A Certification for Inclusive Employment for People with Disabilities in Europe

What is a UNI PDR?

Starting with the basics, there are some topics regulated in European Union countries that do not have a technical reference standard, meaning there are no guidelines on "how" to implement the contents of the regulation, making it challenging to have clear points of reference. For this reason, the UNI system has identified the tool of "Reference Practices," or guidelines, which essentially provide initial direction on topics that have not yet been addressed elsewhere or need organization due to being too fragmented. Among the values expressed by UNI are sustainability and consistency, as a body that listens to stakeholders' needs and disseminates unbiased reference practices to ensure balanced implementation.

‍Why a Standard for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in the European Labor Market is necessary?

The European Union recognizes work as one of the most important opportunities for people to achieve independence, economic autonomy, combat poverty, and reduce inequalities. This reasoning is even more crucial for people with disabilities, who, in dealing with these challenges, must also overcome cultural, architectural, digital, and sensory barriers that are still widely present in EU countries. The issue becomes urgent when considering that, depending on various conditions, nearly 100 million people in the European Union could be classified as having a disability.

What is the current situation? Not encouraging. When comparing the employment rate of people without disabilities to those with disabilities in Europe, the gap is over 24% between those who are employed. This disparity is further exacerbated by the fact that average salaries are often lower for people with disabilities compared to the general population. Additionally, while 17% of the European population is at risk of poverty, this figure rises to 28% among people with disabilities, making it an urgent priority to ensure income opportunities and address this unacceptable situation in our continent.

‍UNI/PdR 159:2024: A First Tool to Bring Order

The complexity of the topic of "work" is undeniable, and it becomes even more challenging when the issue of disability is introduced. However, it is reassuring to know that standardization bodies like UNI recognize the problem and the need for tools and mechanisms to organize, regulate, monitor, and guide the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labor market, ensuring non-discrimination, equal opportunities to contribute as other colleagues do, and the most natural integration of differences within organizational contexts.

In this context, UNI provided a tool in January of this year with the publication of UNI/PdR 159.

This practice contains practical guidelines to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace.

It specifically focuses on both practical actions and policies that companies must implement, giving HR departments a key role in executing the certification process related to this UNI/PDR. Some practical actions include:

- Adapting workplaces by removing architectural and sensory barriers:** A plan to eliminate structural barriers is essentially the first step in bringing people with disabilities into the company, ensuring they can physically and symbolically access all company spaces. Often, companies’ environments are fragmented, with only some areas accessible, or only certain types of barriers removed while others remain. Having a tool that outlines the necessary steps becomes a significant opportunity.

- Eliminating digital barriers: We often discuss the impact of accessibility for people with disabilities on this blog. AccessiWay's mission is to break down these barriers. People with disabilities want to be customers and citizens, but they also want to access the digital tools of the company they work for, and the UNI/PDR standard takes this into account. Intranets, digital documents, digital interfaces, and management systems must be accessible to ensure the full inclusion of workers with disabilities.

- Agile work and smart working policies: To appreciate differences and human needs, flexibility and good management of workspaces and hours are essential. Consider those who need specific or daily treatments. Flexible hours and the option to work from home can be crucial in ensuring that people with disabilities or illnesses can contribute meaningfully to the workplace.

- Ensuring fair recruitment policies in collaboration with employment centers to optimize resources already deployed by EU member states for the employability of people with disabilities.

- Promoting and formalizing roles like Diversity Managers and Disability Managers:** These individuals act as catalysts for good practices and promoters of a culture that should become part of the organizational fabric, ensuring not only accessibility but also a genuine culture of opportunity and diversity.

- Training:In line with fostering an inclusive organizational culture, training plays a crucial role in broadening perspectives and skills. Fear often stems from ignorance; through training, a company's workers will have more opportunities to understand and embrace diversity.

As with the implementation of other certifications, such as UNI/PDR 131 for tourism, a checklist has been provided to better monitor progress.

As with many other issues, Europe has taken the lead in social innovation by providing a concrete tool to move forward in the challenging mission of ensuring the inclusion of people with disabilities. However, there is a serious risk that this initiative will be limited to a few companies genuinely interested in achieving a high level of social impact, which primarily concerns brand reputation and the increasingly important topic of sustainability, which also includes the social dimension. These guidelines should be accompanied by dedicated funds and mechanisms to ensure their practical application, even in companies that cannot allocate resources to inclusion-related issues. If small and medium-sized enterprises could rely on dedicated funds, this tool would likely have a broader reach. As is often the case with disability-related matters, excellent theoretical measures are put in place without practical tools to enable the real and concrete implementation of the required strategies and practices to achieve inclusion. It cannot be based solely on culture and willpower; it must also involve technical, accessible, and practical measures. Furthermore, it would be desirable to have a unified observatory to highlight the best practices implemented by forward-thinking companies so they can serve as examples for others, focusing on the beneficiaries of these measures, namely workers with disabilities.

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