A new perspective on able

ABILITY:WHEN ABBOTT divisional vice president Ger Cronin spoke at a recent Kanchi Ability Network event in Clonmel about his company's diversity journey, the first thing he emphasised was Abbott's position as a global healthcare company.

“We have been around for more than 130 years and have a proud history of improving people’s lives,” he said. “Many of our customers are people with disabilities and we have been catering for their needs for all that time as well. Therefore, on a global basis we had already done a substantial amount of work in terms of embracing diversity and disability.”

The Kanchi Ability Network is the first business network in Ireland aimed at supporting business leaders in delivering value through the inclusion of people with disabilities in their organisations. The network is open to companies of all sizes and at all stages of their disability policy development. It aims to turn thoughts into action, becoming a resource forum and essential tool for organisations aiming to become champions of ability, valuing the talents and abilities of those with disabilities.

The Clonmel event was the second in a series of seminars hosted by founding members of the Kanchi Network aimed at developing and improving awareness of the need to provide better services to people with disabilities. “We recognised in 2005 that there was more we could do in Ireland in relation to working with people with disabilities,” Cronin says.

“We saw that disability was something we were going to have to deal with more and more in the future. Most people don’t realise it, but 85 per cent of people with a disability acquire it during the course of their working lives. This means that major employers, like Abbott, have to look at ways to help their employees to recover from accidents or illnesses and deal with acquired disabilities.”

Recruiting new talent was also an issue. “There was also a recognition that we could do more to bring more people with disabilities into the organisation,” he says. “And we did this from a point of view of what they have to contribute, not from any sort of charitable perspective. We worked hard to get past seeing the disability first. We are all guilty of this to a certain extent but we have to see beyond the disability to what people have to contribute.”

Once it was decided to take steps to become an ability company, Abbott put together a cross-functional group known as the Able (ability, belief, leverage, everyone) team. The team was championed by Cronin and human resource director Margaret Morrissey, and included volunteers from across key areas of the business, including facilities, occupational health, operations, learning and development, information technology and human resources.

The team worked on the development of an inclusive environment focusing on employees’ abilities and pioneered the Able programme, an initiative focused on attracting, retaining and developing people with disabilities in the workplace. The programme is now an integral part of the company’s strategic plan at its Clonmel site.

“The process began in 2005 and we struggled initially to fully understand what we needed to do,” says Morrissey. “We had some lofty goals, without having a clear understanding. Then we heard about Kanchi.

“It had started the Ability Awards and we entered them, not with a view to winning but to participate in a process to help us on our journey. The awards process posed a series of questions to us as an organisation and challenged us as to whether we were supportive to people with disabilities in a variety of areas.

“As we worked our way through it, we found that we were doing some good stuff and learned what more we needed to do to become an ability company. The feedback we got from the awards process has been very good for us.”

Abbott got more than just feedback, it was named Overall Winner in the Private Sector at the O2 Ability Awards 2010.

But it’s not just through awards that the company has benefited. “We’ve been able to hire and retain some really great people who we otherwise might not have been able to get,” says Cronin. “A significant step in the recruitment area was our decision to look at how we could hire more graduates with disabilities. This led us to the Ahead organisation and its Wam (willing, able and mentoring) graduate recruitment programme and this has resulted in the appointment of 15 graduates to permanent positions within the company over the past few years.”

The benefits of becoming an ability company are felt in the entire organisation, according to Cronin. “Celebrating and championing diversity has been a rewarding journey for Abbott. The Able programme has had a strong positive impact on our workforce by demonstrating best practice in the consideration of people with diverse needs. I would urge other organisations to embark on the journey and say to them that they are not alone. There are great organisations like Kanchi, Ahead, and the other members of the Kanchi Ability Network out there ready to help.”

This point is echoed by Kanchi Ability Network manager Claire O’Callaghan. “We are interested in talking to organisations of all sizes, from all sectors and at all stages along the ability journey,” she says. “

The companies in the network are there to share their knowledge and experiences with others to help them on the journey. This is the most important point. The ability journey never ends, it is a continuous learning process and that’s what the Kanchi Ability Network is all about.”

The Clonmel event is one of a series of seminars being hosted by members this year where members and other companies can continue to learn from each other.