Photo: Eurofinsa

At Eurofinsa, we are committed to a social environment in which our projects are carried out for society’s most vulnerable groups. We are committed to including persons with disabilities in our workforce as one way of putting our corporate values and social responsibility policy into practice. We are convinced that favoring vulnerable persons by integrating them into the workforce contributes to the economic and social development of both the individual and society as a whole.

IBT Group job placement

Our American subsidiary, IBT Group, has headed our first project for including persons with disabilities into our workforce, which is constantly growing and evolving. It is enabling us to set out a progressively more integrative personnel management model that provides opportunities for people seeking to develop their professional potential and contribute to the success of our business with their talent. 

In April 2014, the first two Hospital Complexes in Peru were officially opened under the Public-Private Association model. They were built, equipped, and managed by the IBT Group to serve 500,000 people covered by the Peruvian Social Insurance System (ESSALUD). The General Administration and Corporate Social Responsibility Area decided to integrate persons with disabilities from the very start as part of the management model for both of these hospitals and contacted the Fundación DKV Integralia to seek their advice. The Foundation is a Spanish social entity that has 17 years of experience in placing persons with disabilities into the workforces of developing countries. It collaborates toward getting integration projects under way with companies and is closely aware of the needs of the population with disabilities within the local environment. 

In August 2014, this collaboration started as an agreement between the Foundation and the IBT Group to provide the human resources area with advice on the processes of screening persons with disabilities, specialized training for the selected candidates; we supported the employees through the placement process for the initial two month period; hold open conferences aimed at increasing awareness within the company concerning persons with disabilities for the executive management, middle management, and those directly responsible for these employees; hold the training and transfer of knowledge of an individual designated by the company as a Mentor. 

The Mentor is the person who has been trained in all phases of the integration process and has the know-how necessary to keep the project in full swing. It is also important to mention the support from public agencies and their job exchanges in the process of seeking candidates with disabilities.

This project is one example of social value being generated on the part of the private sector in conjunction with a not-for-profit entity and the collaboration of the public sector.

From placement to inclusion

This project started off with the incorporation of six persons into the Contact Center Area. Two and a half years later, there are 59 persons with disabilities working at our hospitals: 41 in Contact Center jobs, 14 in Admissions dealing directly with customers, and 1 in each of the following areas: Homecare, Nursing, Occupational Safety and Health, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Because we believe that persons with disabilities can work on equal terms, we keep expanding the scope of the inclusion model in the different areas in which our workers are performing their duties, fully integrating them into teams in which diversity is a reality and enriching for all. Similarly, in coherence with our values, we at IBT consider all our workers to have the same rights and obligations, equivalent job positions, and, of course, equal pay.

One of the challenges of hiring persons with disabilities is finding progressively more qualified professionals, especially in countries where access to a full, quality education is not readily available. One of the positive aspects we would like to highlight is that gaining access to decent, formal employment means greater selfdependence, economic independence, personal and family stability, personal growth, and higher self-esteem for them.

It enables them to be an active part of their family environment in particular, and of society in general. At the company level, they have shown themselves to be committed, responsible, efficient, productive, punctual professionals with a great willingness to learn and grow within the organization as well as maintain a low absentee rate. Also worthy of special mention is that it is important to invest in a little awareness-raising among fellow workers who have no disabilities in order to achieve true integration into the workforce.

Our experience is that including persons with disabilities on the different teams has a major impact at the human level, creating a sense of pride and belonging among all, which also contributes to the positive view the workers have of the company.

Impact analysis

In 2017, we conducted a job impact study in which 81 % of the employees with disabilities took part:

• A total of 67 % have dependent minors or older persons under their responsibility. 
• A total of 68 % have never received any support from a public agency or from private institutions as a result of their disability. In the cases in which some support had been provided, the aid in question was in the form of academic scholarships or wheelchairs. 
• Over 70 % stated having encountered employment-related discrimination due to their disability. 
• In 27 % of the cases, their salary is their household’s only income. 
• In more than 40 % of the cases, their salary sustains more than three of their immediate family members. 
• A total of 63 % have previously had more informal than formal jobs.