The country's most important business award was awarded for the 22nd time. Competing with PwC Austria and KSV1870, “Die Presse” selected the national winners in the “Austria’s Leading Companies” competition. MyAbility won the special prize for inclusion.
“The year 2020 was not easy for anyone. We are proud of our successful achievements of the last ten years and, thus, expanded significantly in the previous year. We are very happy about this triumph”, says Wolfgang Kowatsch, co-founder and chief growth officer of myAbility. The ALC special prize was awarded together with the organization Zero Project and the Essl Foundation to honour companies for "outstanding corporate accomplishments in integrating people with disabilities into working life".
A lot has happened since the first job board for people with disabilities was launched in 2010: the team led by Wolfgang Kowatsch, Michael Aumann, Julia Moser and Gregor Demblin expanded myAbility into a full-service management consultancy in the area of inclusion and DisAbility Management. Today, around 30 employees work for myAbility on the shared vision of a barrier-free society with equal opportunities. Half of the employees have a disability themselves.
In the past five years, myAbility was able to increase sales revenue by an average of more than 50 percent per year. The company also achieved a positive annual result in 2020. This is also due to the focused expansion. In May, myAbility secured a high six-figure sum as part of a funding round. As a result, the company initiated a digitization offensive and started to expand their services into the EU. Additionally, the company expanded its myAbility.jobs into a comprehensive career portal and took over the German market leader Capjobs.
All in all, together with other companies, myAbility has created many jobs for people with disabilities and has published 35,000 jobs via Karriereportal.
For Kowatsch crisis is a great opportunity. “Companies now place greater focus on digital services and products. It has accelerated the digitalization of services in German-speaking countries and throughout Europe much faster than expected.” For example, myAbility is working on a digital guide for companies called the DisAbility Compass, virtual awareness trainings and new solutions for recruitment. Furthermore, flexibility regarding working conditions as well as diversity and inclusion in general have become an even more important topic for companies over the past years. Kowatsch states, "Thus, we can face the future with confidence."
The company is evaluated on the basis of its performance, i.e., the annual financial statements of the past three financial years. The national winners are determined in the categories of "internationally active companies", "nationally active companies with an annual turnover of ten million euros or more" and "nationally active companies with an annual turnover of up to a maximum of ten million euros". There is also a special prize for services relating to the integration of people with disabilities in companies. It is awarded together with the organization Zero Project, a spin-off of the Essl Foundation.
Article: DiePresse: myAbility demonstrates how inclusion works