.

8.3 Process of creating adapted workplaces

In this process companies are supported in developing suitable conditions, organisation
models and work contents for people with disabilities.

The labour market assistant addresses to the consultant for adapted organisation of work in
case he has to cope with questions in this context.

This process is a classical consulting process. The following reasons can cause companies to
cooperate with such a consultant:

Restructuring of the company as a whole or of certain company parts

o Which tasks can be fulfilled differently than before and how can this be done?
o Which tasks can be performed within the company to increase flexibility?
o Which work models have to be developed?

It is the consultant for adapted organisation of work who is responsible for this process. On the
one hand he functions as a strategic consultant who has a sound knowledge of and a wide
experience in system-oriented, strategic management; on the other hand he functions as a

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consultant for problem solving and implementation and helps his customers to find creative
solutions.

In the three processes described above, the following functions are required. For each
function special knowledge and qualification are necessary:

o Marketing expert

o Labour market assistant

o Consultant for adapted organisation of work

The necessary knowledge and qualification can not be combined in one person.

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