Member Article

Double national award win for de Poel Community

de Poel Community, social enterprise and sister company to leading temporary labour procurer, de Poel, is celebrating after being announced as a double winner in the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI) Awards 2015.

Hosted by Eversheds LLP last night, the RIDI Awards – founded by the Clear Company and now in their second year – celebrate best-practice towards managing disability in the recruitment supply chain. Winning the Extending the Reach and Overall Winner categories, the awards serve as recognition of de Poel Community’s commitment and work to generate positive change, advocating inclusive recruitment and supporting people with disabilities to find fulfilling and sustainable employment.

de Poel Community’s ethos is to champion employment opportunities for all and remove the barriers that people with disabilities encounter in the workplace environment.

Providing a vital link in the employment chain, de Poel Community has national partnerships set up with Welfare to Work providers and referral partners to source candidates who are of working age and require help and support to find and stay in work. de Poel Community has supported over 3,000 individuals into work in the last two years.

Janice Henson, MD of de Poel Community, comments: “We are absolutely delighted to have won not just the RIDI Extending the Reach Award 2015, but the RIDI Overall Winner 2015 award too, as recognition of our hard work and dedication to championing inclusive recruitment.

“It was a great achievement not only for me but also my fantastic team, who are instrumental in de Poel Community’s success and our work to shape the recruitment industry and wider employment landscape, challenging unconscious bias and dispelling myths surrounding disability in the workplace. We feel honoured to have been recognised with these awards – what an incredible night!”

Congratulating the award winners, Kate Headley, Chair of Judging Panel and Director of Consulting at the Clear Company, said: “The standard of entries this year exceeded expectations and caused a great deal of debate and discussion at the judges’ panel. The winners this year displayed real progress in removing barriers in even the busiest recruitment environments, and their case studies show that they’re succeeding in becoming disability confident.”

“With more and more support available, the workplace culture is changing. We are seeing the formation of fruitful partnerships that not only give organisations access to a more diverse talent pool, but make all the difference at a personal level – for candidates with a disability that are able to find work…it’s life changing!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Henshall .