Sharing experience: We have to employ persons with disabilities in business

It is stereotypes that prevent disabled from employment though sometimes applicants aren’t ready to work on the schedule. We should gather experts from different social spheres and look for solutions.

The director of commercial structure “Hypermarket of services 124” Igor Striga doesn’t hide the fact that the main goal of his company is to earn money, but at the same time adds: “There are no slacks to people with disabilities during employment process and work”. More than 20 years ago he became a wheelchair-bound person himself and considers that by employing persons with special needs he is working for prospects. We will know from the first hands how they manage to be the best in their business having more than 70 percent of disabled employees.

- Please, tell us Igor, people with what kinds of disabilities you are employing?

- Mainly they are wheelchair-bound disabled, but there are also people with other kinds of disabilities – miopathy, cerebral spastic infantile paralysis, depression. By the way, I faced diagnosis depression for the first time not long ago. A woman with 2^nd group of disability came to us who couldn’t work for many years because of this diagnosis. We decided to employ her and didn’t regret at all! She is doing a great job.

- What positions do people with disabilities take?

- About 50 out 70 company’s employees are people with special needs. They all take different positions: director, accountant, deputy director, client specialist, copywriter, website administrator, courier… Taking into account the fact that we are a commercial structure I as the director have to think about profit and prospective. We are going to work for many years and that is why are trying to do something serious if to talk about corporative social responsibility.

- Does the state help you to practice such a responsible policy?

- If to consider tax benefits to be the state’s help then yes. But I would rather say about cooperation. Today we work in close cooperation with the committee on labour and employment of population. They help us to find people and send disabled for adaptation. The program of PWDs’ adaptation gives an employer opportunity to get a partial compensation from the state for paying salary to such employee during training process. We have special centers for adaptation and also possibilities for distant learning it means we do our best for the state’s money and prepare good specialists that can work at any place. But there is a problem that scares many potential employers: if a person with disability wants to quit a job in this case in accordance with the legislation you can’t make him work till the end of his contract. Unfortunately for me as a director it is a problem – you invest in a person and after the end of training he finds a job in Russia because they offer more money…

- What are other things employers are afraid of? What else can influence their decision?

- Such stereotypes as – a person with disability needs longer vacation or they fall ill more often – play a huge role. Employers have an impression that if they employ a person with disability they will have a lot of problems with him. I have spent 20 years in a wheelchair and I know what I am talking about. It is very difficult to employ being a disabled: even if you have a diploma or two about higher education it doesn’t guarantee employment. What can we do about it? May be NGOs can help – they need to explain people things, talk about stereotypes and try to get rid of them.

What does “disabled fall ill very often” mean? “Not disabled” people also fall ill and some people even more often than PWDs. Personally I don’t remember when I took a sick leave. We can also make some compromises with vacation. If there is a lot of work we ask to divide the vacation to several parts. People work very good and even more – people who find interesting job and who like it are working excellent. The only problem is that the financial situation in the firm doesn’t let us do even more for the employees – for example, to send people for health improvement.

- Not every head of a firm today thinks how to help his employees to have a good vacation…

- Of course you don’t have to do it. But if you don’t care about your employees you will face staff turnover. What stability of the organization can you talk in this case? If we invest in our people we feel that they are also trying to do their best!

- Is it easy to find a proper person for a definite position?

- The problem is that not all PWDs are ready to work. Just imagine a person who has spent 15-20 years at home. It is difficult for him even to imagine that he will have to work according to schedule and Belarusian “barrier-free environment” very often does a job inaccessible.

If to talk about a distant job there are mainly vacancies in funeral homes where you have to make some wreaths or it would be a very low paid job. Employers are not ready to give a job to a person with one or two higher educations but who can’t leave his apartment. According to the data by the committee on labour and employment there are more vacancies for disabled than disabled willing to work.

- Are there any possibilities in your company for distant work?

- People from all over the country are distantly working in our call-center. Some of the employees even don’t have a post office in their small town but they use their computers, download special software and are at constant connection with the main office and clients.

- Did you have difficulties employing PWDs?

- I passed all the procedures of employment myself as well as all other guys working at the firm. Of course, sometimes there are some difficulties with medical examination; sometimes there are issues at local polyclinic. But these are not problems of some definite people these are country’s problem. Very often people have to wait so long for their documents that they lose hope. The process can take up to 6 months and a potential employee can lose patience. You should understand that any activity for PWDs is connected with definite difficulties: it is not so easy to leave your house, snow and curbs are also a huge problem and so on.

- Can the state stimulate employers to hire PWDs?

- If to consider the existing legislation it is profitable to employ PWDs. You just have to make more efforts and spend more time training such employees at first. We should explain to executives the principles of corporate social responsibility. Not all firms are paying taxes in our country. What responsibility can we talk about? Every employer should think about the society, ecology and people. It is very good that today large firms are involved in charity. Someone gives money for equipment, someone for painting a fence in an institution for disabled. Of course we need such help, but it should not be limited by simple giving money. We can allocate funds in such a way that there would be a perspective to involve PWDs.

- So in other words people just lack information?

- Yes, and we should talk more about it. We have to gather specialists from social services, medical commissions, employers, representatives of large business and state enterprises, PWDs and mass media and to look for solutions. If we don’t do it nothing will change and no benefits for employers will help. We also have to involve PWDs more. Not every person is ready to come and to start work instead of feeling sorry for him- or herself. We don’t give any slack in our company we don’t have such a notion. People just work and get descent salary, feel social protection and they simply don’t have time for depression. 

The interview was originally published at the Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities