Benefits for Employers

Are you an employer who ‘never receives applications from people with disabilities’ despite being an ‘equal opportunities employer’?

Does your organisation have a workforce that reflects and benefits from the diversity of the society in which it does business?

Can your company recruit from the entire pool of emerging highly skilled graduates, including those with disabilities?

Does your company have policies and procedures which ensure it will retain the skills and experience of its current workforce in the long-term?

The Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme seeks to address these issues in the mainstream labour market through its mentored work placement programme. The objective of WAM is to create a more inclusive labour market for graduates with disabilities and, equally, to highlight the business advantage of diversity which has long been acknowledged by leading employer organisations. In striving to achieve this WAM has, over the last number of years, collaborated with a dynamic network of high profile employers in the Irish labour market. These include; Abbott Ireland, An Post, Bank of Ireland, DCU, ESB, FÁS, IBM, Irish Life & Permanent, Microsoft, O2, RTÉ, Savills Hamilton Osborne King and The Civil Service.

WAM offers employers a number of advantageous opportunities. These include becoming a member of a dynamic learning network of major employers who get the chance to discuss disability issues in a safe and constructive environment and also the opportunity to capacity build in terms of policies, procedures and staff. The strength of the WAM approach is the ability to learn from the collective employer experience of WAM placements – good and bad. Employers who participate in the WAM placement programme play a crucial role in how each step of the process functions while also benefiting from tools and products produced as a result of the learning emanating from the programme. For further details on current WAM resources for employers please click here…

The WAM Programme offers a number of benefits for participating employers. These include;

Reach a Growing and Under-utilised Resource Pool

More and more students with disabilities are attending third level education and graduating with a diverse range of skills and qualifications. AHEAD research indicates that the figure for students with disabilities attending third level education has quadrupled over the last 15 years. As second and third level education becomes more accessible and inclusive, the pool of qualified graduates with disabilities continues to expand. WAM has already proved successful in supporting major Irish employers to positively embrace diversity and benefit from the qualifications and skills of an under-utilised and growing resource pool: graduates with disabilities.

Broadening the Recruitment Scope – A Self-Assessment

Employers providing placements get the opportunity to assess their internal recruitment and selection procedures regarding the employment of people with disabilities. In order to select the most appropriate candidate for any position, employers must make sure that their recruitment net is as inclusive as possible – here WAM has assisted employers in identifying the impact of language use in job advertisements, the benefits of competency based interviews and the importance of identifying the most suitable reasonable accommodations, if required.

Gaining Self-Awareness of Work Environments

Taking on WAM placements can provide employers with the opportunity to gain a more comprehensive awareness of their own specific working environments. Emphasising competency based recruitment and selection enables employers to reflect upon their own policies and work environments (task, social and physical) so that they can draw up thorough and detailed job analyses. It is in these internal, unique, employer specific environments that the advantage of WAM may be found as it permits organisations to self-reflect on their own internal policies, procedures and work environments.

The WAM Mentoring Model

WAM mentoring facilitates smoother integration into the social environment of the workplace and thus maximises the potential of the placed graduate at an early stage. Mentoring also has the potential to fill the man-management gap that can become neglected within the modern productivity driven workplace. The WAM Mentoring Model can improve staff communication skills while simultaneously providing disability awareness through direct contact. It equally promotes the concept of a friendly, inclusive workplace environment and as an extra layer of learning and knowledge transfer, offers benefits to the organization, mentor and participant.

Capacity Building

It is the aim of WAM to leave as much in-house learning as possible. Disability awareness through direct contact has proved to play a major part in breaking down stereotypical attitudes and perceptions in relation to the recruitment and employment of graduates with disabilities. Training provided within the WAM programme which includes disability awareness, mentoring and needs assessment will up-skill in-house staff also. The following are two further aspects of capacity building associated with the WAM programme;

Walking the Line with Employers

The WAM programme will ‘walk the line’ with employer partners in relation to all aspects of recruitment and selection throughout the duration of the placement, assisting if any issues arise. Employers and managers have stated in the past that having an external source of advice was of huge significance and proved to be a beneficial support. How to find the right match between job and job seeker while working within the current legislative framework can be a daunting task. The development of internal best practice policies in recruitment and selection for diverse groups, including people with disabilities, is crucial for modern business and is essentially what WAM is all about.

A Learning Platform

The success of the programme to date derives from the ability to create a safe space to develop a shared learning platform among the entire employer partnership in order to explore issues arising, as all partners on the project will be directly involved in every step of the process. It is through this learning environment that the WAM team are able to work with the employer partners’ line management staff on handling any emerging issues while also being able to measure (again including the programme partners) the application and effectiveness of current in-house policies and practice in the context of real work.

What managers and mentors had to say about their WAM experience

‘…it is still rare to work with a person with a disability and there is no reason why graduates with disabilities shouldn’t be in the workforce…’

‘It has changed my approach to the staff that I am managing. A lot of the methods and principals can be applied to all staff e.g. open questioning and listening skills’

‘I’m more aware of the difficulties that graduates with disabilities have in securing employment or work experience opportunities. I have also learnt that mentoring offers value across all strands of an organisation’

‘It has been a fantastic experience and a privilege to work on this Programme! I have a far greater awareness of the difficulties that people with disabilities are likely to face’

‘...The biggest barrier is perception’

For more detailed information on the processes involved in a WAM placement please click here…