Disabled in demand for jobs
Members of the forum “Business for Equal Opportunities”: Disabled people are in demand in the jobs’ market
Moscow: 21.02.2014
Russian firms are ready to employ disabled people, according to representatives from the Russian business community and experts from the fifth forum “Business for Equal Opportunities”. According to research presented by HeadHunter to this forum, 50% of those Russian companies asked employ disabled people and haven’t experienced any real problems in working with them.
As the results from a survey of employers showed, 20% of firms are interested in hiring disabled people, but have had problems in recruitment. 21% of companies have no idea where to look for disabled candidates, while 13% are unable to provide information on available jobs to suitable applicants.
Among the practices discussed at the forum was one employed by the SAR company, which not only employs disabled people, but also helps them find work with partner firms. The personnel agency Staffwell, in a departure from the usual stereotyping associated with the recruitment business, has organised a team of trainees, comprising disabled candidates.
“There has been increased awareness among companies that we’ll need to work more proactively with candidates in future because many of them are simply afraid of looking for work. Although the number of firms that are prepared and able to take on disabled people has increased significantly in recent times, candidates with the necessary motivation are still not coming forward” says Marina Khadina, head of the career agency “HeadHunter”, who has launched a campaign of labelling vacancies for disabled people. According to Marina, those disabled people who have experienced 5-7 years of failure are losing hope of ever finding interesting work. However, many of these applicants who are generally reluctant to test their abilities remain very passive as a result. “Our task now is to reach out to these people and let them know they are in demand in the jobs’ market” says Marina Khadina.
As part of their campaign to advance the cause of equal opportunities for all applicants in the marketplace, HeadHunter launched a report in 2012 to label job vacancies for disabled people. Employers who appoint people via hh.ru can mark jobs as being open to disabled people. Such a branding means that an employer is prepared to consider all candidates equally based on their professional abilities. For 2 years, more than 22,000 jobs throughout Russia have been assigned such a label.
The forum “Business for Equal Opportunities” has met 5 times and is organised under the auspices of the Business Disability Council, with the support of KPMG and the Regional Organisation “Perspective”. HeadHunter has been represented on the Council since April 2013. 120 representatives from the Russian business community sit on the forum and play an active role in resolving problems associated with disabled people. These include IBM, “Megaton”, Microsoft, MTC, “OBI”, “Uralsib”, EY, “Atlas-Kolko”, FM-Logistic, Siemens, Nike, Daimler, Hyundai Motor CIS, DPD, KPMG, Novartis, SAR, Unilever, Exxon-Mobil and others.
Author: Yulia Vyatkina
