Coventry’s Parcelforce Worldwide Hub has received government funding to enable the company to employ four deaf staff.

The company received £24,000 from the Employment Service's Access to Work initiative. The money helps fund a proportion of Parcelforce's costs of employing hearing-impaired individuals.

Parcelforce Worldwide’s Personnel Manager Jo Freer explains:

“As one of the area’s major employers we were contacted by the Employment Service with information about initiatives to facilitate the employment of people with disabilities.

“Following meetings with the Employment Service we were given funding towards the cost of purchasing Deafalerter vibrating pagers for staff with hearing difficulties, and to provide deaf awareness training, including basic sign language, for our existing staff.”

As a result of the initiative Parcelforce Worldwide have been able to employee three deaf members of staff on the parcel sorting floor: James Moseley, Arfan Dar and Sjaid Khan from Coventry. Tony Watts from Birmingham, who is hard of hearing and who was already employed in transport administration office, is also benefiting from the scheme.

Jo added:

“In addition to the pagers and staff training, the Employment Service also provide funding towards the cost of an interpreter for team briefings, making sure that James, Arfan, Sjaid and Tony can play their full part in team meetings, and contribute to the discussion.

“The basic sign language tuition for our staff has also worked well. People have picked it up and are using it on a daily basis when dealing with their deaf colleagues. The initiative overall has been very successful and we hope it will lead to us being able to employ more hearing impaired staff in the future.”

Commenting on the funding Employment Service Disability Employment Adviser Margaret Ackroyd said:

“I am extremely pleased that Parcelforce Worldwide has provided these employment opportunities for the deaf, and I am confident that they will build on their success. Each employee is proving to be a great ambassador for the deaf community.”