myAbility.jobs

Promoters:

Gregor Demblin and Wolfgang Kowatsch, DisAbility Performance Austria.

Country:

Austria

A web-based recruitment agency that connects people who are looking for employment, with and without disabilities, with job offers suited to their skills, while helping companies to rethink disability.

What solution does the innovation propose?

In partnership with DisAbility Performance Austria, the organisation has created a completely new recruitment market by providing ‘disability know-how’ to companies. This scheme has been successful in convincing an increasing number of companies to rethink disability: shifting from a charitable approach to an equal opportunity focus, targeting new groups of customers and employees. As the enterprises invest resources in this area and start to understand the competitive advantage it entails, the issue becomes relevant for their business strategies: a change in social attitudes driven by economic incentives.

Recognitions

Gregor Demblin is an Ashoka Fellow (2013). European Award for Social Entrepreneurship and Disability (2014). Austrian Public Relations Award – CSR Category (2014).

Impact evidence

Outputs

More than 14,000 jobs offered to people with disabilities.
More than 1,000 human resources employees annually equipped with skills to become ‘disability confident’.

Outcomes

83% of the companies participating in a survey conducted by Career Moves (former name of the initiative) rated their experience of hiring people with disabilities as positive and would recommend the service to other similarly structured companies.

Sources

“Career Moves’ 2014 Annual Report”.

Data collected through an internal survey (2013).

How does it work?

The initiative works as a recruitment agency specialising in people with disabilities. Its business goal is to successfully transform society by raising public awareness on disability issues and publishing job offers for this target group. The organisation focuses on actively communicating the abilities of cognitively or physically impaired people through a strong media presence, thematic events and lobbying activities. Companies that identify a need for action in the disability field receive an integrated disability management set-up system. As soon as the relevant competences are available within the database, the search for employees with disabilities begins almost automatically. Matching the relevant skills with employers’ needs is the organisation’s speciality.