Since the company’s origins in 1901, ISS has been a people-centric organisation, working with a strong belief that great people can and do make a difference. As a global company with over 360,000 employees worldwide, ISS recognises its diverse workforce as a key competitive advantage and a vital asset for its long-term success.
Knowing that, according to the World Health Organization, 16% of the world’s population experiences a significant disability, ISS wanted to ensure it is doing everything it can to improve the workplace experience for employees and visitors with accessibility needs, ensuring an equitable and safe environment to everyone.
After an initial Mobility Mojo assessment was carried out at the company’s head office in Copenhagen, Jan Pawlik, Workplace Management Director at ISS Poland was given the task by Margot Slattery, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at ISS, to carry out a similar process in the newly established Warsaw office, located inside the Polish capital’s prestigious Norblin Factory.
Adjusting the office space to improve its accessibility would be pointless if employees and visitors weren’t able to get into the building in the first place. For this reason, the journey towards a more accessible workplace should start with choosing a building that has been designed and developed with accessibility in mind. All common areas of the Norblin Factory had been built under the guidance of a local foundation, which expedited ISS’ goal to make its new Warsaw Hub a welcoming space to people of all abilities. Pawlik saw using Mobility Mojo’s accessibility tool as an opportunity to not only confirm the levels of accessibility of the building’s common areas, but also to capture the level of accessibility of the architectural plans for ISS’ own office space so that any necessary improvements could take place before the Warsaw Hub opened for business.
On his motivation to pursue the assessment, Pawlik said:
“At ISS ‘people make places’, so for our claim to have a more profound meaning – places must be accessible and welcoming to the widest possible range of users.”
Mobility Mojo’s Workplace Accessibility Assessment can be used from CAD drawings and partially completed buildings and office space all the way to specific floors within a building or even building campuses. Therefore, we were able to help Pawlik and ISS to make their Warsaw HQ as accessible as possible right from the office’s inauguration.
Using our tool on his smartphone, Pawlik walked through the Warsaw HQ answering questions, taking photos, and collecting measurements. In less than 3 hours, he completed the evaluation of all building areas, including parking, entrances, bathrooms, meeting rooms and much more, and received an accessibility score of the office premises in real time.
After less than 48 hours from evaluation completion, Pawlik received a personalised accessibility report including scores for each area of his office, Capex Light and Capex Intensive recommendations for improvement, and an assessment of compliance to regional accessibility standards. Through it, he gained a better understanding of the type of workplace ISS strives for and was better equipped to schedule and budget for improvements.
Commenting on his experience assessing ISS’ HQ in Warsaw, Jan Pawlik said:
“I very much appreciate the sensible trade-off built into Mobility Mojo’s system – between what needs to be done to make a place accessible and what can be done in a public space.
In comparison with other certification systems that I know of, Mobility Mojo assesses a very broad spectrum of features of the built environment and is well balanced between different types of disabilities. Also, I consider it an advantage that elements of the wider D&I context are included in the assessment system.
Mobility Mojo’s open attitude and constructive approach to cooperation was invaluable in the process of assessing our workplace and implementing improvements.”
Scoring an impressive 9.6 out of 10, ISS Hub in Warsaw was the first workplace in the world to receive a platinum accessibility score.
Wide passageways and doors, simple signage for easy orientation, spacious lifts, lowered reception desk, visual impairment friendly colour schemes, ramps to all terraces and even specially designed furniture handles are just a few examples of how ISS has adapted their new Warsaw headquarters to the highest accessibility and usability standards, allowing for a more diversified group of employees and guests to feel welcome and included at the office.
Commenting on this unprecedented achievement, Margot Slattery - Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at ISS said:
“I’m truly excited by this Platinum score, which is a testament to ISS’ efforts in creating inclusive workplaces, where everybody can be their authentic self and feel like they belong. Diversity and Inclusion must never just be words in company policies. An inclusive mindset and culture should be reflected and reinforced by the way we talk, look and act, as well as through the physical surroundings of the workplace.
"This goes not just for ISS, but also for our 40,000 customers around the world. Going forward, this accessibility assessment approach will be part of our workplace services to support our customers’ D&I agendas even further."
Reflecting on the process of evaluating the Warsaw building before it was fully completed and the benefits he saw in doing so, Jan Pawlik commented:
“In both selecting the building and designing the office space, we were guided by the accessibility dimension. However, working with Mobility Mojo has resulted in a major cultural shift within the organisation. We realised that implementing procurement practices that are considerate of people with disabilities is only the beginning of the way. We are continually improving solutions – introducing additional lifts and mobile hearing loops. We are working on a training system and a catalogue of solutions that we can hopefully transform into a worldwide standard for ISS.”
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