Nasscom Inclusivity and Diversity InitiativeEnabling PwDs at work place – An IBM Perspective

November 23, 2010

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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

2Apr 18, 2023

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“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…

S.J. Palmisano ~ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

IBM’s Global Corporate Policy Statement on Workforce Diversity - A Statement of Inclusion

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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

Pipeline building

&

Generating Awareness

PwD

at

Marketplace

Eligible

PwD

candidate

Successful PwD

Employee at

Workplace

Hire &

provide the 3 A’s

Attitude

Accommodation

Accessibility

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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.

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.

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.

Integrating Workplace & Marketplace – 3 A approach

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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.

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• 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 Disorders (ASD)" at Bangalore.

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Thank You