Making disability inclusion part of every firm's DNA

AS PART of her workday at Bolloré Logistics Singapore, Tan Bee Hong labels and packs products at the company's warehouse. The 56-year-old who joined the firm in 2018 after a 2-year job search is deaf, and is among the 27 employees with disabilities.

"This role requires me to pay attention to details, thus helping me to become more careful, responsible and focused. Now, I am able to guide the newcomers too," she said.

Shirley Hoon, HR Director of Bolloré Logistics Singapore, said that over the years, the logistics firm has seen a 35 per cent increase in the number of employees with disabilities, and the firm was recognised in 2021 as a disability-inclusive employer, following its Enabling Mark (Silver) accreditation by SG Enable, the focal agency for disability in Singapore.

The Enabling Mark assesses an organisation's practices and outcomes in disability inclusion across 6 categories which consist of Workplace Accessibility and Accommodations, among others.

Facilitated by management consulting firm Korn Ferry, the Enabling Mark was developed by SG Enable with close to 100 partners and stakeholders, and the process was supported by 2 key sponsors - President's Challenge and the SBF Foundation.

President Halimah Yacob launched the Enabling Mark in October 2020.

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Ku Geok Boon, Chief Executive Officer of SG Enable, said: "Prior to SG Enable's set-up, efforts to support disability-inclusive hiring were fragmented. Opportunities for customised vocational preparation, upskilling and reskilling for persons with disabilities were limited and awareness of the business case for hiring this talent pool was low."

Singapore ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Jul 18, 2013. At the same time, SG Enable was set up with a key mandate to improve the employability and employment of persons with disabilities who are work-capable, and took an ecosystem approach to develop "Ready Persons with Disabilities", "Ready Employers", and a "Ready Environment".

Ms Ku said: "Over the years, we have seen a steady increase in the number of organisations keen on disability inclusion. 5 editions of the Enabling Employers Awards were held between 2011 and 2019 to recognise disability-inclusive employers. As the disability-inclusive hiring landscape becomes more mature, we see more employers wanting to do more and do better. There is thus a need to systematise approaches and to share best practices for a greater multiplier effect. Hence, in 2019, SG Enable embarked on developing the Enabling Mark, the first-of-its-kind national accreditation for disability-inclusive employers which also provides employers with a framework for continuous improvement."

Elaine Yuk, Talent Acquisition Manager, Bolloré Logistics Singapore, said: "The recommendations in the Enabling Mark Report are very insightful. Moving forward, we would put in place a structure for monitoring, reviewing and tracking the effectiveness of our inclusive employment policies and have a more systematic way of evaluation as recommended."

Ms Hoon concurred and said: "Enabling Mark also serves as a guide for us to innovate and put in place new ideas to further improve the current working environment for persons with disabilities."

She added that adopting inclusive hiring has alleviated manpower issues.

"A niche job role is specially carved and designed for persons with disabilities. Their responsibilities revolve around routine repetitive tasks, allowing them to get familiarised and comfortable with the job. Once they are able to achieve a comfortable speed of performing the above job with good quality, a wider scope will be assigned to them again with great care, allowing them to further contribute to the business in the company and lighten the workload of other staff."

However, hiring persons with disabilities came with its own set of challenges which included communication during the recruitment process. To overcome this, interviews with persons with disabilities were conducted with the help of an occupational therapist (OT) from SPD, one of SG Enable's Job Placement and Job Support partners.

To ensure a smooth onboarding and integration of persons with disabilities into the team, Bolloré Logistics Singapore's supervisors were tasked to brief the current employees to share with them the "dos and don'ts" when interacting with colleagues with disabilities.

Ms Ku said: "In order for employers to successfully hire and retain persons with disabilities, they too need to be 'Ready'. From making a mindset shift to building a more inclusive workplace culture, from learning more about job redesign to making the workplace accessible, SG Enable supports employers with consultancy, training and grants. Employers have grown in their confidence and capabilities in hiring persons with disabilities, and we hope to build on this momentum to develop the Enabling Mark to ensure scalability and sustainability."

Future plans in the pipeline for Bolloré Logistics Singapore include increasing the number of people with disabilities hired through its continued partnership with SPD. In addition, starting this year, in the firm's procurement process and selection of supplier/vendor, disability inclusion will be a factor for consideration, as recommended by the Enabling Mark.

Ms Hoon said: "With the addition of persons with disabilities, it helps to create an environment for employees to gain greater empathy that would enable them to derive better solutions through the amalgamation of different perspectives and experiences. This would in turn help to drive higher productivity and benefit the company in the long run."

Benefitting from the Enabling Mark

Raffles Hotel Singapore's Vaithilingham Krishnaveny, senior housekeeping supervisor, concurred.

The supervisor has worked with Muhammad Sufiyan Bin Umar, who has intellectual disability, since he joined the hotel in 2014. Ms Vaithilingham said: "Working with Sufiyan has helped my temperament to become a lot calmer and I find that I am more patient in general when performing my tasks or training Sufiyan and other colleagues."

As a housekeeping runner, Mr Sufiyan responds to guests' requests and is responsible for sending items to guest suites. He found it challenging to comprehend the jobs sent via the KnowCross platform as it required him to read English.

Hence, to help Mr Sufiyan, when there is a KnowCross task assigned to him, his supervisors will follow-up with a WhatsApp text message containing a photo of the item he needs to collect, deliver or replace in a suite, said Ms Vaithilingham. The visuals help him as he struggles with reading English.

