The Innoklusio team has been working hard on developing this major model project on disability inclusion in the workplace. However, the uniqueness of this project consists of its co-development with the recipient companies. A first workshop to lay the foundations for this collaboration took place in Hamburg at the end of April, with the generous support of Beiersdorf, which hosted this first meeting of pilot companies and welcomed the participants to its premises.
Innoklusio’s mobile exhibition will be on display for the first-time this December starting on the International Day of People with Disabilities at the Museum of Work in Hamburg. After this initial presentation, the mobile exhibition will tour the 15 pilot companies for 10 months.
Before that, however, it is particularly important for us to fine-tune this disability inclusion journey together with our pilot companies.
The objectives of this first workshop with the pilot companies were three: first to meet in person with each of our pilot companies. Second, to update all parties on the advancements of the Innoklusio development. And third, to create a space for networking among the companies and to build a sense of an organic community and working groups around the issue of inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace.
So far, the development of the model project Innoklusio has been entirely in the hands of DSE. But from this pilot workshop on, we are actively involving the companies by envisioning their best scenarios for the inclusion of people with disabilities in their organizations.
During the workshop, companies shared their best inclusion practices so far, but also showed vulnerable and presented the needs and challenges they have while working on the topic of disability inclusion.
For us, it was clear that especially at the beginning of their inclusion journey, companies need the guidance of a third party and the consolidated Innoklusio community in order to solve needs such as finding the right candidates with disabilities and permeating the organization with inclusion aspects in a holistic way that goes beyond goodwill and instead addresses how inclusion can benefit the organization.
However, we have to say that most of our wishes for the workshop were fulfilled. There was an incredibly positive energy among the participants and what is even more important, they all want to do something for inclusion, intention is there.
Our next step is to redefine and improve our role in organizing the pilot companies. For the near future we want to serve them the best viable way on their inclusion journey. We would like to repeat the workshop with the pilot companies in the form of online versions during the year and meet again in presence for the big opening of the mobile exhibition in December.