ILUNION model, doing business without leaving anyone behind

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The chair for Smart Industry (Comillas ICAI) had Alejandro Oñoro, CEO of ILUNION, as a guest in its cycle “Breakfast with CEO”. He explained how perfectly possible it is to make a profitable business in which inclusion is the main pillar of a company.
Enrique Sanz, SJ, rector of the university, presented the event. He highlighted the main basis of ILUNION: people, transformation, excellency and sustainability.

Alejandro Oñoro explained how this business group has redefined its purpose to “build a better world with everyone on it”. In his words, it is everyone’s responsibility to transform the business world and multiply the social impact. ILUNION has developed its business model with the goal to create quality jobs while being a a profitable business economically, providing full integration for people with disabilities. With 50 business lines, ILUNION is an important service provider, both to other companies (industrial laundries, contact centres, security, industrial services, accessibility, among others) and to individuals (hotels, public health, retail, etc.).

ILUNION is a benchmark business group in transformation and diversity, as well as a great employer of people with disabilities, 43% of its personnel. Alejandro Oñoro highlighted that the “ILUNION Tower”, the headquarters of this business group, accommodates a big percentage of employees with disabilities, which makes it the office building with the highest number of people with disabilities working in the world

ILUNION aims to transform the business world, convincing managers that hiring people with disabilities is not only possible, but profitable. For ILUNION, the use of technology and digitalisation is a double challenge, as ILUNION's ultimate goal is to create jobs, which means that they have to adapt people to them continuously. However, technology has to be seen as an employment opportunity, thanks to which jobs can now be created in rural areas, such as working for a call centre from home. These people would have been excluded from the labour market years ago.

The attendees had an extensive discussion with the guest speaker. They were very interested to know his opinion on how to integrate people with disabilities in other companies. Alejandro Oñoro explained that the first step is to eliminate the bias and mental barriers that we have about a person with a disability.