Nasscom Inclusivity and Diversity Initiative
Enabling PwDs at work place – An IBM Perspective
November 23, 2010
Enabling PwDs at work place – An IBM perspective
• IBM’s Statement of Inclusion
• Business Imperative @ IBM
• Model
• 3 As Approach
• Building skilled PwD Pipeline
• Building supportive work place environment
• Hiring
13-Apr-15
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IBM’s Global Corporate Policy Statement on Workforce Diversity A Statement of Inclusion
S.J. Palmisano ~ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
“Business activities such as hiring, promotion, and compensation of
employees, are conducted without regard to race, color, religion,
gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin,
disability, or age…
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Employing People with Disability is a Business Imperative
@ IBM
 IBM wants to attract and retain ALL people with BEST TALENT
 Employing PwD facilitates access to the significant market of
disabled consumers, their families and friends.
 Continue IBM‘s effort to be a truly inclusive employer for all talent,
including PwDs.
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Model
Hire &
Pipeline building
provide the 3 A’s
&
Attitude
Eligible
Generating
Awareness
PwD
Accommodation
Accessibility
candidate
PwD
Successful PwD
at
Employee at
Marketplace
Workplace
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Integrating Workplace & Marketplace – 3 A
approach
Attitude - Attitude is about changing the
values and beliefs that some people have
regarding PwDs.
It means judging a person not by how they
look, but by the results they deliver.
Accessibility – Providing Assistive
technology in terms of specialized hardware
or software that is used to help increase,
maintain or assist the functional capabilities
of people with disabilities.
Accommodation - the things IBM provides to
allow employees to work more independently
and productively.
Some examples: physical improvements
such as automatic doors, ramps, Braille
signage in elevators.
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Build a PwD Supportive Environment
• PwD Sensitization Workshops: Enhance awareness
on inclusion of PwDs at the workplace.
• PwD Employees Profiling Series: Success stories of
PwD employees are published in the Intranet webpage as
inspirational stories to build awareness across the
company.
• Series of Educational Mail Buzzes on PwDs:
Education Mail Buzzes published to all employees on
enablement of PwD employees at workplace.
• PwD Round Tables: The roundtable provides an open
dialogue that helps build knowledge of the issues and
concerns of People with Disabilities (PwDs) and to solicit
ideas for IBM India to become a more inclusive employer.
• A voluntary PwD Network group - EnABLErs at
IBM – a great forum for PwD employees to network
and support each other.
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•
Career Development Programs: A professional development
event called fast_forward for PwD employees which is designed to help
employees in their career growth & development. It helps employees to
network, meet with leaders and understand different career development
opportunities and guidance on achieving their aspiration.
•
Special PwD Event: Organized by business units for recognizing
their PwD employees and reiterating the inclusive work culture of IBM by
getting PwD employees, their managers, senior leaders and colleagues
from across various functions.
•
Reasonable Accommodation Budget (RAB) Policy: A
dedicated & centralized budget at the organizational level to buy assistive
technologies/devices required by PwD employees.
•
Transportation assistance for PwD employees: To have a safe
means of transportation, dedicated cabs provided to PwD employees to
commute between IBM work location and their residence.
•
Accessible Workplace Connection: A globally used application
for ordering accommodations required by PwD employees.
•
Participate in external forums: Sharing IBM’s learning and
expertise to make an organization inclusive for PwDs.
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Hiring
• PwD Job Fairs: Exclusive job fair for PwDs
where IBM participates to hire talent from
across India.
• Placement Agencies: To ensure we hire the
PwD candidates from the marketplace we
encourage placement agencies by providing
them incentives for Diversity candidates.
• NGOs: We partner with our empanelled NGOs
to help identify qualified PwD candidates for
employment.
•
• Exclusive Hiring Drives: are arranged for
PwD candidates in partnership with Staffing
teams.
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Grow a skilled PwD Pipeline
• Collaborative Training for PwD candidates
In collaboration with an NGO, Collaborative Training executed in September 2010 for
21 PwD candidates - trained on skill sets required for various entry level roles in various
business units.
5 candidates have received offers.
• PwD Internship Program
Initiated in 2009 to provide quality corporate work experience & exposure to qualified
PwD candidates. This program is designed to enhance their employability & influence
mindsets of managers & employees toward leveraging relevant untapped skilled talent
pools in the marketplace.
Till date 10 candidates have gone through this program, 2 have been
offered regular employment.
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•
Computer training for Teachers of Visually
Impaired
Over the past 3 years, in collaboration with an NGO EnAble India, systematic computer training is imparted to
teachers of visually impaired as there was lack of
standardized curriculum to take on the task of enabling
visually impaired leverage employment opportunities.
This enables the teachers to impart computer training to
1000’s of visually impaired students across the country
enabling them to be more employable.
•
PwD IT Camp
Objective is to create a positive image of IT careers for people
with disabilities. Program aims to dispel the prevailing
misconceptions surrounding computer science as an area of
study for people with disabilities and to give students an
opportunity to experience first-hand what it’s like to have a career
in the Information Technology Industry.
Camps:
- St.Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged – Mumbai
- Blind Mans Association – Pune
- Computer Training Workshop for children and young adults with Autism Spectrum 11
Disorders (ASD)" at Bangalore.
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Thank You