Employment of persons with disabilities at MphasiS was not incidental but a very conscious decision driven by the senior leadership. The main driving factor was the belief that talent/competency exists in all populations. Being an equal opportunity employer that respects diversity, MphasiS believes that qualified individuals with disabilities not only add to our diverse workforce but also have a positive impact on our bottom line.

Challenges and Strategies:

However, in spite of this commitment, it was not easy to hire persons with disabilities. Till about 2007 we had some 56 persons with disabilities working in MphasiS. For knowledge industry like ours it is difficult to find qualified trained candidates with disabilities. People with disabilities, despite being qualified, are denied opportunity either because of their disability or because of lack of reasonable accommodations. MphasiS believes that it benefits from diversity - our systems become accessible not only for the employees but also for our clients, we become creative in our solutions and so on. It is also a major initiative of our Corporate Social Responsibility.

Today, the number has gone up to 335. This did not happen automatically. There was a conscious effort at not only making sure that qualified individuals with disabilities get an equal opportunity but also those who are trainable can be given an opportunity to become employable. 

MphasiS has worked on a twin-track approach  inclusive as well targeted. The philanthropic part of business was strategically linked to assimilate persons with disabilities into the work force. Through its Corporate Social Responsibility, it was decided to proactively recruit disabled people into the workforce by investing in trainable candidates, and absorbing them into the workforce. 

Towards this end, MphasiS has supported Diversity and Equal Opportunity Centre's Project Communicate. This is a unique initiative as it is aimed at making people from rural areas with SSLC and PUC education employable. We felt the need to focus on increasing employability through an intensive and structured pre-employment training, which would enable them to compete on an equal footing with other candidates. 90 candidates with disabilities who have been trained so far have secured jobs not only in MphasiS but also in other companies. MphasiS has also supported Employability Initiative at NOIDA Deaf Society and is in the process of deciding on the third phase of Project Communicate with Enable India.

Internal Policy Changes:

Apart from this, a lot of work is happening in changing and reforming policies and attitudes of various sections within MphasiS to sensitise and break myths about disability – whether it is recruitment team, training team, workforce management team, administration and transport team etc.

As part of mainstream strategy, it is a policy to actively source candidates with disabilities and send the message to the target group as disabled friendly employer. In all our recruitment drives  internal as well external  we have incorporated a statement reiterating our commitment to inclusion of diversity, “We encourage applications from people with disabilities and from economically underprivileged backgrounds”. In all our correspondence, we ask applicants to identify any special needs that might require an accommodation during the interview/test. We provide reasonable accommodations during the interview process, when a person with a disability has made such a request. We are willing to ask how to be of assistance to a disabled candidate.

Reasonable Accommodations:

All employees with disability undergo regular induction with reasonable accommodation provided whenever and wherever requested  for example providing Screen Magnifiers and Job Access with Speech (JAWS) software to employees with visual disability, dedicated transport facility, pick and drop from home, sign language interpretation for users of sign-language, flexible working hours where needed, etc. 

We have earmarked certain budget for workplace solutions/accommodations to enable employees with disabilities to fulfill their job requirements. There cannot be standard accommodations for all employees with disabilities. So, each employee with disability is given accommodation as per his or her individual needs.

How many disabled employees does MphasiS have?

MphasiS has over 35,000 employees of which close to 1% are persons with disabilities.

Recognition for MphasiS efforts: 

In the year 2008-2009 MphasiS was one of the recipients of the prestigious NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Award. It also received the President's Award for being and inclusive employer for persons with disabilities. This is in recognition of ongoing efforts by MphasiS to build an inclusive workplace - an endorsement of commitment towards providing equal work opportunities to all. For MphasiS, recruiting persons with disabilities is not charity but a commitment towards becoming an employer of choice for all disabled and non-disabled people alike. It does not necessarily promote the idea of business sense while recruiting disabled people because sometimes, this approach leads to stereotyping disability and consequently not treating disabled people as individuals. It does not hire persons with disability because hiring them means hiring people whose productivity is high, attrition is low etc. This approach sets benchmarks and any deviation from the benchmark results in denial of opportunity to lot of others belonging to this diverse talent pool. 

Contributed by  - Dr. Meenu Bhambhani, Head - Corporate Social Responsibility