The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    MNCs embrace autistic people to improve diversity

    Synopsis

    JPMorgan has hired people with autism in roles for application and software development, quality analysis and business analysis, playing to their strengths.

    ET Bureau
    MUMBAI: Multinational companies in India such as JPMorgan, Cisco, Capgemini and Dell are taking a step forward in their agenda to improve diversity in the workplace by hiring people with autism. JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank, rolled out an initiative in India last year called Autism at Work, a programme that develops candidate pipelines. “The programme helps us to celebrate the unique strengths of our ASD (autism spectrum disorder) colleagues and match them with business needs across our firm,” said Gaurav Ahluwalia, managing director of human resources at JPMorgan India.

    The company has hired people with autism in roles for application and software development, quality analysis and business analysis, playing to their strengths. Through collaborations with non-profit partners in India, JPMorgan is looking beyond traditional interview processes to access this untapped talent pool. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability that can cause various degrees of social, communication and behavioural challenges. Research suggests that employers elude potential pools of talent because of a disability and are by far missing out on the abilities of such people. In India, one out of every 89 children born is said to be living with autism, the social justice and empowerment ministry said in April. There is no data in India on the number of autistic people who might be employable.

    Empower Your Corporate Journey with Strategic Skill Courses

    Offering CollegeCourseWebsite
    Indian School of BusinessISB Leadership in AIVisit
    IIM KozhikodeIIMK Chief Product Officer ProgrammeVisit
    IIM LucknowIIML Chief Operations Officer ProgrammeVisit
    People with autism spectrum disorder have in greater abundance abilities that are not present in “neuro-typical” people. Some of these abilities include better pattern recognition, heightened logical reasoning and greater attention to detail. “These qualities make them ideal candidates for specific kind of roles like software testing, research and proof-reading,” said Gayathri Ramamurthy, head of diversity and inclusion for India at Capgemini, the Paris-based consulting, technology and outsourcing services firm. According to Ruby Singh, a vicepresident with the Bengalurubased Autism Society of India, one autistic child is different from another and their abilities and disabilities vary. Hence, there is no one module to train them.

    “We are starting to create modules to train people with autism so that they can be employable,” said Singh, whose organisation is talking to companies including Cognizant, Lemon Tree, Dell, JPMorgan and Cisco. Technology conglomerate Cisco, based in San Jose, California, hired two people with autistic disabilities in IT and tech support in its India office recently and plans to take on board more such people. “The people we hired will join in the next couple of months and if successful we will look at expanding,” said Christian Barrios, director of human resources at Cisco Systems (India).

    Computer technology company Dell, which has tripled the number of people with disabilities in the workforce to 1% in the past five years, has embarked on a drive to hire people with autistic disorders in India, Singapore and Malaysia, said Deepa Narasimhan, head of diversity and inclusion at Dell EMC, Asia Pacific Japan. Needs of people with autistic disability are different from those with physical disabilities and employers require to be proactively engaged to make a workplace friendly, said experts.

    Autistic employees don’t like to be secluded in separate cubicles or meeting rooms and want a normal career with opportunity to build working relationships with colleagues, as any other employees. People with autism have problems with communication and social skills. “Even at workplace, they could face challenges in relationship formation and association with colleagues,” said Singh, whose 24-year-old son is the second-oldest student in her centre. “Hence, they need mentoring support and handholding with which they can really excel in various works. They are very good with routine work. They don’t like too many changes. They are like computers.

    They are also very good with observation.” Companies provide different kinds of support, including assigning them with buddies and offering flexible work hours. “We are allowing an ASD coach to accompany the candidate to the workplace for the first two weeks of employment, identifying work buddies for day-to-day support, and keeping work hours flexible in the initial months. The work buddies are provided with information about candidates’ abilities and skills,” said Ahluwalia of JPMorgan.

    The company has adopted a multi-step hiring approach that includes working closely with senior leaders to find roles that would benefit from talents of people with autism, evaluating ASD candidates and mapping abilities to potential roles, identifying teams that will benefit from their skills and abilities and conducting sensitivity training for teams to make sure that members are familiar with the basic truths and misconceptions about autism. It has set up an ‘autism@work’ volunteer group to better accommodate such employees and offer support to employees who care for family members with disabilities.

    The group helps identify new opportunities, deals with issues that teams and candidates face, thereby creating a live feedback mechanism that allows the company to tweak its initiative and governance. Nadine O Vogel, founder of Springboard Consulting, which advises companies on mainstreaming people with disabilities, talks about conscious biases that still exist among people.


    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more

    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in