Handi Day – 11th edition: advancing together for lasting inclusion

The 11th edition of the Handi Day involved several of the School’s stakeholders, including the Music’All student association, the student affairs and employer engagement teams and the Diversity & Inclusion Chair. The Chair notably organised the first part of the Handi Day, centred on a round table: “Family carers: the new challenge for corporate disability policies?”.

The role of the family carer: from the legal framework to day-to-day challenges  

Laura Lacombe, research officer within EDHEC’s Diversity & Inclusion Chair, led this introductory conference. She was joined by professionals and specialists in disability matters: Loana Lange, Disability & Health Mission Officer, Publicis Group, Franck Yves Beauprez, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mission, Auchan Group, and Emmanuel Bardet, Leader People Experience, PwC. Taking it in turns, each participant explained to the audience the scope covered by the concept of family carer and the legal obligations it implies for companies vis à vis employees who assume this role (leave of absence, donations of employee days, compensation). Family carer situations now affect some 11 million employees in France, 55% of whom are women.

The round-table participants then presented the initiatives taken by their organisations on this issue. Among the solutions mentioned to encourage people to open up on a subject that is often delicate to talk about, Loana Lange recounted her experience of bringing specialised associations and experts, particularly psychologists, into Publicis. The approach was beneficial in that it enabled these professionals to bring a neutral and outside view to bear on the issues, by choosing the right words, putting the employees concerned at ease and providing some bearings. For his part, Franck-Yves Beauprez highlighted the ambivalence of the family carer’s condition, in the sense that they are not disabled themselves and are supporting a family member who has no direction relations with the carer’s company. “In companies, disability missions used to focus solely on employees with disabilities”, explains Franck-Yves Beauprez. “But over time, their understanding of the subject has gradually changed: recognising the role of the family carer also means recognising a hidden reality that affects the day-to-day life of many employees”.

Understanding the diversity of disabilities

During the afternoon, over 40 stands, run by companies and the School’s student associations, were in operation on the campus. The objective was to create a space for exchange and dialogue on the subject of disability, an essential initiative, particularly since some 400 EDHEC students have visible or invisible handicaps. The Handi Day therefore constitutes a lever for reinforcing the School’s engagement on disability, as underlined by Alexandre Caron, Director of Student Engagement and Diversity: “Leading business schools have a responsibility to guarantee everyone the same chances of success. By engaging on a lasting basis, EDHEC creates an environment where all students – with or without disabilities – can learn, develop and accomplish their goals in the best possible conditions. This also firmly signals to companies our desire to train genuinely inclusive managers”.

All in all, 21 companies - including Lacoste, Inetum, EY, Auchan and Bonduelle – presented the measures they take to foster the inclusion of people with disabilities. On one of these stands, students had the chance to discover the awareness-raising actions of the care services group Oui Care. Amélie Gautier, Oui Care’s handicap mission officer, notably presented the range of tools for raising awareness among employees: “continuous training and awareness-raising efforts on the subject of disability are essential. At Oui Care, I arrange sessions throughout the year for our people. To provide information on all the different types of disability, I offer themed webinars devoted to endometriosis, multiple sclerosis or trisomy. The aim is to raise managers’ and employees’ awareness, so that they recognise the diverse range of disabilities that exist and thereby develop a concrete understanding of these situations”.  

With this objective in mind, companies are reinforcing their disability-related measures by adapting recruitment, making adjustments to work stations/jobs and undertaking awareness-raising actions, etc. But in spite of these efforts, numerous everyday obstacles for people with disabilities still have to be overcome, i.e. social isolation, discrimination, difficulties in obtaining care, economic precarity. Hence the importance for EDHEC of adding to society’s existing engagement with this issue and making inclusion a strategic pillar of its educational project. As Anne Zuccarelli, Dean of Educational Experience and Operations, points out: “By talking about disability, we create visibility on situations that are still poorly understood. With today’s EDHEC students liable to become tomorrow’s decision-makers, it’s important to raise their awareness of disability and thus prepare a generation capable of creating accessible work environments that reflect principles of solidarity and respect difference”.