ILO GBDN-China celebrates progress in 2019

Over the year 2019, the member companies of the Global Business and Disability Network - China Chapter (GBDN-China) have increased the number of employees with disabilities in their workforce.

News | Beijing, China | 06 December 2019
Shanghai(ILO News) – Over the year 2019, the member companies of the Global Business and Disability Network - China Chapter (GBDN-China) have increased the number of employees with disabilities in their workforce. This was the highlight of the latest meeting of the 18 members of the Network, which took place in Shanghai on December 6.

Since the launch of GBDN-China in July 2018, the companies have been using the platform to share experiences and learn from each other. On 03 December 2018, Ajinga.com launched the group’s first public initiative, an Integrated Recruitment Platform to break down barriers between jobseekers with disability, their parents and teachers, and hiring companies. In the year 2019, GBDN-China members have stepped up their effort on disability inclusive employment.
While the members share two priorities namely sustainable recruitment and successful retention, they differ in their approaches. Accor-hotels hosted a sign-language programme while the company deepened its inclusive and diversity programme with the objective of strengthening the career paths of workers with disabilities up to management positions. Anbang has published the “Super Economy Analysis: Integrating Employment and Anbang Pharmaceutical Model”, which documents various models of disability inclusive employment. Standard Chartered Global Business Services launched its new vocational training programme entitled “Path to success: Create a strong eco-system for persons with disabilities in labour market” which aims at improving the student’s sense of cooperation and leadership.

Learning from Taicang Inclusion Factory, Flex Zhuhai has set up an inclusive workshop within their operations dedicated to people with intellectual disabilities. They were able to demonstrate that these people can be part of a team and perform with constant high quality. Sarah Albert of Flex Zhuhai and Vice Chair of GBDN-China explains: “The most important is to accept failure and learn from trials and errors. We need to go beyond the traditional approach which limits people with disabilities to certain job categories or even worse - leaves them without any job at all".

Easy Inclusion has coordinated the input of the member companies throughout the year by regularly organizing joint events and contracting external consultants to appraise areas for improvements. Easy Inclusion has also fostered the relationships between the Network members and Chinese universities dedicated to the employment of persons with disabilities, employment services, tech- and platform companies.

GBDN-China, launched in July 2018, is an initiative partly supported by the UN Joint Programme on Protecting the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in China. More information about GBDN-China is available at http://www.canzhang-hub.com.