6.3 We create friendly workplaces for people with disabilities

[GRI 3-3]  Supporting persons with disabilities in the workplace, adjusted solutions in the workplace, Ja też (Me too), Sprawny Staż (Able Internship) programmes

[Own indicator]  a description of practices of supporting persons with disabilities

[Own indicator]  percentage of employees with disabilities

Activities for persons with disabilities, including creating jobs for them, are an important area of development to us, constituting an element of the Sustainable Development Strategy (ESG). Our openness to cooperation follows from the values we profess and respecting human rights regulations.

People with disabilities make valuable employees and constitute resources that are not fully exploited on the Polish labour market. We make every effort to build our organisation in such a way as to create space and development opportunities also for them.

We employ people with disabilities on various positions – highly specialised employees make up 71% of the total number of Hestia employees with disabilities (102 persons – data as at 31 December 2022).

We take actions for our employees with disabilities in cooperation with the Integralia Foundation, which supports us in the process of recruitment and appropriate adaptation of the workstations. We take into consideration not only the physical properties of a given workstation but also the organisational culture and the right communication, therefore the support offered by us is a long-term and multi-dimensional activity.

The “buddy” function for a newly hired person with disabilities 

The buddy is always in touch with an appointed person from the Integralia Foundation, who provides support to prevent difficult situations, helps respond to them and proposes solutions when there are problems in working with other people.

Training how to cooperate and communicate with people with disabilities

Conducted on an ongoing basis, at several levels of detail:

• employee onboarding, during which every new employee is trained on the rules of communication and cooperation with people with disabilities,
• workshop on communication and cooperation with people with disabilities, delivered twice a year as part of the #Share the Knowledge training programme,
• workshop on communication and cooperation with people with disabilities arranged at the request of the director/manager of a given office.

Architectural adaptation of buildings

In the buildings of the ERGO Hestia Group, we continue to improve and introduce further solutions to ensure better accessibility for people with different needs (e.g. disabled parking places, a ramp, sufficiently wide doors that open automatically, lifts with inscriptions in Braille).

Commitment to digital accessibility in communication

• adaptation of internal communication to the needs of the visually-impaired and the blind (appropriate mailing format, including its text version in a PDF file),
• ensuring, as far as possible, digital accessibility to solutions implemented both inside (e.g. EH Portal) and outside the organisation (e.g. ergohestia.pl).

Programme of benefits

With an annual information campaign on the rights of people with a disability certificate:

• financial support in the amount of PLN 2,000 for treatment, purchasing medicines or medical equipment,
• additional 2 days of leave for people with a mild disability,
• two additional consultations with a general practitioner and psychologist at the Healthy Employee Centre,
• support provided by the Integralia Foundation for employees in all topics connected with disabilities.