The Kanchi Blog

Posted on

17th October 2012

in

Business,Caroline Casey,Disability,Kanchi News

These awards recognise companies and institutions that have incorporated disability in it’s value chain.

The 50 Ability Award finalists were announced today after theFinal Judging session of the second cycle of Telefonica Ability Awards in Spain.
The president of Telefónica, César Alierta, has met today with the rest of the Telefónica Ability Awards Final Judging Panel to confirm the 50 finalists that will compete for the awards, from a total of 414 entries. The Telefónica ability awards publically recognise those Spanish companies and institutions that develop a sustainable business model that integrates disability in its value chain, whether it be employees, providers and/or clients.

The Final Judging panel consists of the Board of Trustees of the awards, formed by thirty individuals and representatives of Ministries, Universities, syndicates, network of associates linked to the world of disability and different associations linked to the world of disability and different business and social environment, and the three 2010 winners of the overall categories: Repsol, as best Large Company, Hotel Plaza Entremares as best SME, and AENA as best Public Institution.

These 50 Companies, that are now Ability Companies and Organisations as of today are eligible for the awards in six major categories – Top Management Commitment and Employee Leadership; Recruitment and Selection; Accessibility; Customer Focus; Professional Development and Training; Prevention and Retention – and three overall – best Large Private Company; best Medium or Small Private Company; and best Public Sector Organisation. The nine winning companies will be handed the award on the night of the grand ceremony on October 30th.

In this second cycle of the awards, the biggest categories were Customer Focus with 112 entrants, which consisted of a 27.1%, followed by Top Management Commitment and Employee Leadership with 79 applications, which represented 19.1%, and Accessibility with 76 candidates, representing 18.4%.

In relation to the organisations that have initially submitted their application, they come mainly from Madrid (29.3%), Cataluña (17.7%) and Andalucía (12.1%). In addition, the most represented sectors are the Public Sector and IT (9.9% respectively) and Education and Training (9.1%).

An important part of the applications in this second edition of the awards belongs both to the SMEs, that represent 37.9% of the candidates, as well as the large private companies that is 27.6%. Likewise, not for profit organisations represent 19.4%, councils represent 7.8%, universities represent a 6% and Ibex-35 (Spanish Exchange Index) companies represent a 1.3% .

Regarding the recruitment process, PwC has been responsible for receiving and analysing the 414 applicants of this second edition, validating their fulfilment in accordance to the guidelines. The 333 that met all the requirements passed to the second phase of self assessment, in which it was requested that an extensive internal assessment was tackled. The 75 organisations with better ranking in the self assessment phase were selected for an onsite assessment by PwC, and from the interviews conducted, along with the information provided by the companies, the key material was produced to identify the 50 Ability companies and organisations.

Launched by Kanchi, the Ability Awards with title sponsor Telefónica O2 ran for four years in Ireland and have achieved great impact on changing perceptions of disability in both the social and business landscape. Spain has been the first country they have been exported to in 2010 alongside Telefónica, supported by a prestigious board of trustees formed by representatives of the private and public sectors, network of associates linked to the world of disability, the business environment association, academia and multilateral environment. There is a particularly important drive from the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI for its acronym in Spanish), ONCE (National Organisation of the Spanish Blind by its acronym in Spanish) and ONCE Foundation .

For more information please visit: www.telefonicaabilityawards.com and www.twitter.com/abilityawards