Alfaparf Milano, an Italian multinational that operates in hair and body care, received from AID the certification of Dyslexia Friendly Company. The recognition comes at the end of the "DSA Progress for Work" project, a step-by-step process aimed at increasing awareness of Specific Learning Disabilities and at removing all obstacles to the professional success of people with this characteristic.
The Alfaparf Milano path, launched a year ago, involved the Personnel Department in training and awareness-raising activities, in the experimentation of good practices in personnel selection and management processes, involving both people with SLD already present in the Company and young candidates dyslexics.
“In Alfaparf I was finally able to tell myself without filters – he said Simone, one of the young dyslexics recently added to the team -. I thank the Company for being able to understand and make the most of my real abilities and skills. There dyslexia it is not a problem but an opportunity to be seized”.
Specific Learning Disorders in Italy
In Italy i Specific Learning Disabilities (DSA) affect almost 3 million people, about 5% of the population. And they affect the ability to read fluently and write and calculate correctly, but they can also lead to difficulties in other areas such as memory and attention. These are neurodivergences or neuroatypicalities, innate and often invisible characteristics that remain throughout life but which can be compensated over time with the right tools and strategies.
Even in the workplace it is a very topical and increasingly felt theme, also thanks to the Law 25/2022 which provides specific protections for male and female workers. Facing it can represent not only an opportunity for inclusion and enhancement of people with diagnostic DSA, but also a discovery for those who have never received it or received it late.
The certification of Dyslexia Friendly Company to Alfaparf
"The recognition as Dyslexia Friendly Company represents a further step by Alfaparf Milano in the field of diversity and inclusion - underlined Attilio Brambilla vice president of Alfaparf Milano and president of Beauty & Business SpA –. We have already had various inclusion projects in place for years in Italy as well as in the other countries where we are present and it seemed important to us to seize the stimulus of AID to reason our selection and talent management processes in general, so as to be able to welcome more effectively workers with SLD”.
Susanna Marchisi, chairman of the DSA and Employment Committee of AID, added: "Alfaparf's path stood out for concrete and valuable actions such as the inclusion of dyslexic young people, who were able to freely express themselves in the selection interviews, and the experimentation of good practices for the management, support and support of dyslexic people already present in the company. I thank Alfaparf for the great sensitivity on the subject of DSA, for the commitment to guaranteeing reasonable accommodations and for having understood the added value of workers with DSA".
