Global Partnership Offers Prospect of More Jobs for People With Disability

A global real estate and facilities management service provider has partnered with National Disability Services’ (NDS) BuyAbility program, aiming to provide more employment opportunities for people with disability.

The BuyAbility service is designed to increase employment opportunities for people with disability through the promotion, connection and management of socially responsible procurement opportunities for Australian Disability Enterprises.

BGIS will partner with the BuyAbility service and have it introduced across all their major supply networks, with the “primary aim” of the partnership being to “promote the benefits of employing people with disability” within their core business areas.  

Jon McCormick, president and managing director of BGIS, said: “This is an important partnership for the business and will provide more opportunities for people with disability to be engaged in meaningful employment.”

McCormick praised the BuyAbility program, and said it offered “the perfect platform” to connect with disability entrepreneurs, and to help people with disability integrate into the community and workforce.  

From its inception in 2011, more than 1,500 people with a disability have been engaged through BuyAbility contracts, with over $33 million in disability enterprise contracts secured.  

The scheme generates a net economic benefit of $743 million per annum, and McCormick believes the partnership will deliver benefits to the Australian economy “through disability support pension savings”.

With the unemployment rate for people with disability twice as high as the average, NDS CEO Dr Ken Baker is hopeful the BuyAbility program will help “reverse the alarming statistic”, and said he welcomed collaboration with such a large company.  

“As the only social procurement service focused on people with disability, this partnership will significantly raise our brand profile and build BuyAbility’s capabilities,” Baker said.

McCormick said this was a good way to highlight “inclusion and diversity” within their workplace.

“Promoting inclusion and diversity in the workplace is an integral part of our business and BGIS’s core values,” he said.

“Employees will also have increased job satisfaction and pride when engaging with people who have disability.”