Mr Sufiyan, who is 30, also has ambitions to learn more about, and operate, hotel machinery such as Single Disc Scrubbing and Auto Scrubber.

Ms Vaithilingham said: "He once told me he wants to be 'somebody in Raffles Hotel Singapore' (i.e. a supervisor) and I am working closely with him to groom him into the position of a senior housekeeping runner. Colleagues with special needs such as Sufiyan require extra care and nurturing; and when they receive the guidance of a good mentor, they are able to perform well and succeed at their assigned tasks."

Raffles Hotel Singapore received its Enabling Mark (Silver) on Aug 27, 2021 for its disability-inclusive hiring efforts.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted the hospitality industry and its business and operations. Hence, the hotel did not actively recruit hotel-wide in 2020 and the first half of 2021.

Christian Westbeld, Managing Director of Raffles Hotel Singapore, said: "However, our Talent Acquisition colleagues are now working closely with SG Enable, Delta Senior School, Metta School, MINDS and the Singapore Anglican Association to facilitate the recruitment of persons with special needs. We have also identified departments and roles that are suitable for the hiring of persons with special needs."

He added the Enabling Mark spurs Raffles Hotel Singapore to build a positive corporate image with disability-inclusive hiring and adopt the best practices in building an inclusive workforce.

"Our immediate plan is to further improve our inclusive employment practices, and work on our practices and outcomes in disability inclusion such as in the areas of leadership, recruitment processes, workplace accessibility and accommodations, while working towards the Gold and Platinum accreditations."

Mr Westbeld added that colleagues with special needs are able to follow structured processes, perform routine work well, and offer job and operational stabilities. Job descriptions are often customised for them, and there is supervision and support from career coaches.

"Our colleagues, especially the millennials, value our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives such as Environmental, Sustainability, Community as well as Diversity and Inclusion programmes and activities."

Ms Ku elaborates that the Enabling Mark helps businesses to differentiate themselves and be recognised for their good work in hiring persons with disabilities and being socially sustainable.

"Being recognised as an Enabling Mark organisation lifts the brand, and grows their business by attracting socially-conscious customers, partners and talents. It enables businesses to seek continual improvement in building their human resource capabilities and culture."

Ms Ku said that some employers may have negative perceptions about the abilities or productivity of employees with disabilities.

"They may also think that supporting an employee with disability would require significant investment and effort. This is not the case. When we focus on abilities and adopt a strength-based approach, we can achieve so much more. There is also a range of grants and resources to support employers. With reasonable accommodations and an inclusive culture, persons with disabilities can thrive and contribute at the workplace."

Why disability inclusion?

And this point resonates with Deutsche Bank, which started hiring persons with disabilities in 1997, before inclusive hiring was in the spotlight.

Bernd Starke, Deutsche Bank's head of DACH Corporate Coverage APAC, said: "There is consensus that employers should recognise people for their unique talents. Statistically, more than a billion people in the world have disabilities. We must acknowledge that there are countless talented and gifted individuals who are more than able and willing to support, outperform and even lead their peers. Sustainable employment is a fair and merit-based practice and not a charitable act."

With that in mind, dbEnable was set up in 2014 and is Deutsche Bank's diversity pillar focused on disability inclusion.

Mr Starke added: "We started work with a group of employee volunteers and pioneered 2 main objectives: to build awareness among staff and to promote and facilitate actual employment. We believe it is imperative for successful organisations to build acceptance and an inclusive hiring culture for persons with disabilities, as diversity helps in attracting top talent. In 2015, we partnered 7 companies to launch the Singapore Business Network on DisAbility (SBNoD), a community of businesses across various industries in Singapore, united in their passion for enabling an inclusive and supportive workplace for persons with disability."

Today, SBNoD comprises more than 25 large corporates and financial institutions which meet regularly. The network, supported by SG Enable, shares best practices and promotes the inclusion of persons with disabilities at the workplace, helping to make our nation more inclusive.

The bank has also engaged with its vendors to encourage them to hire people with disabilities and what started as an engagement has since resulted in a formal agreement with them to employ persons with disabilities.

Mr Starke said that obtaining the SG Enable's Enabling Mark (Silver) accreditation attests that the bank is moving in the right direction, and it will continue using the Enabling Mark to build a truly inclusive organisation.

"Deutsche Bank hires based on merit, we had managers and teams within the bank that saw value in hiring from this pool of talent from very early on."

Having been advocating inclusive hiring for over 2 decades, he noted: "We have seen a shift in mindsets over time, from hiring managers as well as candidates. Through our collective efforts, businesses are now more open to hiring from diverse talent pools."

Deutsche Bank's dbEnable Work Placement Programme helps students with disabilities gain experience in banking via exposure to various career opportunities in the financial services and banking industry, which they can tap into as they embark on their careers.

"With inclusive hiring we benefit from a diverse talent pool, which brings immense value to the organisation."

Ms Ku reiterates that beyond corporate social responsibility, there is also a strong business case for companies to embrace workplace disability inclusion. "Organisations benefit in many ways: they can diversify their talent pool and build teams that leverage different strengths and perspectives; enhance their corporate culture to become a more collaborative one, and develop an innovative spirit as they adapt jobs and services to accommodate persons with disabilities. These are strategic advantages for businesses to do well."

This is part 1 of 6 in a quarterly series about disability-inclusive employment. Watch out for the next article in The Business Times in May 2022.