On the occasion of the D-brain Forum held on 5 July in Rome, Francesco Baroni – Country Manager of Gi Group Holding – brought the experience and commitment of the Group to build a more sustainable future of work.
How can we support and sustain a true and wide inclusion which considers the fact that there are not only degree of disabilities but also skills?
The issue of inclusion of people with disabilities touches us closely, because of the role we play as intermediaries between companies and candidates, and, also, because the issue of inclusion is one of the aspects that contributes to our commitment to make Work Sustainable.
As a Group, we are committed to creating the conditions which allow people to develop their talents and skills remaining active, for as long as possible, in their career path, through guidance, training and job accompaniment services.
Recent ISTAT data show that only 32% of people with disabilities have job opportunities in Italy.
Thus, we recognize that there is a considerable room for improvement.
With this in mind, we joined the GIVE project. During these months, we had the opportunity to compare ourselves with the expertise of the other partners and to source knowledge from international best practices. We surely will take advantage from it for the whole duration of the project. Considering our role in the project GIVE, we created a survey that we administered to our customers to investigate how we could improve the transition between the world of education and the world of work.
This survey showed us that more than 50% of the placements of people with disabilities take place as a result of regulatory obligations. The aspect of obligations is an extremely delicate issue since the more stringent the obligations, the more there will be situations in which it will not be possible to fully exploit people’ abilities. At the same time, given the difficulty and complexity of insertion, without obligations probably companies would not even try to insert people with disabilities in their realities. Understanding how to intervene on this issue is a priority if we want to change the employment rate of people with disabilities.
The second relevant element was that most of the people employed are hired in manufacturing companies, because these are the companies that, more than others, have generic roles available.
Moreover, another interesting element of this survey was that, in most cases, companies give up on placements and fail to achieve the expected results because the people with disabilities do not receive training consistent with the role.
The theme of experiential training is a decisive element. It combines orientation, i.e. the ability to recognize a talent, with a training intervention that guarantees the ability to express oneself in the company.
Finally, the survey shows that companies often renounce in integrating disabled people because of lack of equipment, not only from a logistical and infrastructural point of view, but also from the point of view of the ability to welcome and accompany these people in the appropriate way.
At this historical moment, the labour market in Italy is experiencing impressive changes, first and foremost the fact that companies are not finding the candidates they need. It is not only a problem of competences, but also a problem of quantity.
There is a gap to be filled and a great opportunity to be seized: on one hand, the demand for work has never been so receptive and on the other, we have the resources of the PNRR and programs specifically dedicated to inclusion in the world of work.
This is an opportunity not to be missed.
