A UK social enterprise is taking an innovative approach to supporting disability rights by encouraging competitors and other companies to #stealourstaff.

Eighty per cent of employees at soap brand BECO. are visually impaired, disabled or disadvantaged. The social enterprise has made it a mission to close the disability employment gap and is now calling on other companies to do the same.

According to disability equality charity Scope, disabled people are over twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled. There are over a million disabled job-seekers currently looking for work.

BECO. founding charity CLARITY & Co., has supported the employment of people with disabilities for 165 years and is now going even further to help close the disability unemployment gap. The campaign highlights individual staff members in the hope that those who want to will go on to secure jobs outside of the organisation and free-up opportunities for new staff in need of employment.

Staff profiles will take over the brands packaging in key retailers Waitrose and Sainsbury’s and on the BECO. website giving consumers and would-be employers the opportunity to get to know the talented workforce behind the brand.

Camilla Marcus-Dew, Head of Sustainable Growth, CLARITY & Co, said:

We want to give people who want to work, the opportunity to work. It’s as simple as that. Some of our staff at BECO. have been at the organisation for more than 30 years, and as much as we love our team and their loyalty, we want to help them and others have opportunities and so that as a society we can close the disability unemployment gap.

On average, there are over 250 applications for any corporate role in the UK, so it’s hard to stand out. The only way we were going to make a difference was to go big and reach the millions of supermarket shoppers through the CVs on our products and calling on big corporations to make a stand and change their hiring policies. We need people to start acting and living their values, not just talking about it.

Michael, Team Leader, BECO., added:

I wish other organisations would give people like us a chance. There are so many disabled people unemployed and I’m sure there are plenty of big companies that can do more to help.

To find out more about BECO.’s employees and view their CVs, visit betterconsidered.org/stealourstaff