Management structure and governance

Printopia’s activity is for-profit, and the governance structure is the management team. Protected units in the SRL category, such as Printopia, can sell, based on L448 law, only products and services made by persons with disabilities employed in the protected unit.

The values that define Printopia’s management are open-mindedness, training, clear management, matching abilities with the position, partnering with local agencies and disability groups, holding the same standards for all employees, and educating management and non-management about persons with disabilities.

Principles of work, objectives and activities

The integration of people with disabilities develops personal independence, increases life quality and helps create a working environment where equality is the primary principle.

Printopia’s main activities are the production and supply of consumables, IT and office equipment, as well as, the provision of services and the implementation of IT solutions to the representative companies on the market. The team likes challenges and they believe that the development of a company requires courage and determination for future expansion of the portfolio for clients as well as the range of services offered. This objective has a clear end that fits with the company’s main social mission: to increase its staff, so that it can involve more people with disabilities in its major projects.

Target groups

Although Printopia’s business model is not excluding any age group or population, their field of activity is more appealing to young people in urban areas. Currently, Printopia serves over 300 legal entities (state institutions, banking institutions, companies, and non-governmental organisations) every month.

Innovation

Printopia as a business model is an innovation in itself. It starts with visible leadership from the top of the organisation. Then, it requires the right supervisors in place, who are sensitive to disability issues in the workplace. All employees receive disability training. The milestone is assuring the right match between the employees’ skills and the job. An employee with a disability receives pre-employment safety and skills training. Mentoring from other employees is beneficial.

In terms of what Printopia can provide, their services have a broad coverage from software to hardware, maintenance and security solutions.

Key partners

Printopia has numerous key partners: Dell (Gold Partner), HP (Synergy Partner), Lenovo (Silver Partner), Fujitsu, Asus, Bitdefender (Gold Partner), Kaspersky, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Isgus, Gotschlich, HikVision (Gold Partner).

Impact and Evaluation

Currently, Printopia has a share of handicapped and disabled personnel of 67% of the total number of employees. They are under the unit protected by reference at the national level in the field of IT&C according to the volume of activity and the importance of the developed projects.

Printopia experienced lower turnover with this group of employees steaming from a workplace that respected and cared for its workers. They experienced increased loyalty as a result of the proactive recruitment of workers with disabilities and extensive training. They experienced higher attendance, mostly resulting from pride in their workplace.

Stereotyping diminished with prolonged contact and the right leadership in supervisory positions and by holding persons with disabilities to the same standards as other employees.

Recommendations

The Convention concerning the rights of people with disabilities is applicable at the European level and Printopia recommends that at the beginning the funding can be supported from other sources too until the start of the business in this form – as an Accredited Protected Unit.

According to the Constitution, disabled people enjoy special protection, in the sense that they are guaranteed equal opportunities to participate in the community. Thus, they can be employed, according to their work capacity and professional training. Because disabled people can be employed in protected forms, not only in the free labour market, and one of these forms is an authorised protected unit.

The authorised protected unit is the entity under public or private law, with its management in which at least three disabled persons are employed, representing at least 30% of the total number of employees. Their cumulative working time shall represent at least 50% of the total working time of all employees, as well as, any form of organisation chosen for carrying out an economic activity by a natural person holding a disability classification certificate.

Lessons Learned

The integration of people with disabilities helps all of us to understand the importance of social interaction as a natural daily process. As humans, we all have the same basic needs, feelings, and fears and we all aim for similar goals. Printopia managed to break the stereotyping and scepticism of clients regarding the work that people with disabilities do.

References

Printopia website.

Accacce, 2020, Law no. 193/2020: News for Romanian employers regarding the contribution to the disability fund | News Flash, 10 September.