Companies recognise that if all their workers are happy, the companies also benefit, writes Claire Shoesmith 

Catering for the needs of people with disabilities carries slightly more weight for Abbott Vascular than it does for other companies because many of its customers have developed a disability as a result of the illness that Abbott is seeking to cure.

"We have to stand back and recognise that Abbott is a worldwide healthcare company and a lot of the people who purchase our products have a disability," says Damian Halloran, divisional vice-president of Abbott Vascular's operations in Ireland.

According to Halloran, Abbott Vascular, which has this year been recognised in four categories of the O2 Ability Awards, including learning, development and progression, and retention and wellbeing, has always adopted an open policy to inclusion.

Entering the awards, he says, has enabled some of the things the company was already doing by chance to be cemented into official programmes, such as the half-day diversity training now offered to all employees.

"It gives us recognition for our work and raises the group's profile in this area" and the company has also benefited from the guidance given by the awards' organisers.

For Abbott Vascular it's not all talk either. Of the 1,000 people employed at the group's site in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, 10 per cent are categorised as having diverse needs, ranging from physical disabilities through to unseen ailments such as dyslexia. A significant number of the staff are foreign nationals coming to terms with a new language and work conditions. The training and progression courses are offered to all employees.

It is this opportunity for personal progression, as well as disability awareness and specially adapted rehabilitation programmes, that impressed the judges in this year's development and progression category of the awards.

"Providing these opportunities is a win-win situation for all," says Halloran, adding that if employees are happy then in the long run, they will be more use to the company.

This attitude is similar to that adopted by Mayo County Council. According to Joe Loftus, the group's director of corporate affairs, the Ability Awards is about making a mind change rather than a bricks and mortar one, and in the long run everybody will be a winner.

Mayo County Council, which was also recognised in the categories of learning, development and progression, and retention and wellbeing, employs 1,200 people, of whom more than 6 per cent have an identified disability.

Again the thing that most impressed the judges was the opportunities for people to develop themselves while working for the council. According to Loftus, the group offers a wide range of programmes, including funding for degree and post-graduate courses, to all its employees.

"This means that a lot of our employees stay with us for a long time," he says, adding that they have staff who have been working at the council for as many as 40 years.

"If this means we don't have to keep recruiting and filling positions, then that is good for us."

Retaining staff though is not something that's on the mind of Matt Rogers, station manager of community radio station RosFM, which has also been recognised in the learning, development and progression category of this year's awards.

For him the recognition is a way of acknowledging the good work being done by people at the station and also motivating them to make further progress.

RosFM is unique in that it was set up primarily by and for people with disabilities and as a result is fully aware of the needs of these individuals.

Still, it doesn't mean that its work should go unnoticed. In this case, the judges were particularly impressed with the group's buddy scheme, which enables disabled people from the local community to shadow a radio employee with a view to learning about the working environment.

They also recognised the group's commitment to educating people about disability through its capability radio programme, as well as the introduction of an outreach programme aimed at teaching people about broadcasting within their own environment.

The O2 Ability Awards 2007, hosted by Caroline Casey and Ryan Tubridy, will be broadcast on RTÉ 1 at 11.45pm on Thursday June 14th.