Indian company houses positive for hiring disabled people

Stakeholders say Kolkata (PTI) Indian companies are strengthening their employment of persons with disabilities (PWDs) as a “social command” and a “strategic business advantage” as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments are growing.

They said boarding these people in Indian company homes has grown steadily, with job postings in inclusive roles increasing by 30-40% over the past three years.

Indian companies from the steel and mining industry to insurance are concentrated in the workplace where there is access to the workplace on the PWDS on board.

Anup Rau, MD and CEO of the future Generali India Insurance Company, said the insurer has reached a portion of its workforce composed of PWDS.

“The commitment to ensuring at least one percent of the workforce PWD stems from our belief that inclusion is not only a box of ticking or implementing policies, but also a responsibility to establish meaningful change,” Law told PTI.

He said that insurers’ PWD workforce has increased from 16 employees in 16 regional branches to 41, while nearly 22% of PWD employees are women.

“In FY23, it was noted that only seven of the 50 50 prestigious companies had more than 1% of PWD employees, four of which were in the public sector space. This stark reality underscores the urgent need for corporate leadership to embrace inclusion,” Law said.

Madhu Srivastava, chief human resources officer at Vedanta, said the team has taken many steps to enhance workplace access, such as ramps and dedicated sidewalks for mobility, support braille-enabled elevators to support visually impaired employees and text-to-voice software to better access to digital and ensure a seamless experience for inappropriate people.

“Currently, we employ more than 50 people in front-end roles and continue to expand our efforts in this field. In addition, we have emerged as part of the disabled interns, providing them with hands-on exposure of dynamic environments of global natural resource groups like ours.”

Vedanta officials said that while the group’s core operations in mining and smelting present certain challenges to include PWD in the technical role, it remains “committed to identify opportunities that provide them with meaningful exposure and high skills.”

“Embrading the diversity of the workplace, including hiring people with disabilities, is not only a social priority, but a strategic business advantage,” she said.

A Tata Steel spokesman said the company has employed 100 PWD employees in its functions.

“Tata Steel has steadily increased its PWD workforce over the past 2-3 years. We have made great progress in our hiring practices and are actively seeking to create a more inclusive environment.”

The steel maker official also said that people with disabilities in the workforce have enhanced their business by fostering various perspectives and increasing creativity and innovation.

Manmeet Singh, CEO of Human Resources Investment Platform First Meridian Global Services and Innovsource, said that with the help of environment, society and governance, tax benefits for PWD employment, such as those for PWD employment, the share of such employees is expected to double by 2030.

Singh told PTI that both large companies and startups “prioritize diversity, especially in industries such as IT, retail and BFSI, where remote and hybrid working models can make more engagement.”

He said: “Despite reports that there are over 70 million people with disabilities (PWDS) in India with a 0.4% employment capacity, recruitment for PWDs has grown steadily, with jobs in full-time positions increasing by 30-40% over the past three years.”

He said stronger regulatory tasks and commitments to corporate homes are driving PWD recruitment.

Sachin Alug, CEO of NLB Services, an Atlanta-based global technology and digital talent solutions provider, said that converging people with disabilities, while the focus is the region, is gradually gaining momentum in Indian companies.

“Today, culture plays an important role in determining the company’s brand identity and perceptions of partners, customers, employees and the entire business ecosystem. To build a diversity-oriented culture, businesses are working to hire a diverse workforce,” Alug told PTI.

However, there is a negative side to the story.

Randstad India, a leading HR service provider – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Study: “Embraise all competences”, suggesting that talent with special abilities is mainly used in junior and middle levels (29.84% and 23.27%, respectively), while senior and management roles are relatively low in representation.

“Overall, PWD joining the workforce is not as promising as we expected… The silver lining is the fact that with Indian companies gradually recognizing the importance of workplace diversity, we see the future of PWD inclusion. Viswanath PS, MD and CEO, told PTI.

Diversity recruitment has increased by 30-35% over the past two years, a testament to the DEI growth story in India.