Gaby Wagner: "Strengthening the employability of people with disabilities"

The Luxembourg Employment Development Agency (ADEM) registers a large number of jobseekers with disabilities. What does the status of disabled employee mean for applicants and how can companies work towards inclusion? Answers from Gaby Wagner.

INTERVIEW

Sustainability MAG: Almost one in four job seekers, who is registered at the ADEM, is a disabled employee or of reduced work capacity. What does the ADEM do to integrate or reorient this particularly vulnerable population on the ordinary job market?

Gaby Wagner: Being recognized as a disabled employee can give access to subsidies and support measures such as the participation in training costs, salary costs or pay for the expenses related to the adaptation of the work station. This status also gives access to individual support by ADEM counselors in order to facilitate their integration or reintegration within the job market.

Every year, there are 50 job openings within the public sector exclusively reserved to disabled employees. The ADEM is in charge of suggesting the appropriate candidates. This objective has been reached for the first time in 2016, where it was even exceeded as 52 people have been employed.

Beyond the public sector, it is also important to involve private companies. That is why, since 2016, the ADEM is actively participating in innovative projects regarding the inclusion of people with disabilities such as the (Handi)CapEmploi project, implemented by IMS in partnership with the ADEM. Three “Job Cafés” aiming at facilitating the matching between this specific target group and companies have already been organized. 10 people have been reemployed thanks to this initiative.

How can companies act to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities?

The greatest challenge is trying to change mentalities regarding the employment of people with disabilities or redeployed employees. Hence our efforts on increasingly informing the companies about this part of the population. By participating in the organization of initiatives such as the “Job Cafés”, we want to show the employers that job seekers with a disability or with reduced work capacity have skills that can perfectly match their recruitment needs.

The ADEM’s awareness raising effort is particularly conducted thanks to two measures that were introduced in 2016, the employment reintegration contract and the professionalization training, that really enable job seekers to meet employers. The employer has thus the opportunity to evaluate the candidate’s skills and the latter to show that he/she can meet the employer’s expectations.

How does the ADEM support companies that would like to hire a person with a disability?

The ADEM and its partners have currently several tools to facilitate the recruitment of people with disabilities or with reduced work capacity. One of them is the skills profile, which aims at strengthening the employability of job seekers with a disability. Once completed, this anonymous form can be placed on the ADEM’s JobBoard. Companies can thus benefit from a single standardized document which delivers all the essential information to recruit an employee with a disability. Moreover, within the Employer Service, two advisors, Sophie Grézault and Jil Voss, are exclusively in charge of supporting companies in the recruitment of people with disabilities or redeployed employees. They are responsible for the job offers reserved for this target group and also proactively suggest candidates with a disability that could match any other offer that has been declared to the ADEM.

To be read also in the dossier " Disability in the Workplace": 

• Companies Lagging Behind in Luxembourg
• How to Integrate Disability into Corporate Policy?
• A Shared Experience, Two Insights into Disability in the Workplace