The Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, with support from the International Labour Organization and the Government of Belgium, has drafted recommendations for business on the development and implementation of internal inclusivity policies.

Oleksii Miroshnychenko, President of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, emphasized: “We’ve held a large thorough survey of business as regards job placement of persons with disabilities to see real problems. We’ve development the recommendations and, most importantly – a training programme”.

Oksana Medvedska, Executive Director of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, noted that, according to the survey findings, 58% of enterprises have no specific integration policies or programmes, therefore the new set of recommendations has been created. “To help employers place persons with disabilities in a job and integrate them into workplaces, recommendations have been drafted within the project of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine for employers on development and implementation of an internal corporate policy”, she said.

Olena Stepanenko, expert at the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, pointed out that integration of persons with disabilities will result in development of business and growth of its competitiveness. Key stages of creation of an internal inclusivity policy are as follows:

1. Self-assessment of the company’s readiness to engage employees with disabilities: checking the legal conformity of internal documents with legislative requirements, and assessing resources, technical conditions, and staffing processes.

2. Policy development: establishing a working group, consultations with employees (including those with disabilities), positive wording, coverage of all stages, from recruiting to career.

3. Implementation: official approval (order, instruction), action plan, communication with staff, trainings.

4. Monitoring: using such criteria as assessment of legislative compliance, job placement dynamics, satisfaction of employees with disabilities, number of trainings, staff awareness.

5. Reasonable accommodation: customized adaptation of schedules, workplaces and tool to meet a specific person’s needs (unlike universal design).

Document templates, video instructions, sample questionnaires, and examples of internal policy are attached to the recommendations.

Besides, the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine has created a training course for specialists who will develop an internal inclusivity policy.

The recommendations for development and implementation of an internal corporate policy on workplace integration of persons with disabilities have been developed by the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine within the framework of the project "Establishing a consultative system for the integration of persons with disabilities into the workplace". This project is implemented with the support of the International Labour Organization’s initiative funded by the Government of Belgium, titled "ILO Support to Ukraine: prevention of labour exploitation and human trafficking, support to entrepreneurship development and social partners" as well as the ILO RBSA project "Promoting inclusive and sustainable reconstruction in Ukraine".