When Angela Brooking urges employers to give disabled people and others a go, she says it from experience. 

Plenty of experience.

The West Coast operations manager for OCS Greymouth, which provides general and specialised cleaning services for businesses, has six Workbridge jobseekers working for her.

She’s happily hired many more in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

“I’m originally from the Hamilton OCS office,” she says. “We had a good working relationship with Workbridge up there, and down here it’s even closer.

“I pop in for a coffee and have a chin wag about different vacancies we’ve got.”

So supportive is OCS of the Workbridge mission to put more disabled and other battlers into work that it has been named a finalist in the employer section of the upcoming Attitude Awards for the disability community.

Whatever happens on the night, Angela and her company are already winners. And she believes other businesses could be as well, if they considered the merits of greater workplace diversity and inclusion, and hired more disabled people, and those with health and other challenges.

“If you look past the negative, these people have a lot to offer the workplace and are more appreciative of being given a chance,” says Angela.

“The commitment is there, their loyalty is there. I’ve found them to be the biggest asset, rather than someone else just walking in off the street.”