In a changing employment climate in Ireland, experienced, capable staff are a precious commodity and the onset, (or progression of) a condition or disability does not always immediately throw up issues of retention for employers.

The scheme aims to maintain your employability by providing funding to:

• Retrain staff so that they can take up another position within the company
• Identify accommodation such as work equipment adaptation and/or training to enable you to remain in your current position.

Rules

The scheme is open to every company in Ireland in the private sector. Any existing employee (working at any level in the organisation) who acquires an illness, condition or disability that affects his or her job is covered under this scheme.

Public sector employers in Ireland are not eligible to apply for these grants. Public sector employers in Ireland are obliged to promote positive attitudes toward disability and ensure they put in place all arrangements to ensure the full integration of disabled staff into employment.

Funding under this scheme is made available in two stages:

Stage 1:Assists employers by allowing them to "buy-in" expert skills from outside the company to develop a written individual "Retention Strategy" for any employee who acquires a disability. The Retention Strategy could set out steps needed to accommodate and, if necessary train the employee to remain in his or her role. Alternatively, the Retention Strategy could outline where the employee could be re-deployed in the company and the accommodation/re-training needed to do this.

Stage 2:Provides financial assistance (grant aid) to the employer towards the implementation of the written Retention Strategy. This will include grant aid towards re-training, job coaching and/or hiring an external co-ordinator to oversee the way the individual Retention Strategy is implemented.

The following activities are not eligible for funding under the Employee Retention Grant Scheme:

• Attendance at workshops and seminars
• Capital expenditure associated with training
• Company-wide disability management assessments or the development of disability/absent management policies.

Developing the Retention Strategy

The employer contacts a Specialist (e.g., an occupational therapist) who evaluates the employee's occupational capacity and carries out a job/workplace assessment. The Specialist then develops the Retention Strategy in collaboration with the employer, the employee and if it is appropriate, the employee's advocate/representative (e.g., a trade union representative) and line-manager. The Retention Strategy must accompany an application for Stage 1 funding and must have been received by FÁS before an application is made for State 2 funding.

Rates

Stage 1:FÁS pays 90% of the programme costs (to a maximum amount of €2,500 for each employee in order to enable the employer "to hire a specialist(s) to evaluate the employee's occupational capacity, to carry out the workplace/job assessment and to develop a Retention Strategy.

Stage 2:FÁS pays funding of 90% of eligible costs to a maximum of €12,500 to help with:

• Training the employee for his or her current post or retraining him or her for another post within the company
• Hiring a Job Coach to provide support to the employee and liase with his or her line manager for a maximum of 300 hours and/or
• Hiring a specialist to manage the Retention Strategy on an ongoing basis until the employee's reintegration is complete for a maximum period of 60 hours.

An employer cannot make an application for funding under Stage 2 without having the assistance of an individualised written Retention Strategy. There is a maximum limit of 15,000 euro payable to an employer for the purposes of retaining any one employee i.e. the total funding available for both stage 1 and stage 2.

How to apply

For instructions on how to apply for the Employment Retention Grant Scheme, see part Two of this Document.