Case Study: Employment Practices for Persons with Disabilities at WIPRO and CISCO
Persons with disabilities represent an untapped labour force globally and especially in a country like India. According to the 2011 census, 2.1 % of India’s population is suffering from some kind of disability. Despite various schemes and provisions enacted to provide a livelihood to people with disabilities, their employment rate is at 37.6%. GRAAM and Cornell University’s Yang-Tan Institute partnered in an evaluation of the World Bank’s initiative in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states that focuses on establishing community based rehabilitation and economic empowerment of people with disabilities.
Project Snapshot:
| Project Name | Case Study: Employment Practices for Persons with Disabilities at WIPRO and CISCO |
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| Project Sanction Date | 05 May 2015 |
| Project Period | May 2015 to Feb 2016 |
| Project Location | Bengaluru |
| Project Supported By | Cornell University’s Yang-Tan Institute |
| Project Team | Dr. Basavaraju R Shreshta , Dr. Arun Karpur , Susanne Bruyere , Abigail Cutler |
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Project Name
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Case Study: Employment Practices for Persons with Disabilities at WIPRO and CISCO
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Project Sanction Date
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05 May 2015
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Project Period
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May 2015 to Feb 2016
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Project Location
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Bengaluru
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Project Supported By
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Project Team
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Project Details
Project Title
Case Study: Employment Practices for Persons with Disabilities at WIPRO and CISCO
Project Sanction Date
05 May 2015
Project Period
May 2015 to Feb 2016
Project Location
Bengaluru
Project supported by
Project objectives:
To understand the employment practices such as approach in recruitment & hiring, career development, retention and workplace inclusion patterns of the company.
Project Result / Accomplishments:
- Hiring teams communicate with educators, potential candidates and other nonprofit organizations to identify employees who may be qualified for a position but will require an accommodation in order to ensure that person has an equal opportunity to pursue employment at Wipro.
- Wipro takes an active approach to supporting its employees with disabilities from the beginning, allowing them a period to adjust to the new work environment and providing any additional accommodations that have not yet been made.
- Employees who have disclosed disabilities are eligible for assistance in, Assistive Technology, Transport Facility, and Physical Infrastructure.
- Wipro promotes individuals based strictly on the combination of performance, potential and ability for a particular job role.
- Wipro ensures that employees are always engaged on a regular basis with differently abled employees and always ask PWD to come and ask for assistance.The company has given focus to emphasize establishing systems and processes for accommodating, supporting and advancing employees with disabilities by making their inclusion initiative fully institutionalized.
- Cisco sensitizes managers to the need of making the recruitment process non-discriminatory and holds them accountable by considering diversity of hiring in performance reviews.
- Cisco ensures that its offices across the world are equipped with ramps, elevators and accessible restrooms on each floor.
- Cisco offers the option of work from home and also provides door-to-door transportation for employees with disabilities.Cisco’s goal is to have people with disabilities spread across the organization, well positioned at different levels and in different position types.
- Cisco provides Braille and Sign Language training to all employees and every year, the company observes World Disability Day and Global Accessibility Awareness Day by conducting events like app-a-thons and competitions. The company has been working to develop a spelling tool for people with visual impairment.
