London, UK – The winners of the 2014 Disability-smart awards were announced this week at an event hosted by HSBC in Canary Wharf. Organised by Business Disability Forum (BDF), the awards are given to companies that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to employing, working with and doing business with disabled people.
The awards are given to organisations that exhibit leading practice within the ten criteria of the world-leading Disability Standard. The disability standard represents best practice, but also provides information about specific areas to support business in their journey to becoming disability-smart and improve performance for disabled customers, employees and stakeholders.
This year was the first that BDF have held a standalone awards scheme open to all organisations. The judging panel included leading experts in the area of disability, representatives from BDF’s member and partner organisations and disabled opinion leaders.
Of the entries received this year, the following organisations and individuals were named as winners in their respective categories:
- Executive Champion: Ian Wilkie, Partner, EY
- Disability Champion: Sean Smith, HM Revenue & Customs
- Branding: Barclays
- Know-how: Brunel University
- Adjustments: Lloyds Banking Group
- Recruitment: Barclays
- Staff Retention: Lloyds Banking Group
- Career Development: EY
- Products and Services, B2B: AvePoint
- Products and Services, B2C: Money Advice Service
- Product Development: Lloyds Banking Group
- Suppliers and Partners: Barclays
- Website Communications: Barclays
- Contact Centre: Lloyds Banking Group
- Premises: Shell
- ICT: HM Revenue & Customs
Paul Day, chief of staff at business disability forum, said:
“The number of entrants in the awards scheme highlights the increasing importance businesses are placing upon meeting the needs of disabled people – and rightly so. Businesses in both the private and public sectors are starting to realise the benefits of measuring and improving their disability performance, which extend not only to the business itself but also to employees and customers.
“This awards scheme is just one of the ways in which BDF are working to make the UK’s industry disability-smart. In 2015, we anticipate that an even greater number of organisations will express interest in the Disability-smart awards, and look forward to seeing a further increase in the quality of the submissions.”
The 2015 awards scheme will open for entries in early 2015. For more information on the Disability-smart awards or the Disability Standard, visit: www.disabilitystandard.com.
Charles Staples is an editorial assistant at HRreview.