Within the Awareness4change project, the partnership had designed a Training Course for HR professionals and job counselors of disabled people. The goal of the training was to change the attitudes that the labor market has towards people with disabilities. More than 40 participants finished the Course, which included the participation and sharing of best practices of leading organizations and enterprises in Europe regarding the employment of People with Disabilities.
Below we invite you to find out more about how the experience unfolded for different partners and participants. 

Diakonie, Germany
The pilot was very successful, the participants gave very positive feedback on the content, the methods, and the format. As it was our first online workshop with external participants, we had to overcome some technical difficulties. Also, the mix of participants was very heterogeneous, which was partly good (very fruitful discussions) but partly not (the content often did not fit well with part of the group).
However, all 24 participants reported back, whether by email, in the reflection round or in personal conversation, that the seminar helped them in their personal development and that they can integrate elements from the seminar into their daily work.
 
ACE-ES Romania
ACE-ES Romania implemented the pilot activity in the period 20-24 June 2022, 5 online sessions on Zoom with a sample of 8 participants.
The main goal was to test, evaluate and collect relevant feed-back for improving the Training pack as a whole and each module.
The participants agreed that these modules are useful for developing knowledge&know-how related to Disability so that HR professionals might become more open related to employment of PwD in their organizations.
One of the most important aspects pointed out by the participants was that the modules can be adapted for different categories of professionals working with PwD.
Another appreciated aspect of the modules was that they incorporate very different practical situations.
 
Aproximar, Portugal
The feedback from the participants was extremely positive and the results hope to inspire further editions and programs.
 
EaSI, Romania
A total of 13 people showed their interest in attending the pilot and completed the enrollment form, but in the end, there were 8 participants who attended the sessions.  
All participants found the training to be a great opportunity to deepen their knowledge regarding the topic. They mostly enjoyed the practical activities as they had a chance to come up with ideas and solutions to problems. Another positive aspect was the opportunity of meeting other people interested in the same topic with whom they could create a connection.
Overall, the trainers thought that the pilot reached its objectives and that the values gathered along the Awareness4Change project were successfully disseminated. 
 

Currently, there are over one billion disabled people worldwide[1] who are more socially involved than before. Despite this, employment rates are low, and many barriers to employment still remain[2].
 
In the framework of the Awareness4Change project 6 organizations from 4 European countries (Germany, Portugal, Romania, and United Kingdom) are making a joint effort to address the situation and promote the knowledge about diversity, human rights, and inclusion.
 
We believe that an inclusive workplace welcomes people of all backgrounds and abilities and appreciates them for their contributions. It's a place where people with disabilities have equal opportunities for advancement as their colleagues.
 
The awareness campaign entitled We can merge together, aims to share testimonies of companies that have built an inclusive working space for people with disabilities. Through this action we want to show that smart employers recruit and welcome talent with disability.
 
The campaign will start in May 2022 and last until June 2022 and it will display every month two stories of companies that have built an inclusive working space.
 
In Romania, one of the companies that has a real interest in this matter and has successfully built an inclusive workspace is Kaufland Romania. We have spoken with them regarding their inclusion practices and asked them three important questions:
 
1. Why do you think it is important for a company to invest in creating an inclusive workplace?
 
2. What actions do you take to ensure that all staff feel included (e.g. team awareness sessions, mentoring programmes, etc.)?
 
3. What measures do you have in place to ensure the retention of people with disabilities?
 
We invite you to read their answer below. 

“For us at Kaufland, employees are the company's most important resource. We already have almost 16,000 employees working in our headquarters, logistics centres and 150 stores across the country.
We are an attractive employer and one of the largest teams in Romania. We are present in social life through social responsibility projects and caring for the communities we all live in.
Therefore, through the programs and campaigns that Kaufland runs as an employer, we have set ourselves the goal of coming closer to those who are different, those who are different, whether we are talking about ethnicity, religion, social background, or disability.
To this end, through the A.C.C.E.S. programme, launched at the end of 2019, we have brought more than 400 people with disabilities into the Kaufland team.
 
The idea of the project was to give/give people with disabilities the feeling of belonging to a team built like a family, where everyone finds their place...
As far as the A.C.C.E.S. programme is concerned, it all started from an identified need and the vision of our company.
A.C.C.E.S. involved the promotion of the international organizational culture of the Schwarz Group based on diversity, non-discrimination, inclusion, equal opportunities together with the involvement of management and employees in the project.
The team dedicated to the A.C.C.E.S. programme consists of colleagues from the Recruitment Department as well as from the Employer Brand Department, together with other colleagues who carry out employee counselling and development.
​
Some of the steps taken:

• Adapting Kaufland Romania's workplaces to increase the inclusiveness of people with disabilities (employees and customers): the 8 cash registers specially adapted for people in wheelchairs, access ramps for all areas of the stores, accessible common areas, as well as parking spaces specifically for people with disabilities.
• Adaptation of working hours according to the abilities and specific needs of each disabled employee.
• Allocation of internal resources to adapt workplaces to make them accessible to as many disability groups as possible, as well as allocation of resources for training of own employees (internal trainings) and effective integration of new colleagues with disabilities into the team.
• Ensuring the integration of people with disabilities and developing an organisational culture based on accepting and encouraging diversity.
• Assuming responsibility for educating own team members, as well as clients and society in general, to accept diversity.
• At the same time, we have published dedicated advertisements for people with disabilities to give all candidates the opportunity to apply for our jobs.
• Assistive technology plays an extremely important role, we believe it complements naturally and is closely linked to our core objectives.
• Kaufland Romania takes a constant interest in assistive technology, and so far we have achieved important steps in this direction.

 
In this regard, we have worked on:

• In-house adoption of the "Voices for Hands" app for mime-gesture interpretation for deaf and hard of hearing colleagues and clients.
• Testing of tools specially designed for blind customers; worth mentioning here is the partnership with the Romanian start-up.lumen, which tested in our stores glasses specially designed for the blind;
• "Vocalio" app which is the innovative solution that aims to improve the communication process with the hearing impaired, which was obtained after organizing the largest social hackathon. held in spring 2021. It took the form of an online competition and brought together technology teams at the start who brought to the forefront innovative solutions to support the integration of people with disabilities.

Another direction was working with state institutions, collaborating with associations and NGOs, and expanding the A.C.C.E.S. program nationwide, giving everyone who wants to be part of the Kaufland team a place to belong. Investing in people is one of our long-term priorities, along with creating the most open, welcoming, and non-judgmental working environment possible.

Those wishing to join our teams can apply at www.cariere.kaufland.ro”

References:

[1]https://www.ilo.org/

[2]https://www.awareness4change-project.org/uploads/1/2/3/6/123661942/employ-able_people_campaign_article.docx.pdf