Short of hands, firms woo the differently-abled

The manpower crunch faced by the industry has resulted in the emergence of a more inclusive environment with many companies creating special norms for recruiting differently-abled people. ITC, Infosys and many other companies have already set the precedent.

Recently financial data and news service provider Reuters India joined the list. It was one of the six firms that won the Shell Helen Keller Award for the best employer, given by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCEPDP).

Reuters recently had employed over a dozen people at an employment fair held for the differently-abled people. NCEPDP is an NGO that interfaces between the government, international agencies and the industry to promote greater participation of the disabled in the economy.

The other five firms that won the award this time are Infosys BPO, Intel, ITC Windsor, Pepsico (WEMU) and Vindhya e-Infomedia. Though Reuters has only 1 per cent of its staff that is differently-abled today, it aims to hire more such people.

"Reuters aims to use NGOs to tap into them as they are a good sources of recruitment opportunities," said David Johnson, head of Reuters, Bangalore. If they are as trained and as capable as the rest, he added, there is no reason why they cannot be hired.

For the companies, the loyalty of these staff is greater than those of others. Attracting and retaining them is also much easier. The firm has or is considering employing more such differently-abled people in jobs like data management, customer order management, editorial and related jobs.

To make these employees feel at home and feel more wanted, Reuters has had to make some minor changes to the office infrastructure, including setting up a toilet for them. Reuters has created a 'buddy system' where every differently-abled employee has a colleague or colleagues who stay close to them and help them out when needed.

Reuters' Bangalore office has the largest proportion of disabled on its rolls compared to its other offices in other parts of the world. "We plan to replicate the same model in other places where Reuters has similar operations as in Bangalore, like Gdansk in Poland, Beijing and Bangkok. We find them highly-engaged and loyal," Johnson added.

Johnson also vouches for the commitment of these people to the organisation. The attrition levels are extremely low among them. Reuters is now looking to employ more of such differently-abled people.

Global Diversity Council of Reuters works on increasing the diversity among its employees and Reuters India hopes to engage it to help it increase diversity in India.