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.

To understand the employment practices such as  approach in recruitment & hiring, career development, retention and workplace inclusion patterns of the company. 

• 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.