The birth of our disability initiative
At Apside, we can find values that are embedded in the DNA of the company. Among these values is open dialogue to ensure an optimal working environment for everyone, while striving for fair and equitable conditions. This means leaving no one behind, working with companies of all sizes and working with local schools, as well as training organizations. Such sharing and human value are at the core of our disability initiative.
Our desire, through our disability initiative, is to change the way we look at disability for those on our team, as well as for people outside the company. In order to promote inclusion, Apside set up its first branch employing exclusively persons with disabilities in June 2019 and the first of its kind in the IT services sector in France: Apsid’EA.
Apside’EA, a commitment complementary to our disability initiative
Apside’EA contributes to a model of social innovation by promoting professional integration and employing workers with disabilities. At the heart of Apside's business expertise, computer engineering and industrial engineering, Apsid’EA guarantees quality services delivered to its clients.
Our model goes beyond the number of tax breaks gained in order to address disability with a comprehensive approach of integration and skills development. All the consultants at Apside’EA are offered accommodations training, and support in their career development. Recruitment and training for all are our two focal points in the disability initiative of Apside.
The commitments of the disability initiative at Apside
Our disability initiative is built on 5 commitments:
Recruitment for all: an inclusive recruitment process with training for all of our recruitment officers in order to help them work with the candidate
Training for all: free and unrestricted access to training for persons with disabilities
Maintaining employment: an internal retraining plan, Cap Emploi and AFPA partnerships, but also internships and job shadowing
Awareness and communication: as a learning company our vocation is to transmit an awareness of the needs of those with disabilities with 17 points of contact with different roles within the group (HR officers, assistants, managers, and business developers)
Financial aid from ESAT and the disability sector for structural and functional expenses
Actions for the benefit of future generations
At the end of 2019, artificial intelligence was used to help two of our engineers with disabilities. By initiating an R&D project in one of our Innovation Labs, our consultants are hoping to create software capable of identifying and recording walkways and the surroundings in order to guide visually impaired individuals with use of augmented reality glasses. Through image processing and recognition, this solution will be able to safely guide an individual and identify those located within the same work space through a voice operated system.
Throughout the year, Apside is involved in a continuous awareness campaign, especially with students. Our goal is not to create solutions for us, but to support future generations in the quest for caring management.
For our story to be complete, we had to write a new chapter...
Because each person is important, beyond any of our differences. Everyone must be accepted, respected, and recognised in a world where work can give meaning to life. What guides us in our endeavors to help everyone shine is our desire to include everyone, to grow together, to better – and even to surpass – ourselves. And this should be the case for everyone without exception. - Pierre Gauthier, Apside CEO.